The patient: 1997 Ford Expedition 5.4L Triton. The four bolts of the rear two cylinders on the passenger side broke, one of which is below flush. I've tried grabbing them with a ViseGrip, to no avail; they are currently soaking in PB, but how effective is that on aluminum/steel?
Short of pulling the head (ugh), what can you guys suggest?
No help for you now but did you try to tighten them just a smidge before you loosened them?
Weld a nut onto the remnants. Center the nut and weld through the hole. The heat will help.
Oxy acetylene on the srud then hit it with canned compressed air with the can upside down. It's colder that way.
Below flush with the head? That is, the remaining piece is stuck down in the head? Do you have access? That is, can you get tools on it? If so, dremel a dimple in the middle of the stud/bolt, drill with a small drill and go progressively larger. Shift to a left handed drill bit. When it is as big as you can get without hitting head threads, try some type of extractor. I like the cheap Chinese HF ones because when they snap off, they are easier to deal with than an expensive one. Takes a delicate touch to use the extractors without making things worse. And, actually when you get a bigger reverse cutting drill bit in there, it will probably back itself out.
Dissolve them? (warning: swearing Canadian man) https://www.youtube.com/embed/fqZYgReuywM
Very common on the mod motors....my v10 has one popped and I expect the rest to start popping like corn soon. I plan on doing as Woody suggested with mig welding a nut then backing out. Check the forums on ford-trucks.com for more details and helpful hints there are templates out there for drilling guides as well.
BrokenYugo wrote: Dissolve them? (warning: swearing Canadian man) https://www.youtube.com/embed/fqZYgReuywM
I tried this, no go. I think the block is to big of a heat sink.
Right now I am trying to dremel out a busted ezout.
Looking forward to others suggestions.
In reply to lrrs:
Heat sink? It doesn't need heat to work, just makes it work faster.
The ones that break below the head surface are actually the nice ones because they usually come right out. When you drill them, the drill bit grabs them and spins them into the head. Then you use a pick to carefully clean the corrosion out of the threads near the surface, and a square Easy-Out (not the spiral abominations!) unthreads it easily. And if the bit doesn't grab it and spin it in, use the Easy-Out to thread it in, then clean up threads with a pick, etc.
Oh. But you still need to get the inner fender and exhaust manifold out. See, two of the holes in the manifold are tight clearance locator holes, the other six or eight are an extremely loose fit so the manifold and head can move around relative to each other. The reason the studs break is the manifold rusts the holes solid, and so when differential expansion occurs between the head and manifold, it snaps the end studs off. So to Fix the problem you really do need to pull the manifold and clean up the holes.
If there's enough thread poking out the head, a small twist-off socket usually can get them out, since they broke by shearing forces and not from being overtightened.
In reply to BrokenYugo:
In that case, I must of had defective alum.
Had I on there for a month, just a lot of crystallize alum on the surface.
Doh! Heat wrench! Got two of them out by getting them red, then spraying them with water, and grabbing them with ViseGrip. Couldn't get the third one out; quit for the night, my stories are on. 
So, after a week of only having a little time to work on it after work each day, I still have a non-running truck. The "cooking spice" method, in the Canadian video posted above, doesn't work. I let it sit for four days. I've broken a bunch of small drill bits and an EZ-Out. I feel as though I may have been further ahead, had I pulled the head, and worked on it on a workbench, rather than through the inner fender. 
your going to love this: do you have access to a plasma cutter? center it over the stud (cut it flush if it isnt already) and hit the trigger for as short as you can to make a dent. check it, make sure your centered. then hit it again for about 1.5 seconds. the head will act as a heat sink, and prevent damage, but the bolt will vaporize. then just chase the threads with a good tap and some cutting fluid, and your done.
-J0N
You need this tool, no it's not cheap but it kicks major ass! We have this at work for the HEMI engine and it works great.
http://www.promaxxtool.com/rocky.html
I know some tool dealers rent the kits so it might be cheaper than buying one out right.
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