OH S&%T! I stripped a head bolt... HELP!

[james accordino]

--- Richard Quinlan <richq at charter.net> wrote:
> So now, does ANYONE have an idea what I can do to
> get the bolt out?  It’s
> under ~55ft-lbs of torque, and in a round hole ~1”
> deep, about ¾” across

> a screw extractor set might work, but these bolts
> are pretty beefy looking,
> so I’m not sure if that would work.

There are all different size screw extractors.  I just
did a 4mm-.070 (real small) in alloy yesterday.  IME
the easiest way to do this, with the least chance of
FU is to drill the heads off the bolts.  Start inside
the stripped portion of the bolt head.  Go
progressively larger in small steps.  You are only
trying to drill to the point where the bolt head meets
the bolt threads(shoulder).  When you do this, a thin
shell of the outside of the bolt head will be left,
seperated from the shaft.(the part with the threads) 
Then you can lift the head off and use a pipe wrench,
vise-grips, etc. to remove the shaft of the bolt.  It
should be sticking out of the block about 2".  This
has worked for me many times, and is pretty easy,
actually.  You may need to buy a drill index (very
handy if you do stuff) or some individual drill bits. 
Just go slow, keep the drill parallel to the bolt and
centered (that should be easy, since you've got a
giant pilot hole), and increase drill size gradually. 
You should have NO problem doing this.

BTW, the correct tools make jobs SO much easier!  I
used to remove pilot bearings hydraulically, and end
up with a face full of grease.  I used a slide hammer
puller the other day with a pilot bearing attachment. 
20 seconds to set up, and to slide hits (5 seconds) to
remove.  What a treat!  Pep Boys and others sell the
triple square bits in a 3 size set, made by Lisle.

Good luck
Jim Accordino