Reply to "Frozen head bolt / engine reconditioning"

As has been said, a really stuck head bolt simply cannot be removed with the engine in the car. Bite the bullet and pull the engine for convenience in working on this difficult problem. It will be easier to cut the bolt head off and remove the 60-lb head over the cut-off bolt shank- maybe with help.

After the head is off, if the shank cannot be removed with the tools at hand and you are familiar with an oxyacetylene welding torch, I'm always successful using the cutting torch adapter as long as the bad fastener is in iron! The method is simple: put the cutting torch directly on the stub bolt until the bolt is glowing bright red. Then while wearing protective clothing, hit the cutting-oxygen lever and watch the molten bolt liquify and shoot out in a fountain of molten steel.
This is why-
-1)- the head must be off to access the bottom of the cut off bolt
-2)- you must wear protective clothing, as the glowing scraps will be at 1200-up degrees F
-3)- the engine must be out of the car and away from it!

Once things cool down, add some threading oil and run a tap thru the empty hole to remove rust and tiny oxidized bits of bolt; the original block threads will be completely unharmed and can be reused.

Many machine shops will use this method in lieu of the more costly setting the whole block up on a big vertical mill, dialing it in precisely and milling the bolt remnants out.