I thought about that, but I am going to stick to the helicoils that I picked up from Napa last night. It was the obvious solution and the most talented mechanic that has worked on "Newt" uses them for this application. 
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Chris S 
  To: Cullen Stewart 
  Cc: vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com 
  Sent: Wednesday, August 27, 2008 9:47 PM
  Subject: Re: Header bolts broken

  An alternative to helicoils are "step-up" studs - half is 8mm and the other is 10mm.  You drill out the old stud, tap the hole out to 10mm, and install the new stud.  Make sure you use the proper tap with a square not taper end.  The square-taper taps will cut a thread to the bottom of the hole.  Theoretically the 10mm end will be stronger than 8mm as there's more thread.  You local hardware store such as Ace, believe it or not, carries these magical studs.  I had to do this to a couple of exhaust studs on my old 1.9L engine.

  On Mon, Aug 25, 2008 at 10:33 PM, Cullen Stewart <cullberly@vermontel.net> wrote:

    The worst has happened. After very patiently removing the nuts and bolts on my wbx I twisted 2 off and still have 1 to go. They are flush with the head and have nothing to grab onto. What are my options with out removing the head. They are obviously not grade 5 or 8, but good old garbage grade 2 considering they twisted off with a minimum amount off force. Is it possible to helicoil these while in the van?

  -- 
  Chris S.
  "Jeszcze Polska Nie Zginęła"