I tried to drill into the broken bolt and use a left handed easy-out to unscrew the bolt; this did not work, and like Justice, I was left with a broken-off easy-out stuck in the bolt. I was able to drill a bigger hole, through the easy-out and the crank bolt, completely through the end of the crank bolt inside the crankshaft snout. Then Motero came over with some wonder tools of his and used tiny hack saw blades (I was not here to see this) to saw the bolt from the center of this hole towards the outside edge and section the bolt into several parts that then were able to just be pulled out.
That left me with bad threads, naturally, but there's a sturdy solution to the issue. A company called Time-Sert
http://www.timesert.com/ that makes a kit just for this purpose. You get the proper sized drill bit, a tap, several threaded inserts and a tool to seat the threaded insert. Once you drill out the hole to get rid of the old threads, you tap new threads for the insert, then the insert gets screwed in and the special seating tool locks the insert into place. Then you use the stock replacement bolt to put everything back together like nothing happened. I've had my bolt out and back in a couple of times since then for a timing belt replacement and a front main seal replacement, and there hasn't been a problem with the insert holding the 130+ lbs of torque. Fantastic product.
The hard part is getting the old bolt out, but with perseverance, you'll get it eventually. I hadn't heard of the way Justice described; that sounds extreme and I'm not experienced enough to try that! Just don't be afraid that you'll damage the threads, it's gonna happen, most likely, and the kit will take care of fixing it.
John B.
