Hi All:

I need a little help here. I have a stripped head bolt. Were the 12 point Triple Square Bit goes. It seems it was damaged already and I finished it off.
It's only one, the other 13 are all right.

What can I use to get this out?

Thanks

Those bolts can be a PAIN to say the least. I had one where water managed to get up inside the thing and fill it almost to the bottom of the washer and over time turned the alum into corrosion guck that no amount of torque would bust loose. Snapped off the bolt head as the final result and was left with the shank down inside with that guck holding everything together. I ended up pulling the engine out of the car and on a stand turning the head to unscrew the bolt from the block...

As for your issue and not knowing what bolt is giving you the trouble my favorite is to pound in a T-55 TORX bit using a 8-10 pound hammer running it all the way down making new splines going in. Go get the better branded bits on 1/2 drive and use a cheap and I mean cheap-ass 2" extension as your anvil to drive it home. If you're lucky the shocking from the hammer blows will break everything loose and you can get the bolt out, if not and the engine is on the ground your best bet might be to "unscrew" the head from the block.


Good luck and let us know K?

988

Yep, I tore down one of the water in bolt victims in the junkyard....
Lucky for me the seized bolts, 6 of 14, snapped right off. I did get a few new hoses off that car at least. Dealership quoted #450 for a new set of coolant hoses, minus the two they didn't list.

I found this issue in my car...
The engines previous mechanic had stripped one bolt on the install, and skipped at least one round of tightening, leading to a coolant to combustion chamber leak down the road. I got the motor from Pick n pull for $86, and ran it two years before the gasket failed.As i went to take it apart, i found the stripped bolt, and my tripple square tool spun freely. Grinding off the bolt top sounded no fun, so I went to the store and bought a brand new bit. Set the bit in place, found the best spline alignment, and beat the crap out of it with a 3 LB sledge, forcing the bit as deep as it could go, and hopefully loosening the bolt a bit as well. My impact wrench then removed the bolt no problem. If that fails, I would weld the bit into the stripped hole, the heat will also help to free the bolt. If you can break/file/dremell/die grind the head off the bolt, the threaded part will usualy come out pretty easily. It should be feasible to plunge cut the head off the bolt with an oxyacetylene torch if you are good at that kind of thing.
Don't those bolts make the darndest noise as they break loose? I use a 3/4" drive breaker bar with the handle of my floor jack as a 30" cheater bar.
Hope this helps

PS.
the cheapest (under$2) head bolts sometimes break before reaching torque, and, although I haven't seen one fail after installation, I don't recomend them

Thanks Greasel:

Boy they sure do!! I got them all out except the one. I think the same thing happened here too. This is a spare engine that I'm working on and I think someone had the head off. Can't wait to open it up to see what it looks like.

Tom Bryant said: You need the special tools and the knowhow to work on these. He was right. This is the same engine that had a loose Vibration Damper and an almost sheared key on the lower Timing Gear!! Because someone didn't torque the bolt. Yikes!! I wonder what else I'm going to find.

Warren

The only special tool I use is the pump timing adaptor, but I did et to practice by (re)building a bunch o VW diesels. Today or tomorrow, i am attempting to fab a cam follower depressor for changing valve pucks with the cam in place.