Thought I would share a quick story regarding something I did that I generally do not recommend - Free handed drilling a broken front engine cover bolt. Before I jump into it I will say I do not like to mess around when pulling a car apart. I have all sorts of impact and cordless cutting tools, special "secure grip" tools, etc., and techniques I used to get stuff off. My bottom line is I don't want to get bogged down for a length of time with say a broken bolt.
So... yesterday when I was removing the super nice front engine cover from the running 429 I am parting out, the left lower corner 3/8" water pump bolt that goes thru water pump and front cover to engine snapped off at the head. I thought "OK, That's fine I will have some bolt shank to grab when I remove the water pump". When I removed the water pump there was a about 1/2" to maybe 5/8" bolt shank exposed and thought "cool, the medium size monkey wrench will probably back that right off". If everything was steel, I would have applied the heat to the bolt 1st, and trying to spray the bolt, which is still 2"+ inside the cover is futile, I went straight for the monkey wrench. The thing with the monkey wrench is something is going to turn... it will grab what it attaches to. Well the exposed tip turned and broke right off, almost flush with top of front engine cover. I then thought well maybe the front cover will just slide off the bolt, but with some gentle and then some not so gentle prying, I knew it was seized inside the cover pretty good and really need to drill out or at least weaken the bolt.. and that is where I thought about hollowing it out.
And this is where I did my no-no .. that worked! It is hard to drill straight free handed and the aluminum covers are like butter if you veer off and hit them with a drill bit .... however, I stared at that broken 3/8" bolt shank and that super nice cover and knew I did not want to wait to get it all off and to a machine shop to have it drilled out, so I took one of my new 1/4" cobalt hard metal drill bits (seen at bottom), loaded it in the DeWalt Cordless drill and placed it up next to the cover and saw it would just barely reach the engine block. I knew this special drill bit for hardened still bolts would drill straight through the bolt, but knew I needed to be dead on straight.
After taking a center punch and tapping a center dimple for the drill bit, I took the 1/4" hard metal drill bit and drilled straight thru the center of the bolt, or as best I could, and kept stopping and visualizing the center of the bolt. The cobalt hard metal bit went thru the hardened bolt pretty fast, and was probably completely thru the center of the bolt in less than 5 minutes. This made me stop and think about all those times in my youth I had tried to drill thru hardened steel bolts with regular bits only to watch it spin forever and hardly make a dent. For those of you that have used the bits for hardened bolts know the huge difference ... these drill bits are a must if you need to drill thru something like this.
Anyway, after I had gotten to where I thought i was close to the block I stopped, made one last visual line of site look, and plunged the bit the rest of the way. After that, since I had some movement with the front cover as all the other bolts were removed, I gently pried the cover outward and with the bolt hollowed out, it started to slide off the bolt shank. When I removed the front cover I looked at my drilling to make sure I had not damaged anything. While I did not go exactly center thru the bolt I only varied slightly and only ended up close to the edge. I was chuffed that it worked and thought I would share. I wasn't about to let that bolt get the best of me even if it meant breaking my own rule.
Here is the type of drill bit you need in your tool chest if you plan to cut through something harder than wood!
Tags:
Well, I pulled engine from parts car #51 yesterday, the 1964 CDV, and started pulling some parts off the engine, and on the RH exhaust manifold one of the 2 center bolts broke off just below the head. I knew that both center bolts had been replaced with aftermarket bolts as they had 5/8" hex head. The other bolt gave me a bit of a fit as it kept turning in place when it cleared the head and was just spinning. Apparently the smooth bolt shank above the thread was a bit thicker than the stock bolt making it want to seize up inside the manifold thread hole. I finally kept shooting some WD40 on the one bolt as a turned it, then tapping it downward with the claw of a hammer. It finally came out.
That left me with the other bolt which had snapped off near the top. I could turn the entire exhaust manifold back and forth a bit and could feel and see that the bolt was just seized up on the manifold and was turning freely inside the cylinder head. So... I took the biggest hard metal bit I have... I think it may have been the 1/4" you see in the picture and like before drilled right thru the center of the bolt until I think I was almost to the cylinder head. The problem is i still didn't have much room to pry, and bolt still has enough meat on it to not want to slide off the broken stud. Anyway, I have it on the engine stand where I can flip it over and may try a bigger drill bit. Luckily, the other parts came right off... and ended up with a pristine flexplate, adaptor ring etc.
Just to add, I usually have pretty good luck with the exhaust manifold bolts on these engines and rarely reak the original bolts. In this instance it was an aftermarket bolt.... might not even be a hardened bolt! For going after the regular bolts with the 9/16" hex heads, I always used a good 6-point 14mm socket (slightly smaller than a 9/16"), and tap it on the bolt head, and it it with the big 1/2" impact wrench. With the 14mm 6point it is not going to strip off, and there is something about the vibrating, hammering affect of the impact wrench that seems to help break the bolts loose, better than say a free-handed continuous pressure turn using say a large breaker bar. All the other bolts were originals and was a bit worried on a couple on the left side, as the turning slowed, and my big 80 gallon air compressor kicked in to push the PSI on up a bit... but all the originals came out. Again, only issues were with those aftermarket bolts!
As Paul Harvey would say "Now, for the rest of the story.": https://youtu.be/tg7_A3SHKTA
Travis J. Hensley Online
Started by Dave Fehrle in 1963/64 Cadillac Specific Discussion. Last reply by Dennis P. DiBari 2 hours ago. 2 Replies 0 Likes
I have finished replacing all the rear suspension and am at the last item, which is bleeding the rear brakes. I am using the Jason Edge vacuum pump method and all went well with the rear passenger…Continue
Started by Phillip Hill in 1963/64 Cadillac Specific Discussion. Last reply by Dennis P. DiBari yesterday. 8 Replies 0 Likes
Hi everyone im currently restoring my my front grill due to some previous clown painting it with silver frost paint and doing a dodgy job I would like to know what parts of the grill are anodised.it…Continue
Started by Mack in 1963/64 Cadillac Specific Discussion. Last reply by Dennis P. DiBari yesterday. 6 Replies 0 Likes
So… I do have a few of 63 Coupes, all have same setup with carbs, Pertronix, shroud, new US Radiator radiators etc … but only one of them gets a bit hot when I am hauling faster than 60mph and car…Continue
Started by Logan Robb in 1963/64 Cadillac Specific Discussion. Last reply by Dennis P. DiBari on Monday. 1 Reply 0 Likes
After dinner last night, we went for a quick cruise as the weather was cooler and the sun set was looking really good!Out of nowhere, a pop up shower appeared overhead and down-poured as we were…Continue
Posted by SK on June 2, 2025 at 2:20pm 2 Comments 0 Likes
Could someone post front and back photos of the 1963 right-hand kick panel with A/C?
My car didn’t come with the original kick panels, so it's a bit of a mystery to me how I should cut the backing board and carpet to fit around the A/C.
Many thanks,
-Samu
Posted by Chase on March 12, 2025 at 2:05pm 14 Comments 1 Like
Hey guys,
I have installed the same Edelbrock carb and have done everything the same as Jason’s carb and intake project. In the spring and summer months the car starts, runs and idles great! In the fall and winter months on a cold start, the car starts awful and wants to die until it warms up. I have to keep my foot on the throttle until it warms up or it will idle just terrible and try to die. Once it’s warm, it runs fantastic! Whats going on here? I was thinking of removing the…
ContinuePosted by Ray Schick on August 22, 2024 at 6:25pm 2 Comments 0 Likes
I bought this seat material thinking that it’s…
© 2025 Created by Jason Edge.
Powered by