Rounded head bolt

parchisi

New Member
Apr 13, 2006
519
1
0
New Mexico
One head bolt left, and its rounded off. I've tried everything. :mad: I hammered a 14 mm socket on there, but that twisted right off, I tried those sockets with the teeth and the reverse thread, but those didn't work either....not sure what to do outside of welding another hex head on there, but I don't have a welder. Thanks for any input guys.
 
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well, it worked. Ground off the head of the bolt with an angle grinder so that it was loose, then I ground a slot in it and used a screwdriver to screw it out. Got the head off. A good chunk of the piston broke off and rattled around in there. Chucks of the piston are imbedded in the head and the piston, is of course, completely shot. The cylinder wall is still ok, just needs to be honed since there's aluminum kinda melted to the side. Hopefully the head can be repaired, but the damage seems kinda extensive. I got some pictures, but i'm too drunk righ tnow to post them. I'm goinng to bed. 'nite folks.
 
Unless the head is cracked, it can probably be fixed. Get in touch with AFR and see what they have to say, or hit up a local welding/machine shop for an estimate. Chances are, they'll do some welding and machining on the combustion chamber to make it "normal" again. If they're doing that, make sure they CC the chamber to ensure it's still within spec.
 
Cars sitting at home, I'm at school. Head's getting repaired by AFR and got a new piston and rings ordered. Cylinder's got some aluminum stuck to the side of it, but my machine guy said I can just carefully scrape it off and it'll be good. I'll probably be able to get to it at end of June after I graduate and spend a few weeks in Europe. I can't wait to get it back on the road.

Also going to install one of those boost timing controller doodads since it seems to like to detonate. Only question is if I want to use a cometic head gasket again. I had just switched to Cometics and it blew up the piston rather than just blowing the gasket like it did before.

I was getting kinda frustrated with it for a while and thought about giving up, but taking a break from it for a while has gotten me motivated again. Since the engine is out of the car, it also gives me the opportunity to patch up a few oil leaks that have been bugging me too.