I went through the same thing on a old scarab a while back. Finally chiseled the head bolt heads off and lifted the heads. I used a needle scaler on the outside of the block to remove most of the rust. The motor looked similar to your pics. The internals were in good shape and after the rebuild it ran great for years.

However it took a lot of time to get rid of the rust on all the brackets and accessories. I replaced every bolt and washer with stainless then sandblasted primed and painted everything. This took hours and hours. I mean by the time you disassemble all the accessories and brackets and other componets you litteraly have hundreds of parts to blast prime then paint. Luckily I wasnt married at the time and I spent every hour that I wasnt working for a living working on it. With all day on weekends and a few hours every night it took about 8 weeks.

ps: The needle scaler saved a lot of time.

Ron

ljsmith1,

Sorry to hear that my Bolt-Out suggestion did not work for you. My experiences thus far have been good with the bolt out.

Jim

Hi Jim!

Yes...I was disappointed as well.. They look like they would work on most anything else - just not hardened head bolts!

Thanks for the suggestion!

-Larry

1 word.........Carbide.

Aren't head bolts just case hardened anyways? I don't know. Since some guys have used chisels on them with luck, that says they are not through hardened. Not like they are 58-60Rc.

Carbide may work, depending on the case hardening thickness. In my brief experience, the 1/4" Vermont Tool carbide bits did nothing but wear out on my headbolt situation. Also, what if you have no room to manuever a drill into place? I have even had hardened easy-outs broken because a bolt was too tight. That sucks when you need to get one of those things out!

I guess that all you can do is try all of these suggestions and hope for one to hit paydirt!

-Larry

I have yet to find a bolt that I couldn't get off or twist off. I soak them with PB Blaster, bang them with a hammer, then drive on the smallest six point impact socket that I can get on. Then a breaker bar and as much pipe on the end that is necessary to get it off, or twist it off. Sometimes I will have to keep driving smaller sockets on it. This method is only good when you have good access to the bolt. It it's in a tough spot, all bets are off.

Dad now has a torch which the heat helps alot.

I agree torch them!!!Concentrate at the very head it wont hurt the cast iron.

Your almost there

up date ,the motor was in good shape on the inside ,the bearings you could tell had some trash went thru them ,it had hardly any build up residue in the bottom of the oil pan, It was kinda of surprising considering the way it was maintained .I am fix en to go back together with , the machine shop bill was 1500 . I think I saw him actually shed a tear..I not charging him anything and he is still crying..the bill which includes some parts .it looks like basically it a rering and bearing job. He did buy some gill exhaust. A had to .I wish I could talk him into a supercharger but ,he is tight$$

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