Broken block bolt

[Legacy777]

Well things were going ok, until a few minutes a go.

The lower bolt that holds the block together near the oil pump sheared. I was torquing it to what the FSM says. Either I fucked up, or the bolt was weak.

I need to decide whether it's ok, or I'll have to split the block again, clean all the silicone crap up again on the mating surfaces, extract the bolt (assuming it can be extracted) and redo everything. ugghhhh.

Pics
http://www.main.experiencetherave.com:8 ... /ej22t/12/

[206er]

damn, you broke the big 12pt 14mm bolt that holds the block together? those ones require oil on the bolt right? if so it should be pretty easy to get out. a left hand drill bit should work ok.
I'm extracting no less than 3 broken steering rack bushing bolts right now:lol: using a dremel to grind them out. broke a ez out and two tap handles.
its almost like the subaru engineers designed the crossmember to make those bolts rust on the backside.
DONT do your steering rack bushings unless youa re confident he bolts wont be stuck, and/or you really need to. woorst bolts evAr to break.

[Legacy777]

No I broke a smaller 12mm bolt. The one that holds the outer portion of the case together. Look at the pictures.

Is there a specific "tool" or drill bit? I haven't had to try and extract any bolts. If I can get it out without removing the block halves, that'd really be great, but I'm not holding my breath.

[206er]

oh, theres a picture lol
since that is a longer bolt, and it broke near the end, you are not going to have as many options without splitting the block. a long left hand drill bit or a long ez out look to be your only options unless you split the block. that will probably make it much easier.
a left hand drill bit is basically a reverse threaded drill bit, so instead of cutting when it is rotating clockwise it is cutting rotating counterclockwise. the force of the cutting may grab the piece of bolt and start to spin it out.
ez outs work much the same way, they have a very aggressive reverse thread except you pre drill the hole with whatever size is specified for that ez out.
it would be wise to just split the block, that seems very difficult to try and center up a drill bit on what appears to be a pretty uneven break. thats the other thing about ez outs and reverse drill bits, they only work well if you get them VERY centered on the broken bolt. the jaggedness(is that a word?) of the break makes this difficult.
if you are dead set against splitting the block, you may be able to use a very narrow, long center punch to help your chances of getting the hole centered. either way you should get a very sharp center punch and make a deep punch on the bolt.

[Legacy777]

Well it's out. I split the block. There wasn't going to be any way of getting it out without doing that.

I looked for a left handed drill bit and couldn't find one. I got some screw extracters and used the smallest one they had. The bolt was not in there tight, which did help. Once I drilled the hole and put the extracter in, it just backed right out, nice and easy like. The extracter didn't even dig in at all. I could have probably just drilled the hole and stuck something in there, but oh well.

An odd thing was that it would only drill down to a certain point, and then it got very difficult. I wonder if the bolt was weak at some point, or if over torquing it caused a section of it to weaken.

Oh well. It's out....just cost me a day's worth of labor and $20 for the extracters & tap handle. Not sure what a new bolt costs though.

On a plus side, I got to see that the amount of sealant I put on wasn't too much and didn't get into the oil passageways.

Here's pics of the bolt
http://www.main.experiencetherave.com:8 ... /ej22t/13/