sheared cylinder head cover bolt recipticle.... oh no!

[jonathanhly]

So lesson be learned, if you buy a new torque wrench, test it on something insignificant first. My torque wrench was broken. And In my ignorance I cranked and cranked waiting to hear the click, which never came, and I sheared one of the bolt recopticle. One of the four that goes into the "camshaft holder?". Anyways the threads are gone. I have tried to gently run the bolt in and out a few times, but there are basically no threads left. The bolt does hold tight, and I will probably get away with using it for now, but eventually I will need to, I assume, tap this whole a size larger, and find a bigger bolt.

Or can I tap it to the same size and use the original?

For now I'm going to throw some anit-sieze in there, tighten her down, and try to rest easy.

[gsatterw]

hmm did you use an inch-lb or a ft-lb torque wrench? the lower register on the ft-lb ones don't really work too well if you have a cheap one. You didn't crack a journal cap did you?

Graham 

[jonathanhly]

It was an inch pound, and it just didn't work out of the box.

Nothing was cracked. Just destroyed the threads in the hole.

[Badot]

Since I don't have one sitting in front of me I can't say for sure... but if there's enough metal there you're going to want to drill and tap the hole to a larger size with the same pitch, then install a thread insert so you can use the original size bolt.

Running the same size tap through again won't work.

I don't have much experience with thread inserts though so that's where I'll leave it.

[sledge]

http://www.repairengineering.com/helicoil.html

[jonathanhly]

That heli coil looks pretty cool, and for the whole kit costing about 20 bucks it seems to be the way to go. Have any of you ever used one?

And more importantly does anyone know the dimensions of the cylinder head cover Allen bolts (the four short ones)?

[Paulcet]

Yes, I have used one. Not on an engine, but they work pretty well, and I expect it would be fine for your repair.

[jonathanhly]

Now does someone know if I can remove that "camshaft holder", which is held on by two bolts, in order to drill it out, without touching the camshaft?

Meaning is the camshaft under pressure, like I think it is by the valves, and therefore I should remove the entire cam shaft? Or can I just pull that one side?

I dont want to do anything more than I have to to the internals of the engine.

[gsatterw]

throw it into neutral, take the ignition cover off (the circular one with the emblem on it on the right side) and turn the engine so that the camshaft in question has its lobes off of the valves, then you should be able to pull that journal cap off no problemo without worrying about the chain jumping.

Graham