Yesterday, I got up early to start installing the spacer so that I could use the car in the afternoon. Wanted to have the engine cool as per the instructions to make it easier to remove and torque the bolts properly.

I started with the removal of the engine cover, battery terminal, Z tube and then, the plenum bolts. All bolts came off pretty easily, a little hard to reach since I have a bad back except when I got to the rear guide pin for the lower plenum, the thing wouldn't turn a smidge using a 4mm socket-I stripped the pinhead. Tried to soak it with WD40 to help loosen it up - no luck!

I then thought, a vise grip should do the trick. Again, no luck in removing the guide pin. The thing is just frozen. 3 hours later, it was still not cooperating. Most of the thread is gone by this time plus the visegrip teeth is also marred.


At this point, I was just ready to give up due to the frustration. I figure I would just have to install the top spacer and skip the lower ISO which I did.

So what would be the best approach to fix my problem? Drill out the pin carefully, is this possible? I really would like to install the lower gasket.


Thanks all and sorry for my rant!

 

Here's what I did, sand 2 opposite side of the bolt flat so you can get a good flat grip. Use big flat pliers to twist itoff.

 

Yeah, I am cooking this idea too but not too excited because the vise
should have worked. It just tells me how tight it is in there but definitely worth a try. I will file it to make it flat but I think I would end up snapping it
off.

 

If you still have threds left you could screw two nuts onto the pin and then lock them together about 3/4 way down the pin but close to the top of the lower plenum. You then use a wrench on the lower nut, CCW, to remove the pin. Get real penetrating oil as WD-40 just doesn't cut it for tough stuff like you've run into. Good luck.

 

Hi,
Before I went with the vise grip idea- this is what I had in mind. I tried this method using the stock nuts as mentioned in the instructions but I could not even thread the second nut as there was not enough thread/pin not long enough. Now , there isn't much thread left.

 

You might have to drill it out, I think they sell these things that you drill into and it has teeth that bite into the screw that unscrews it out. Check out the hardware store.