Broken Fuel Rail Bolt - Help Me, I'm F**ked!

[inmaniac]

Broken Fuel Rail Bolt - Help Me, I'm F**ked!

Hey SAU.

So as part of my ever running saga of crap I have to deal with on my R33, some of you may know from my build thread that I broke one of the 3 fuel rail bolts. This likely happened from me over-tightening then a few jolts from some spirited tuning runs was enough to vibrate the head off the bolt. Sigh.

Anywho, I set about pulling off the intake manifold today (what a b!tch!) so I could get an "easy out" on the bolt. Well, even as difficult as that was, things are now made even worse by the fact the "easy out" decided to break off in the bolt. FuuuuuuuuuuuuuuUUUUUUuuuuuu... I was even going easy on it.....

So, to the point, I am absolutely struggling to drill through this bolt. I think there's a tiny bit of the "easy out" left in the bolt, but it mustn't be much. I've been drilling it with 2 different drill bits, one a "Heat Treated Tensile Bit" and the other a "Cobalt HSS" bit by Sutton Tools. I've been drilling for over an hour and getting seemingly nowhere  

Has anyone experienced this or something like it? Does anyone have advice on what I should do? Is there a mobile specialist that could take care of this f**king bolt for me?

Any help appreciated. Thanks bros.

 

Edited July 15, 2017 by inmaniac

[89CAL]

Grab a small drill bit and drill, then go bigger slowly. Cobalt drill bits are one of the better options for this.

Drill the bolt out as much as you can before trying an easy out. If you manage to get it very central, you can drill it nearly all the way out and run a tap down it.

You will just have to be persistent. Make sure the drill bits stay sharp

[89CAL]

Or I can sell you a new intake manifold.......

[GeeDog]

In Adelaide we have a guy called Captain Thread. He specialises in this sort of thing, and comes to the car to work his magic. I'd be surprised if there isn't someone similar in Sydney. It would be money well spent.

[Ben C34]

Once you break an easy out in there shit gets way harder.

Special drills are required to drill an easy out.

[Duncan]

1 hour ago, GeeDog said:

In Adelaide we have a guy called Captain Thread. He specialises in this sort of thing, and comes to the car to work his magic. I'd be surprised if there isn't someone similar in Sydney. It would be money well spent.

Like this....get a mobile broken bolt guy out.

He'll tell you that you should have called before breaking the easy out but should still be able to fix it.

[inmaniac]

Thanks for the responses guys, appreciate it.

Tried 3 different mobile bolt specialists and all 3 went to voicemail (no surprise of course on a Saturday afternoon). Hoping someone will come sort me out tomorrow.

I got a little bit further with the 2 cobalt bits, going to see where I end up tomorrow until one of the specialists get back to me.

I'll update when I get a solution.

[rat32r]

Been in this same position, you will need a tungsten drill bit to drill though the easy out. Next time drill a hole close to the same size but smaller to a Allen key you have hammer the Allen key in the hole similar to a easy out but it will twist before it snaps. Hope this helps

[Missileman]

 

[inmaniac]

Hey lads.

So we ended up with a solution, albeit one a little left of centre (literally!). I don't advise this as being the best solution but it seemed to work for me given the circumstances.

While trying to drill out the "easy out" as previously mentioned, the drill started to really drill out some meat. I thought I was through the hardened steel of the "easy out" before I realised the bit had actually gone a little to the side and had just started chewing out the side of the aluminium bore. After a few curses, I decided that I'd actually use this to my advantage. So, given I now had a new hole, I decided to tap the bloody thing, and use that as my new bolt hole! In short, I have a tapped hole that is part aluminium on one side, and old bolt on the right haha!

See pictures. It seems to work, the bolt is in there good and proper and it goes in and out very easily! The only other modification was some slight grinding to the fuel rail (ok, a bit more than slight) to match the new offset bolt hole. Still holds good and after a test drive we're all sweet!

Thanks again for the advice fellas.