look, just because im not specific doesnt mean its not an easier solution. either weld another bolt to the bolt portion thats left, or grind the shaZam! out of whats there and weld something to the alum. lots of ways to do things, weld an alum header to the can, cut yours, and clamp the 2 together, there are limitless options. next time ill not.

Personaly I think taking the head off and getting the job done professionaly IS the easiest and safest way. Anything else will be an unreliable bodge that puts the whole head at risk and will never have the integrity of the original. People take on board what is said in here and if you are going to make suggestions on how to overcome a problem they need to be realistic and pratical......otherwise perhaps we could all stand in a circle around the bike, join hands, chant UUUMMMM for a few minutes and with the combined power of our positive thoughts the broken bolt might fall out.

I'm looking to take my headers off to blast/paint them. Is this a situation I should expect? I really don't want to have to deal with breaking the bolts....what is the best way to avoid breaking them?

Quote from: pjm204 on March 18, 2008, 09:30:41 AM
I'm looking to take my headers off to blast/paint them. Is this a situation I should expect? I really don't want to have to deal with breaking the bolts....what is the best way to avoid breaking them?

Use lots of PB Blaster and use a hand held torch to heat the bolt a few times and then gently try to turn the bolt.if it feels like it's going to break use PB Blaster a few times a day.Soak it before bed, repeat a few times the next morning,and try again to turn the bolt out.If you go slow most of the time the bolts won't break.Sometimes using a 3/8 impact gun will help knock the rust of the threads.Using an impact gun some times requires removing the front forks.

cd - K it usually breaks right where the threads start, or in my case after unscrewing 2-3 turns, the rust in the bolts got into the aluminum and locked it up. So usually nothing to weld anything to, and you weld steel to the bolt that is sitting in the aluminum you will see a beautiful silver puddle under your foot ... that used to be your head. There is several of us that have done it and we have all done slight variations of the same thing.

Sledge - in theory yes, however what do you think the first thing the guy you take the head to is going to do. Drill the bolt out ... if that fails or you destroy the head ... then you effectively do a repair on that part. We start by getting access and drilling the bolt. Agreed , our chuck and hand drill are going to be less accurate than the machine shops drill press, but so far, the bolts have been succesfully extracted even with our less accurate drill.
Cool.
Srinath.

Sesh? agreed.....but you only get one shot to successfuly drill one out with a powerdrill and you need to know what you are doing. If you are in here asking how to do it with a powerdrill...you wont know what you are doing.

yea ... what is a "powwwer drrrrrilll"
Anyway, I missed mine ... it stared out in the center and wandered off, I just kept going. Once I got 1/2 way in, I felt the bolt go loose, then I gripped with needle nose pliers and got it out. It can then be drilled/cleaned and tapped 1 size up SAE or machine thread like I did and use 316 SS bolts.
Cool.
Srinath.