I'm trying to take off my rock grate to put a loader grate on.. Damn thing is STUCK.. Should I just drill it out?  I'm guessing that's my only real option, I'm just trying not to f*ck it up.  It's a phillips head, it's not bolted through the intake.. I soaked in some liquid wrench, wd 40.. even broke out the air impact wrench, but all it's doing is stripping the heads..  maybe i'm just a bit retarded? 

I thought he said he couldn't get his rocks off? Oh shit! wrong message board.........

your just thinking about what you did after you installed all that bling on your boat skip

Interesting that nobody mentioned using left hand drill bits if you are going to drill them to use the easy out.  Most times the left hand drill bit will take it out before you even have to use the easyout.  I also dip the phillips bit in baby powder or talc to make them fit tighter in the slots.  This will help prevent striping out the heads as easily. 

Left handed drills are awsome, but there are two problems, 1. the bolts holding the grate on are made of stainless, which drills like crap ans 2. The bolts will have a corrosion build up around them due to the dissimilar metals and are going to come out hard no matter what, the drill has a large chance of snapping like popsickle stick making things much worse 

I would attempt to heat up the surrounding aluminum with a turbo torch and work em back and forth, in all honesty this is a very common problem......

GT

Topic: Can't get off my rock grate!

You have to play with it, then stroke it slowly top to bottom, repeat in reverse order, slowly at first and faster towards the end. Or so I'm told

Ray

And talk to it... help it know who is daddy and who is going to make it feel real speshul 

Wow you guys can turn a good thread into a porno flick


All i got to say is............

Dont forget to cup the balls

 

Now I really did it..  I went the route of drill off the heads, removing the grate and drilling a 7/64th hole and using a screw extractor to get out the old screws.. ti worked for the 1st on, BUT on the 2nd one drill bit broke inside the screw and I can not get it out.. it is dead flush with the screw??  Any suggestions?  I used a black oxide drill bit, cheapy from a set i already had (bad mistake now)..  Can I just get a strong drill bit and drill it out.. there is a touch of a nub sticking out that I may be able to tack weld a bolt on the nub and back it out??

Since there is a about 1/8 inch of the bolt sticking out.. I think I'll try a dremel tool to grind the screw around it, I think I can get pliers on it it pull it out if I can remove the screw from around it??   I hope so!  Every little thing seems to end up as a mission with a boat!

What I'm going to say won't sound very good because it's full of risk... but you're really low on options with the original screw almost flush and now a super hard drill bit hangin out inside the f-d up screw. I had my 4th bolt on the rock grate do the same thing. I hope someone else has a better idea, but here's the best of the worst:

Get 3-4 real high quality Ti coated drill bits all the same size. Real small like between .060 and .100 dia. Do not get the kind with the built on hex shank because I think they like to break off. Then drill a ring of small holes down the side of your frozen screw. It won't be pretty... You are trying to drill away the original alum threads. Change out to a new bit if the one you are using even looks like it's getting dull. Use cutting oil and take a LOT OF TIME. At some point during the ring drilling the broke bit and maybe the whole screw carcass will come out. But what I am saying is full of risk and if you break one of the tiny bits doing the ring then you will hate me.

And then you will have a butt ugly big jagged hole in your intake. Now you can either drill out all 4 to a big bad 9/16 clearance or bigger or, try a weld and re-drill or even bondo and re-drill. But for sure bag the tapped holes in the casting. Go to thru holes and bolts and nuts like everyone will tell you.