Chevy Impala has SUPER stuck head bolt after sitting for years

[Paul Alexander]

Hello,

I have a 2000 Impala with a 3.4. The water pump failed on the highway a bit over 3 years ago. I did not realize until it was too late. I blew the head gasket. I repaired the water pump and got the car going again with the help of headgasket stop leak. Drove it around for almost 15,000 more miles before it failed again. This time requiring me to finally disassemble it. Well, I ended up getting a different ride and it sat for a couple of years. I began disassembling everything and have ran into some issues with the head botls being super stuck. I finally have them all out except for 1. The one near the back right of the engine will not come out. I’ve tried all of the oils and stuff. I’ve snapped off a couple of decent sockets on it. Finally the bolt rounded off. I got an extractor set that only made it worse. It is a very hard bolt of access as it is kind of sunken down so I can’t get a normal wrench or anything on it. I cannot get a grinder in the area to just grind the head off, and extract the rest later. I know the heads are already trashed and will be replaced. I am not even going to try to save them. Will a blow torch do the trick, or will I run the risk or damaging other components of the engine? I would have junked the car, but I had replaced the transmission with a brand new one less than 20,000 miles before. Was very expensive. The car was in very nice cosmetic shape and relatively low mileage. I didn’t anticipate for the water pump to be bad and got rather vested into the car. I’d like to at least drive the money I put into it back out. any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Paul

Topic

[Richard Kirshy]

Might try a die grinder to remove the remains of the head of the bolt.

[Author]

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