How screwed am I?

...Bob, who says "easy outs ain't "easy"!

Pretty screwed.

But not impossible.

I hope you are applying good penetrating oil to bolts several times over an hour or two before you try to budge them for the first time. Forget WD40.. the best I"ve found is a product called Kroil. You buy it mail order from the manufacturer, Kano Labs.

Other than valve cover and oil pan gaskets, you can make your own from sheet gasket material simply by tracing the part, or the old gasket if it is still intact. All you need are some hole punches for the holes, and an Xacto knife. Gaskets are cheap, but not always available, or have as you found, high shipping.

Getting those flush broke studs out . . . some better here than I for help on that . . . I"ve been most successful with the "welding on a washer/nut technique", but I"ve always had a stub to work with, not flush. Perhaps first place a small piece of copper sheet with a hole in it aligned with the broken stud . . . to keep the weld from sticking to the suppounding metal. Easyouts are a real risk because if one breaks off in the drilled stud you then have a much more difficlt problem that you originally had, because the ezout is a much harder steel than the bolt.

If not, you may have no choice but to drill it out using successively larger bits till you get close to threads. And then try to work the rest out with a punch. Hard part for me is centerpunching the exact center before drilling.

Easy outs are seldom easy. I'd rather center punch it and use a drill bit to drill most of it out.As long as you dont go too big and go real slow the tap will probably get the rest of it out.

If your budget won't afford a welder right now, check with one of your neighbors. If it will, buy one a little better than the cheapest.

Won't you need a complete gasket set ?

Greg