I know two small words that will strike fear into the heart of almost any auto enthusiast out there. Rusty bolts. If those words don’t recall countless hours of anger and frustration, you’ve never had a pretty important bolt shear off due to rust and corrosion.
I can tell you now that some of the engineers that have designed motors didn’t plan on working on them after a few years. Whether it’s a rusted manifold bolt on a Chevy 350 header or a corroded water pump bolt on a Ford 302, broken bolts just plain suck. I think I hold some kind of bad luck record with having eleven of those 302 water pump bolts break off throughout my various builds.
Obviously, you’re next step is getting the stuck bolt out. Many of us have used stud extractors, EZ Outs, or some other variant of the same tool with a liberal soaking of a spray lubricant. Of course, this usually ends up with either a hole drilled in the broken bolt or a broken-off tip of the stud extractor and an even larger headache.
Well, stress no more. Courtesy of Welding Tips And Tricks comes this awesome video of how to weld up those stuck bolts and get them out without blowing a gasket of your own. Using some basic welding tools as well as some time and patience will help you get those broken and sheared-off bolts out for good!