how not to snap the intercooler bolts.

[mjtpolice76]

I took my blower off to send to Apten for the September special. Taking the blower off was not hard. Everyone talks about breaking the intercooler bolts off. The tool I used was a 18v Snapon impact gun, I didn't even snap one bolt. I hope this will help someone in here when they take their blower off. One question I do have is what is everyone talking about when they say you should mark the boost bypass bolt location ?

 

[Onelfastlride]

When we removed the inter cooler bolts we took our time, used a very short wrench keeping the amount of force you can apply as small as possible, if any began to stick we heated them with a heat gun, threading back in a little and then out. Worked great, none were broken.

It's also a good time to upgrade the bolts. This is what I replaced them with from McMaster Car. Much stronger, with a flanged head, however you can go with what you'd think best.


Metric 12.9 Alloy Flange Sckt Head Cap Screw M5 Size, 16mm Length, 0.8mm Pitch, Packs of 25


:beer:

 

[projekZERO]

both got lucky, ive done 2 blowers so far mine and my friends, we did his first broke none. did mine second broke 4. talked to bob stiegemeier, he said its because of the shelf life of the threadlock. if ford just so happend to open up a fresh tube of thread lock when they put your intercooler on when it was assembled, GOOD LUCK !!

 

[dougwg]

heat works great

 

[TRBO VNM]

the trick is before trying to lossen them, tighten them just barely. Like an 1/8 of a turn, maybe 1/4 at most and then loosen them. This is the technique Rick at Amazon uses and claims it works every time. We did mine and it worked like a charm. No heat used! Then replaced them with a better quality bolt when re-installing.

 

[Wayneo]

Mine came out no problem with just a 1/4 inch rachet, but I don't have that many miles on it either:shrug:

 

[projekZERO]

i wasnt so lucky on mine, had the torch out. tighten loosen, nothing these things wouldnt budge! after like an hour i got bored and just broke em off. my friends came off easy by tightening them and loosening them. mine just wouldnt go at all.

after i was done i tried to remove 1 with an easy out (yeah right) so i tried my friends splined extractor which is hardened steel!and always works! it started to twist that thing! so i quit....have u ever tried t drill through harden steel! trust me some will just not go.

 

[71stang99]

I had no issues with the intercooler, however upon install I had heavy handed some of the intake bolts and when they snapped it was easy enough to get out because the shafts we big enough too get vise grips on and pull out.