Yet Another Obstacle to Progress

Oops.  It broke inside the engine block!

So after struggling with the passenger-side head bolts for nearly two weeks, I was hoping that the driver-side head removal would be much easier.  And it was.  Mostly.  Except for the fact that one of the bolts broke off.

It's my own fault.  I should've known something was going wrong because the bolt didn't feel like it was unscrewing so much as it felt like it was twisting.  And it was.  Twisting.  The shank was twisting inside the engine block, and that's where it broke off.

Inside.  Where I can't get hold of it.

I really, really, really don't want to take the engine block down to the machine shop to have the bolt drilled out.  That can get very spendy.  And the reason I'm doing this job at home in the first place is because I don't have the money to take it to a shop.

But with all the tools I've purchased over the last two weeks, I can certainly give it a try, can't I?

Well, 5 out of 6 Bolts isn't bad.  Right?

Crossing my fingers...

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Later That Day

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Looks like I'll be taking it to the machine shop anyway.  This is way over my head.

I decided to try the screw extractor kit from Sears.  Followed the directions.  Drilled the appropriate pilot hole and then tapped the screw extractor in place.  Then took the crescent wrench and tried turning it counter-clockwise.

The screw extractor broke.  Inside the hole I'd drilled.  Which was already nearly two inches inside the engine block.

This is so frustrating.  First the heads stripped out on the other side, now this bolt decides to play hard-to-get.  After all the rest of the bolts were so easy to unscrew.

And it's not like I can just pull the remnants of the screw extractor out of the hold I drilled, and try again.  The tip of the screw extractor is jammed into the hole very tightly, and it's far enough into the engine block that I can't fit a tool in there.

It might be possible to drill some holes next to the screw extractor remnant so I can fit something in there to pry it out, but the hole I drilled is very close to the diameter of the bolt itself, and I really don't want to mess up the bolt hole any more if I can help it.

Not sure what it's going to cost to get the guy down at the machine shop to drill it out - and I hope he doesn't have to re-tap the hole threads!  But it sure won't be cheap.

And I've already spent far too much on all these tools.

On the plus side, I have to take the heads down to the machine shop anyway to have them checked for warp.  So it's not like I'm making an extra trip.