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Intake manifold bolts... yeah...


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So I just extended my 79's timeframe by quite a bit...

 

... the four remaining intake manifold bolts all broke off, the ones toward the inside by the coolant passages.

 

I didn't use any, but no amount of PB Blaster would have helped. The bolts started to "turn" quite easily, and then just snapped off.

 

If I feel adventurous tomorrow, I might grind into them a bit and try unscrewing them with a flathead screwdriver. But most likely I'm just gonna pull the heads and take them off to a machine shop.

 

Besides, a slight bit of coolant spilled into the intake ports when I cracked the gasket, so I should probably pull them anyway.

 

Good thing I'm not in a hurry. :rolleyes:

 

Subaru, why did you have the coolant pass through the intake manifold before entering the engine? Why???

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Yeah, so how do I drain the heads from underneath? :confused:

 

I was expecting to find drain plugs in the block like the newer Soobs (even the EA82s have them), but they're not there.

 

Intake manifold is off. I have the carb intact with all its self-contained vacuum hoses still mounted on the manifold.

 

I'm concerned about the coolant making its way through an open valve and getting into the cylinder and sitting there.

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Yeah, so how do I drain the heads from underneath? :confused:

 

I was expecting to find drain plugs in the block like the newer Soobs (even the EA82s have them), but they're not there.

 

Intake manifold is off. I have the carb intact with all its self-contained vacuum hoses still mounted on the manifold.

 

I'm concerned about the coolant making its way through an open valve and getting into the cylinder and sitting there.

 

That'll blow out,don't worry.

 

Passenger side head should have the drain plug.As I recall,it was always the passenger side....correct me if I'm wrong,please.Quick look at an FPM shows it.

 

EA63-71_heads.jpg

 

Part #32 above.

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those intake bolts do suck real bad. while pulling the head isn't necessary, if it were going in a car i planned on driving i would replace the headgaskets probably. unless i knew something about the engine and was confident it was in great condition.

 

i've posted a number of very in depth times about tricks on getting the intake bolts out. and i know it doesn't matter now since yo'ure done, but if you care in the future: soaking in a penetrant can help, even more so with some other tricks. first one is to loosen a little, then retighten, loosen a little, retigthen. keep doing it to help loosen them up. if you can get the bolt up at all, get a pry bar underneath the head and pry up while turning. these two tricks help very much.

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I have used helicoils on many gen 1 heads before. I just made sure to put a punch mark right in the center of the old bolt before I started to drill. Then just retap, insert coil and voila. You can also use the intake as a guide if need be to drill out the old bolt before stepping up to the larger bit that the helicoil uses.

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When this happened on my turbowagon, I replaced those bolts with stainless steel :-P And if the bolt broke off above the surface of the head, they have these nifty deals at Sears that you drive over the end with a hammer and then twist it out with a socket. Works on rounded off bold heads too!

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