Currently, I have a valve oil leak. I went to check the bolts to make sure they were tightened enough. To my surprise, when I started tightening one of the bolts...it broke. I would say 75% of the bolt is stuck in there. I'm planning on using an extractor and replacing the valve covers and gaskets. Does anyone

have any tips or advice? So far, I am going to have someone holding a vacuum to it so I make sure to control the debris from the drill.

 

 

Which bolt is it that broke? I broke an outside driver's side one while doing mine. It wasn't very accessible, and I wound up breaking the small extractor I was using inside of it. Once one of those breaks, it is next to impossible to drill out the hard tool steel they are made of. If you have access to the spot, I might suggest drilling it out (a 90 degree drill helps) and using a Heli-coil insert to avoid this problem.

Ultimately, I wound up using a small C clamp over the outside of the valve cover and some extra RTV in that area. No leaks for the past 15k miles. I just used some superglue in the C-clamp threads so that it wouldn't come loose with vibration. Torque specs for these are only a few foot pounds, and even slightly over that will snap them easy unfortunately.

 

Sorry, have no guidance to offer for extraction.

but just curious, did you tighten it with a regular socket wrench? or an in/lb torque wrench?

 

Regular socket wrench.

 

Update: I had the bolt extracted with a drill bit and the new bolt thankfully picked up the thread.

 

good to hear

next time you should invest in an in/lb torque wrench and look up the specs. the bolts will have no trouble penetrating the aluminum cast, and even a small socket wrench can easily over torque it. i believe people said you can use a screwdriver with a socket adapter (think theres a specific name for the tool) and do it by hand with that, but i got an in/lb torque wrench from oreillys to make sure they were to spec