thermostat help broken bolt need advice

Short history: 2000 cherokee sport 4.0l.

Today driving home it sprung a bad coolant leak. Was spraying mist/coolant from the thermostat housing. Let it cool down, filled it back up with water and limped it home.

Started to tear into it and before I even turned a bolt the top thermostat housing bolt, was loose and broken in the head.

So whats a good fix for this short of removing the entire front clip to attempt to drill/tap? Never had a coolant problem before today. Its got around 110K on it.

Did you get the rest of it off? Nothing left to grab onto with vise grips?

well the bolt was literally just sitting in the housing. The other bolt backed out fine. This one is the longer, bout 2.5" or so, broke off flush at the head.I would almost expect it if I was trying to torque it off of there, but the damage was done before I got to that point. Theres nothing to grab onto, and I have no confidence in any kind of 'ez out' So I tore into the front end and have that pretty much all tore down, so I guess drill and tap it is, what a freaking pain in my ass.

Common failure with those bolts. I replaced mine with SS bolts and used anti-seize on them.

Why don't you drill it and try an easy out first? If it doesn't work you can still drill it out and put a heli-coil in it.

Well instead of buying a heli-coil set, I just drilled it out and used a tap I already had. So the bolt is fixed and everything is back together. Just waiting on a new upper rad hose, unbelievable as it was NONE of the stores around here had one in stock! Should be good as new tomorrow evening....I hope!