Broken Valve cover bolts

[B.E. Coyote]

5 in all, bottom 4 on the drivers side and the bottom one next to the fire wall on passenger side.

Was removing them, not installing them. The truck is fairly new to me. I think someone must have cranked them down pretty hard to try and stop the valve cover leaking.

Didn't take much pressure at all for them to break. Not sure what I would have done differently.

3 broke above the head and I'm hoping I can get them out with vise grips after a lot of penetrating oil. 2 are broken flush with the head.

Feeling sick. :dizzy:

 

[djpope09]

For the ones where the stub is sticking out, I would try to use a pipe wrench. I have an old school one that works every time, much better than vice grips.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/TEKTON-10-in-to-17-in-Telescoping-7-8-2-1-2-in-Basin-Wrench-WRN92004/206994294?MERCH=REC-_-pipsem-_-206994291-_-206994294-_-N

*Edit - my first link was the wrong wrench

 

[djpope09]

Actually this one would probably work better. This is the type of claw that you want, the telescoping part may not be necessary if you have room to work.
URL="https://www.homedepot.com/p/RIDGID-2017-1-2-in-1-1-4-in-Telescoping-Basin-Wrench-with-LED-Light-46753/205824770?MERCH=REC-_-pipsem-_-206994291-_-205824770-_-N"]https://www.homedepot.com/p/RIDGID-2017-1-2-in-1-1-4-in-Telescoping-Basin-Wrench-with-LED-Light-46753/205824770?MERCH=REC-_-pipsem-_-206994291-_-205824770-_-N[/URL]

 

[B.E. Coyote]

couple hours of soaking in kroil, grabbed one with the vise grips. Just planned on seeing if I could wiggle it back and forth.

Snapped right off. Now there are 3 flush and 2 with nubs. :rant:

No issues getting a good hold of them with the vise grips, gotta go get more penetrating oil and figure out a way for the oil to not slide away

 

[djpope09]

If you could heat them up that would help. I usually spray the oil and then tap it gently with a hammer. No idea if that helps, but it makes me feel like the oil is working better haha.

 

[MikeinNH67]

Well that sucks. I've had good luck welding nuts to the studs when there was enough meat. The heat helps break it loose. You could try heating them then spray with penetrant, the heat sometimes sucks it in. You could also rap on them with a center punch. There's some good youtube vids on drilling studs out. South Main Auto has some good ones. Keep us posted.

 

[B.E. Coyote]

Tried getting some heat to them with a burnsomatic but it didn't seem to actually get them hot. Maybe I wasn't putting the torch in the right place or maybe the head was soaking up all the heat.

Going to try to set up some kind of tubes over them with some double sided tape. Fill the tubes and let them soak over night.

Being on an angle 99.9% of the fluid just drips away. Ran out of kroil and had to buy the off the shelf PB blaster.

Doesn't seem like it would be a big deal if there was room to work. Afraid the head might have to come off and that is beyond my capability in the driveway.

Wife's not happy. It is hers. :argue: :help::biggrin1:

 

[MikeinNH67]

Yeah, big heatsink there so it's tough with a small torch. If you are not successful you may want to call around and see if someones can get them out for you. I wouldn't want to remove the heads just for that as those exhaust manifold bolts are brutal. I would try drilling and using an easy-out first. One of the videos I've seen showed how to drill in the center of the bolt without hitting the threads.

Good luck.

 

[MikeinNH67]

After thought, I wonder if you could put the covers back on and run the motor until up to temp then use the penetrating oil on it.

 

[B.E. Coyote]

I had thought about that but figured if running it all the time didn't loosen anything up, I don't think idling in the driveway would help.

Going to keep soaking them tonight and try again tomorrow. Passenger side only has one broken and it has a nub. If I can get that out at least I can get one side done.

It may very well end up getting towed to a mechanic or a machine shop.

Gonna look on amazon now to see what they have for right angle drills.

 

[Warwicke36]

5 in all, bottom 4 on the drivers side and the bottom one next to the fire wall on passenger side.

