The other day i was rethreading one of the bolt holes in the water pump housing and the piece of crap tap broke. Don't flame me, I was going slowly by hand and not putting too much pressure on it and it snapped. It must have had a flaw or something. The problem is that it's made of very high carbon steel and is hard as hell. I tried a titanium coated drill bit on it to drill a hole to use an extractor and it barely scratched it. Anyone have any ideas how to get this thing out?

 

I would say that you would have better luck just replacing The water pump housing.

Rat

 

The tap is probably holding that mother on there now. hehehe

Sorry!

If it is a tap like the set I got it is shaped like a plus sign ( + ). You might be able to slide a pair of needle nose pliers in the slots left open by the tap and turn it.

 

I know, but this is kind of a low budget operation, especially since there's good signs that i blew a coolant seal. I'm trying to confirm that with spending as little money as possible and i need to get the coolant system back together to do so.

 

He said the tip of the tap (sounds funny...) broke in the hole.

Now, you can go buying titanium bits at $17 a peice, and run the risk of causing further damage, or you can spend about $15-20 on a used water pump housing. Hell Hypntyz7 sells them for $10.

But this is assuming that the broken tap left NO way to grab it and back it out..

Rat

 

Which bolt hole is it?

 

as samps said. squirt a shitload of cuttig fluid in and try to grab the grooves with needle nose pliers or somthing there of and twist it out. if you can make it past the stuck point, turning it the rest of the way out should be easy.

 

it's the top left, how do i get ahold of someone who sells them for 10-20$?

 

Okay, more specifically, is it a bolt that holds the water pump on? Or the filler neck?

Reason I ask is that for temporary use, you can install your water pump minus one bolt. It will hold. I used to have to do in on old BMWs I worked on in Germany.

Ususally there are some of those housings for sale on Ebay, or try Hypntyz7, he usually has them.

Rat

 

I'm thinking that you need to get this tap out one way or another. Isn't the broken off piece holding in the water pump housing there kinda like a bolt?

 

Sorry, that was only clear to myself since i know what i'm talking about. It's actually the upper left bolt that bolts the thermostat housing to the waterpump housing.

 

If you are assembling the motor for testing purposes only, you may get away with one bolt. Otherwise, you may be in trouble. That tap is some HARD-*** metal, and drilling it out is gonna be a BITCH.

Rat

 

I've actually been running it with 2 of the three bolts. I've started losing coolant, etc. and i want to make sure it's not a leak in the cooling system before i deal with the possibility of a bad water seal

 

yeah, I see your point. I cant think of anyway to test for a bad water seal, unless you just fill the block of the motor, crank it, and look for the geyser.

Maybe somebody else has a way to get taps out.

Rat

 

Um, no tip, but that would sound funny.

As for getting the tap out man good luck with that, is it holding it in the block?? If not just get a new housing and be done with it.

Ben

 

I did that test before pulling things apart. it doesn't geyser, but coolant does flow out when i crank it

 

How much? Does it have bubbles in it?

 

did you use cutting oil when cutting? depending on how deep it broke off i think you should use something that can get into the slots in the tap like a small oin punch or tapered punch and work around it.

 

I'm gonna buy a cheap pair of needle nose pliars and file them down until they fit, that will hopefully work. As far as the coolant... I would say an even flow that just flows over the edge, like if you over fill a glass slowly. there isn't any splashing or anything like that. There isn't any bubbles when i crank it, but when i try to bleed the air out of the system i can't seem to get it all out. It's not a constant stream of bubbles, the coolant level sort of bobs up and down, and every 10-30 seconds it spits out some bubbles, or sometimes a minor geyser.

 

Tried the pliers, didn't work. By the time i got it small enough to fit in there, the tips just bent when i twisted the tips.

 

Can you get a small flat-blade screw driver on an edge of it? A broken tap should show a brittle fracture. Take the screw driver and place the blade as close to the edge as possible and wack the end with a hammer. Do all this in a counter-clockwise direction to get it out. Make sure you put a decent angle on it or all you force will go into pounding down on the tap. This has worked wonders for me in the past.

Busted turbo manifold bolts on a talon

What seemed to be welded on nuts for my shocks on an olds.

Should work for you..IF you can get a screw driver on it and IF you can get a hammer in there. If what I'm picturing in my head is correct, you'll have plenty of space. Good Luck

 

Yeah I wouldnt even try to drill it out (in fear of causing a bigger mess of things). Id just run over to a machine shop. They could probably get it out pretty quick.

 

That just might work.... It actually broke off at a bit of an angle, which was making trying to drill damn near impossible. But there's a corner sticking up a little. It's raining now, but i'll try tomorrow. Thanks.