Snapped bolt

[thinglin]

I recently snapped one of the bolts that hold down the cams. I tried to remove it but and easy-out didnt work.

Do i need this bolt or will the others be able to hold the camshaft down?

 

[GTM]

Originally posted by thinglin
I recently snapped one of the bolts that hold down the cams. I tried to remove it but and easy-out didnt work.

Do i need this bolt or will the others be able to hold the camshaft down?

Oh dear, not a good thing. I would recommend repair.

As long as your already drilled hole is close to centered this process has worked many times for me. You need GOOD quality drill bits, go an buy what you need once you know the sizes. If they cost $2-$5 pay the money not a place or time to cut corners on cost.

Using another bolt, find a nut which fits the threads. Use _that_ nut as a drill sizer, in other words the drill must pass through the nut. Rags, paper towels stuffed everwhere for you are drilling steel and you dont need the chips floating around the oiling system. WD-40, kerosene, or motor oil for drilling.


Check max depth of hole from another bolt hole, place drill in that hole and wrap tape around drill bit. You must not excede this mark.

Depending on how large a hole you have drilled you may choose to use the sized drill from the nut or go another size smaller for the first pass, don't forget to tape the maximum depth. Use a variable speed drill and use a slow speed close to stalling the drill bit out, if it grabs then rotate chuck backwards a bit and apply pressure again. Again this is not the place to rush, you can not have your body waving all over the place so brace yourself, or crawl in the engine compartment and sit.

Once you have completed drilling you should have a very thin sleeve of the broken bolt remains. This you can sometimes unscrew with just your fingers or it may take some pick type tools. You can sharpen nails, heat to red hot and quench in water may help. You may be able to put a small bend in the tip to fit inside the sleeve and try to unscrew that way. Alternately is to run a straigth pick down the side between the sleeve and the head threads to collapse it inward to the point where it will reduce the radius and then pick it out. If your hole was centered it will work every time, you won't have to make thread repairs. If it's a mess you may need to carefully chase threads with a Japaneese metric bottoming tap, if that doesn't work then a thread repair kit using "Keen-sert"(sp?) or "Slimsert"(sp?) or the wire type repairs.

Be patient with yourself, this is not the place to do a rush job. Give yourself 1-2 hours to complete the job, if it takes 20 minutes so much the better.

Any questions?

Cheers,
GTM

 

[thinglin]

thanks for the reply