V8 Cylinder Head Bolts - heeelp!

Have you got an impact wrench and compressor? that should shift them.

Gary

Graeme wrote:

Got a manual one - I'm going to get hold of a wall socket tomorrow before I try it though as the 12 sided ones I have will just tsrip the corners off

Graeme

See if you can put some heat onto the bolt to break the grip. They may have been "loctited" in. Dark straw colour on the bolt head has worked for me in the past. If all else fails to move them (IMHO) its better to get a grinder on the bolt heads and cut them off, get the heads out of the way and use a stud extractor on the bolt shanks. The very worst is to snap the bolt off inside the block as this usually requires some engineering equipment to drill out successfully.

Best of luck.

Hmm. I suspect you've had a water leak as well? Expect the bolts to be corroded in well and truly. If nothing shifts them, it may be down to griding the heads off, and then using a stud extractor or having them drilled out. If they're really really stuck then nothing will shift them.

As a last resort you could try getting the bolts red hot with a welding torch, the heat sometimes releases them.

Alex

Sorry to dissagree with 2 of the posters here, but whatever you do, DON'T grind the heads off. The bolts are more than likely correded into the head (or more to the point, the head will have corroded round the bolt, filling the gap with that gloopy white aluminium oxide stuff). If you cut off the bolt heads, you will leave the shank of the bolt still well and truly stuck into the cyl head, and you will not be able to pull the cylinder heads off the bolts. Heat is probably the only solution here, in combination with an impact wrench and a very well fitting socket (wall drive, impact, 6 point). You need to get lots of heat into the alluminium, rather than the bolt, as the alu expands faster than steel, and will expand away from the shank of the bolt, but it also conducts heat away very well, so you will need a pretty big nozzle on the torch to get enough heat in there.

You tried giving them a good wack with a hammer ???? The bolt heads downwards that is .....

Max

I had this problem with a (don't laugh) Skoda once. My "solution" was a longer extension bar and both hands, at which point the bolt broke off and (Skodas being Skodas) I wrote off the car:-(

Shouldn't that have read............

off and (Skodas being Skodas) I wrote off the car:-)

Possibly, but my old Rapid 130 handled hilariously, and I could forgive most of its other faults and foibles.

It also got the sort of respect in traffic that you usually need a LR for.

So how did you get on with the bolts Graeme?

Finally got hold of a wall sided impact socket yesterday - will be out there Saturday - let you know :-))