Hello I was changing my thermostat on the Monte and one of the nuts ended up snapping off. After closer inspection it looks like the dumbass who owned it before me put lock tight on it and it won’t move. I’ve tried drilling it out and using a pick to make it move but they both failed. I got blaster sitting on the bolt to try and loosen it up. If any one has any ideas on how to get it out that would be greatly appreciated. I’ll leave some photos so yall can see what I’m talking about. Thank you!

 

Ouch! You might be looking at a new lower intake.

I would use a torch (thats aluminum, remember) and try to tap the bolt counterclockwise with a hammer and pick or something.

Or try a bolt extractor. The kind that look like a reverse drill bit.

Or completely drill it out and re-tap. Looks like you have enough room.

Or drill deep into the bolt and hammer something into it (manifold is aluminum...) that you can then use to back it out.

 

Hey so I tried to torch it and use a pick and hammer but it didn’t work. I’m gonna try to get a different drill bit (one that a little stronger than the one I was using) and I’ll try to drill down and take it out that way. But if that doesn’t work how hard would be to just change the whole lower intake manifold? I’m about to move in a couple of days and I really needed this car to go to work and such. Thank you for your advice!

 

Its not bad. Intimidating the first time, maybe. The first time I did it (knowing very little about these engines), it took me maybe 6 hours. The last gasket job (same as changing the manifold) took me about 2 hours.

There are step by step guides here and youtube.




Youll 'essentially' be doing this job except swapping in the new manifold when you put it back together.

 

Take a nut and weld it onto the bolt.