Was removing them, not installing them. The truck is fairly new to me. I think someone must have cranked them down pretty hard to try and stop the valve cover leaking.

Didn't take much pressure at all for them to break. Not sure what I would have done differently.

3 broke above the head and I'm hoping I can get them out with vise grips after a lot of penetrating oil. 2 are broken flush with the head.

Feeling sick. :dizzy:

Ugh that sucks dude. I would drill and tap them. Can you get a drill in there? Get a good bit, maybe 2 or 3 just to be safe.

Worst case scenario clean it all up really well. Use the black "right stuff" gasket maker underneath your valve cover gasket where it mates on the head. Hell, I'd put a thin bead in the valve cover too. Ive sealed some wild stuff with that product. It even held together 15lbs of boost in my RX7... I turbo charged an NA motor and the ports in the new intake didnt line up... Tried several times making a gasket and it leaked. Ended up slathering both sides of said gasket in Right stuff silicone... It held. Held so well that when my boost spiked to 25psi killing the motor the gasket was still intact. I kinda wish the gasket let go not the corner seals inside the motor ��

 

[importman]

I feel your pain. Been through that too many times. If they're popping off that easily, a different tool probably won't help but this style works really well: IRWIN Bolt Extractor Set, 5-Piece (394001) - Bolt Extractor Kit - Amazon.com
Of course you'd have to find the right size. It grabs all the way around the bolt instead of just on two sides like vice grips or a pipe wrench. That PB Blaster is good stuff. I've used many kinds of penetrating oils and it's the best I've found. Just to be clear on one other thing. When you apply heat it has to be on the area around the bolt, not on the bolt itself. This allows the metal to expand and loosen it's grip. Don't know if that's what you were doing or not. One last very important piece of advice: if you do end up drilling them and using eze outs, do not break the eze out off in the hole. They are hardened steel and you won't be able to drill into them. Your problem will be compounded greatly if that happens. Let us know how it ends up. Good luck.

 

[AuSeeker]

I feel your pain. Been through that too many times. If they're popping off that easily, a different tool probably won't help but this style works really well: IRWIN Bolt Extractor Set, 5-Piece (394001) - Bolt Extractor Kit - Amazon.com
Of course you'd have to find the right size. It grabs all the way around the bolt instead of just on two sides like vice grips or a pipe wrench. That PB Blaster is good stuff. I've used many kinds of penetrating oils and it's the best I've found. Just to be clear on one other thing. When you apply heat it has to be on the area around the bolt, not on the bolt itself. This allows the metal to expand and loosen it's grip. Don't know if that's what you were doing or not. One last very important piece of advice: if you do end up drilling them and using eze outs, do not break the eze out off in the hole. They are hardened steel and you won't be able to drill into them. Your problem will be compounded greatly if that happens. Let us know how it ends up. Good luck.

This^^

I also was going to say you need to be heating the head and not the bolt, by heating the bolt it will get bigger/tighter within the threaded hole.

I also agree what ever you do DON'T break the EaseOut as mentioned, they are harden steel, as hard as a good drill bit, also being harden steel they will break more easily than the bolt did especially since the correct size EaseOut will be smaller than the broken bolt.

 

[drtyjerz47]

Tap them out. Like with a tap set not *tap tap* with a hammer lol

I have a little Irwin set that I picked up a year or so back for like 15$ and it has come In couch a couple time already. Just look up videos so you know what your doing, I've seen a lot of people misuse them and put the extractor bit in a drill and then think it's going to "catch" and "come right out". The drill bit is for the drill. The extractor bit if reverse threaded and that's for a hand tool that comes with the set.

Don't make your problem worse

 

[weaves]

I hate to break it to you, but you'll have to drill and tap them out. I had the heads off, and I could still not extract any of the broken valve cover bolts (extractors and map gas). The first problem is that the bolt holes are threaded completely through the head, allowing the bolts get exposed to water & road salt, accelerating galvanic corrosion. The second issue is that they're only 6mm bolts which doesn't take much force to break them. I even welded nuts to the broken bolts and it would just snap off the stem further down.