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Hi all,

I own a 1980 Kawasaki kz 550. Unfortunately, I broke a bolt head on the engine block. This bolt holds in place the carburetor manifold. Luckily, I extracted the remaining bolts without issue. My buddy and I tried removing the seized bolt to no avail. The ez-out's only carved the bolt away and eventually snapped the aluminum on the engine. We drilled some more of the bolt out then called it a day.

I still want to ride this bike and am determined to make it work. I am thinking of using JB-Weld in that corner with the broken bolt to hold the manifold in its place. Before doing this, however, I want to seek the opinion of people from this forum. Below, you will find a photograph of the bolt. This is an old photo as the bolt does not exist anymore and the casing may or may-not be usable. Please let me know what you all think or if you have any other ideas you think I should consider.

Two Options

1) Weld aluminum at top (where hairline crack formed), drill out bolt, re-tap.
2) jb-weld a new manifold to engine. Never remove manifold again.

we need to see a post damage picture to advise with any confidence. From the pre damage picture it would appear there was plenty of stud left too get a grip on it and with a bit of heat I think that would have come out fairly easily. An easy out never makes a job easier it invariably make it 10 times harder as you have now found out. Throw them in the bin they are a total waste of money.

For info, it needs fixing in such a way that ABSOLUTELY no air can leak at the manifold to head seal or you will never get it to run correctly. From what you have said I suspect the best way to salvage that is to have it aluminium welded and the have the face re ground ABSOLUTELY flat again.

I agree with Warren that there was enough of the bolt sticking out to grab it with the correct tool and take it out, but that's water under the bridge. My thought now is to take the head to a good machinist to have it repaired correctly. If that isn't possible then you might be able to find a new head on ebay.

Two ways I have solved this problem in the past

1 pull the head and take it to a machinist to drill it out . Actually 3 ways some machinist have a EDM machine and the bolt will be removed by this process

2 while head is still installed I would weld onto the existing bolt and then have a large amount of area to grip and remove the broken bolt.

On my Kaw over the years I have done all 3 processes

Dave

Obviously it's too late now, but next time rather than break the fastener and causing damage to the engine simply soak it with Kroil for about 2-3 days and it will come out with no problem. No joke, Kroil will break the bond between the fastener and the engine. Ed

It's also too late for this one, but try an impact driver next time.

We thought that as well. We tried for a while to grab the bolt and turn it with heat but there simply was not enough material. I think it looks like there is more material than there is. We also tried to cut a groove into it and turn it with a flat head but the bolt would not budge no matter the amount of PB blaster and wd-40 and heat we administered. The EZ-out was the last option and in retrospect not ideal but hindsight is 20/20.

I will take a picture of it when I return home and post it here as that was not the most up to date picture.

JB weld is a big no for me, ideally you need to remove the bolt, but as it sounds like its gone T*ts up you will probably need to use something like a dremel and some very small tooling to cut up the rest of the bolt without damaging the alloy anymore and have it welded by a competent welder, then use an insert if possible, or maybe spark erosion if anyone does it near to you.

Just saying.........

If there is enough of the old bolt left you can weld a nut onto it, soak it with kroil and try that.
Ed is correct on the Kano Kroil oil, great stuff. Unfortunately most people think oil is oil so they use what they have usually WD-40 or PB blaster. They are not the same, if I don't have any Kroil I'll use a 50/50 miture of acetone and ATF . WD-40 is NOT a lubricant but a cleaner and rust prohibitor.

This is one of those topics that has almost as many "cures" as contributors. Without seeing an "after" picture it is impossible to decide the next best course of action. In retrospect, as many know, there is a point of applying leverage to a bolt and through experience saying that's enough! Do not go any further or risk breaking the bolt/screw whatever. Unfortunately for most people, myself included, it is knowledge gained by mistake which results in a broken bolt. At that point one should try to remember how much force was applied to that bolt for future reference. Realistically for the average person there was almost no way good purchase could be made on the broken bolt without a very good pair of Vise-Grips with sharp jaws. There simply wasn't enough bolt exposed. While any penetrating oil may have helped, I almost always reach for my can of Kroil, but with a caveat. I apply it several times over several hours, but I also "shock" the bolt or screw with a brass hammer or steel dead blow hammer with a brass drift. Shocking the bolt is important for success. You don't have to beat the bolt to death, just give it some decent blows to help the Kroil do its job and WAIT for it to work.

Being confronted with what the OP had my course of action would have been what I just described and after a day or do would have tried my best pair of thin jaw vise grips to give it a tug. If the bolt didn't move the next step would have been heat but I would have surrounded the immediate area in heat paste to avoid transfer. Then back to the vise grips while the bolt was hot. Again experience will tell you how hot to get something like this to move. Certainly welding extra material on the bolt is a great option if you have a welder for the task. My last option for success would have been to very carefully center a drill bit in the bolt and drill out as much as possible. If you get enough material out the bolt will literally collapse on itself. By the way, I have some left twist drill bits which work quite well for this type of job and many times after removing enough material the bolt will actually turn out with the drill bit biting into it. If you remove the right amount of broken bolt material and it doesn't just spin out via the left turning drill, you can then install your Easy Out. Just a word of warning, cheap Chi-com easy outs are just that, cheap. They like to break and then you have a major catastrophe on your hands. I only use name brand Easy Outs and learned that lesson a long time ago. The real key to success using an Easy Out is the prep work done before you put the Easy Out in the drilled hole. Breaking off an Easy Out is just as bad breaking off a tap. It's the stuff nightmares are made of. Many years ago when I started working on old firearms I practiced drilling out broken screws on junk receivers just to see how best to accomplish the task. The tricky part is getting the drill bit centered in the broken bolt. This would have been relatively easy on the OP's broken bolt because it was above the surface and not below it.

I can't wait for the "after" picture to be posted.
Rick H.

Time to stop and just take the head off and send it in to be freshened up. You'll be glad you did..