Thread: How do I drill out an ezyout

Never had any luck with an EzyOut, because of their hardening, broken Ezyouts are almost impossible to get out. My only success has been time sweat and long nose pliers, or grind down the nose of a pair of Vice grips to fit the grooves of the Ezyout.

IMHO you're better using a left handed drill bit than an Ezyout. If you're lucky the vibration and LH rotation grabs the broken bolt then unscrews it.

Unless my eyes deceive me that is a standard SHCS
-option one pair of vice grips around the head and turn
-option two grind a slot across the head with air grinder - turn with impact screw driver
-option three die grinder and carbide burr, just grind the whole head off to flush with the plate, remove other screw and will then be able to unwind the threaded section of the SHCS.

easyouts are perhaps the least successsful method of fastener removal

-bolt extractors
-left hand drill bits
-grinding a slot and using impact screw driver
-or my favourite welding a nut on

are all much better options for future reference

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Thanks guys much appreciated.

If the frustration gets too much, there are blokes running mobile services that come out and do thread removal, fixing etc...

I think the worst part is access.

We used to use diamond tipped drills to drill into ezyouts. Then you can try another ezyout. Good luck.

The best ezyouts are the non tapered ones they have a straight shaft with straight flutes on the out side they also have a nut that slides down flush with the top of the bolt you are trying to remove this puts less stress on the ezyout. The tapered ones tend to spread the bolt making it tighter in the thread. I believe that Snap On sell special drill bits our ezyouts they come in various sizes but the down side is they are about $30.

Job done. I was unable to cut a slot as the bolts are about 150mm back. I was however able to cold chisel a slot so the impact driver would get some bite. This cracked the thread but it was still tight. I was able to tap on an irwin style hex bolt grip onto the out of shape bolt head. Screwed it out. Hope this helps others.
Now time to finish this egr removal and put in the new radiator.