My upper manifold bolts are in too far

Question

I pulled a real dunderhead move and I tightened my manifold bolts to 80 foot pounds when it should’ve been 105 inch pounds. The bolts went too far and went passed the threaded inner thread of seat area & passed the threads of the bolt and now I can’t get them out. In other words, there aren’t any threads aligned to let them turn back put. I can’t find a way to push the bolt back up so the threads meet. It’s a very tight space. 07 pt cruiser. ‍♀️

Answer 1

I saw a post on another pt cruiser forum and the guy said he was going to cut the head off the bolt and push it thru. You can’t knock the bolt out from the bottom of the upper intake manifold on a pt cruiser bc the lock nut that is located inside of the bolt hole is kind of cone shaped, the hole is narrower at the bottom, wider at the top. It can only come out from the top. I found that out today. I put a metal bar across the left side of the car frame and put a large clamp on the top of the bar. The lower jaw of the clamp I put under the bolt bottom. As I twisted the clamp closed, the bolt, bushing and lock nut popped up enough so i could put a pry bar under it and get it out easily. The bolt wasn’t stripped, it’s cross threaded/crushed onto the lock nut due to being over torqued. The lock nut is soft brass and this can happen too easily. Bolt & locknut are just spinning in the bushing which gives you the impression it’s stripped. Now I’m going to see if I can find some locknuts at a salvage yard. Livin & learnin.

Answer 2

I'm not sure I fully understand what's going on, but it seems from your description that you've stripped threads on either the bolt or the hole ... either way, you're in deep doo-doo.

I'll take it you've tried to turn a bolt out and it's just spinning? If so, you'll need to continue trying to get it out. If it is just spinning, something you may be able to do is to force a flat tipped screwdriver under the head of the bolt while you continue to turn it. Once the screwdriver tip is under the bolt head, you can turn the screwdriver and lever it up as you turn which should help you to extract the bolt. At this point, your only hope is to force the bolt out of the hole. If it won't thread out, you'll have to do it another way.

Once you get the bolt out, then you need to assess the damage as to whether it's the bolt or the hole which has stripped. Most likely it's going to be the hole, which is unfortunate. This is because on most engines these days the hole is threaded into aluminum while the bolt is steel. If so, the hole can be fixed with a heli-coil thread repair, but if you don't know what you're doing, it's best to get a mechanic or machinist to do the repair. It is relatively easy to mess it up.