exhaust manifold broken bolts

I have a 2003 chevy silverado. I have had a couple broken bolts in my exhaust manifold for some time now and the ticking is getting unbearable. I've heard good things about a bracket that came out to help fix this problem in all 1999 and newer gmc and chevy trucks, vans and suvs. I dont want to take it in and get the entire thing replaced and all the tricks that people suggest just havent seemed to work. Next step is to buy these k.a.p exhaust manifold bolt repair kits and get the job done.

Neat idea. Never have seen this done. Seems like a good fix. Sure beats attempting to drill out the bolt centers, and using an ease-out to extract. What other methods are there to remove the bolts?

Welcome to our forums Brando! Good luck with your repair. Looking at the video that Joemac posted, looks like the fix could be easier than one would expect. Thanks for posting.

Cool but it does not address the burned out gasket.
If the gasket is leaking it will throw off the O2 reading and make it run rich.

I was under the impression these motors came with a metal exhaust gasket. I could be incorrect. The metal gaskets are usually pretty durable compared to the fiber stuff we used in the past.

I found this forum link a couple weeks ago to see if anyone had a solution to this issue. I'm glad I did because I ordered a handful of these KAP bolt kit things for the guys to put on some trucks in the shop. Real slick. I see about 5-7 GM trucks a month come in with the broken bolts, but not too often is the gasket actually an issue. however, i am sure that can be replaced fairly easily too. I don't think they cost much either. all in all, it is a money and time saver. I dont know, but I'm not going to back to drilling them damn bolts out if I dont have to. Thanks for sharing everyone.

Ya man, I put my KAP brackets on a little over 2 yrs ago now and havent had any problems. Joemac posted that youtube video too, and having demos like that is a plus. I know there are some other alternatives you could do to fix it, but I dunno, someone was on the right track coming up with a option like this.