- This topic has 74 replies, 20 voices, and was last updated 12 years, 7 months ago by
.
-
Topic
-
-
Replies
-
Yea, he’s in the country. I know my mom had to get her two valve cover gaskets and her main seal gasket replace and Toyota charged $2200…I think he charged $600.
It’s been two days and he hasn’t called me yet. I’ll just call him sometime Monday!
Quoted From yarddog1950:
Go back to page 3 and read Beefy’s advice. That’s what I would do. I’ll tell you why. Eric and College Man and the Corvette fellow speak from experience and offer good advice too.
I had to deal with this problem with a DOHC aluminum head in the early 1970’s, and I made sure I never had to deal with it again. I invested a lot of time and what seemed to be real money back then (don’t ask) trying to get the broken bolt out of an aluminum cyl head before I found I should have pulled the head off straight away. I think you ought to pull the head, and learn how to do this. It’s not that difficult and the knowledge will be beneficial to you for decades (unless internal combustion engines disappear).
Having broken a cam tower bolt myself, I became the guy to help out every “new B” that broke one subsequently. I have not worked on late model DOHC engines much, but I worked on them when very few mechanics were willing to do so.
The head will probably have to be removed. Why waste time?
There is another skill beginners need to acquire. When you use a forum like this, beware of advice that seems merely to be very well thought out. When I was 20 something, I was full of advice like that – brilliant stuff! (I was full of it, all-right.) But I hadn’t tested much of it against reality.
When someone tells you to do such and such, and he doesn’t tell you that it worked for him, that’s because HE HASN’T TRIED IT YET. Old guys may be just as willing to share great ideas, but young and old, careful teachers will tell you how the remedy has been tested, or how it has not.This man speaks common sense! As usual.
Well, I called the guy today and he said he couldn’t get it out. So he removed the head and took it to a machine shop this morning. So far, he said it will be $400 since he removed the head. Now the machine shop has to remove it.
So the guy called me today. He said the machine shop took the bolt out and helicoiled it so that’s good. He did say that somehow the vtec solinoid wasn’t working and something else along with a new head gasket so that’s around $250 plus the $125 for the machine shop. Right now I’m looking at $800…
ouch so far. I take it that the garage sent everything to
the machine shop. when done the garage will put everything
back together.Yea, he sent the head to the machine shop to get the bolt out. I think it’s $800 for everything and he’s going to install the header to since he had to remove the exhaust manifold anyway so that’s good. I just don’t know how the vtec solenoid broke…
Something to seriously consider: Since the stud that broke was obviously (unless you over-torqued it) made of metal that has failed, you might want to replace all four of them with new ones. Metal fatigue on one bolt is a good indicator that the rest of the studs are in similar condition. I’ve been down this road before with caliper bolts, where one would just keep stretching even though your torque wrench said it was fine and then “SNAP!” I know you’re broke, but 4 new studs is going to cost a lot less than another head removal and a helicoil.
Yea, the thing is that it was a brand new bolt that snapped, I actually got it from Honda that day. I will let the mechanic put back everything. He said that it was way over torqued, but I read it in the Helms manual that it was 16 ft lbs. I’ll ask him tomorrow what he’s going to torque it as. I’ll try to get a picture of what I’m talking about in the actually manual.
Here is what it says in the manual:
[url=https://dl.dropbox.com/u/36703253/Civic/ETCG/Rocker%20Torque.jpg:1tiiebpd]
It is bolt number 8 and I know the bolt is 8 x 1.25 since I measured it and I also put it into one of those hole things that ACE has if you have any idea what I’m talking about. So since it is 8 x 1.25 it says the torque is 16 ft lbs. So I don’t know. I also torqued the other bolts, maybe 2 or 3 just to see if it was at 16 ft lbs and when I did they all make the torque wrench click almost immediately indicating that they were at least 16 ft lbs. So I don’t know.
This will be a saga that you will remember forever, and it will make you wiser and more humble and more understanding when things don’t go as planned in the future. Many of us have been there before, I know I have. Stuff like this happens, more often than you would think.
There is always a solution, but in my experience the easy solutions are not so common.
Yea, I know. Too bad it is going to cost me $800. At least I don’t have to buy a new head so that’s good.
Those low torque settings are hard to judge many times unless you have a smaller torque wrench, the bigger ones don’t register the lower numbers as well. The rule of thumb is to use the torque wrench that has your target number somewhere in the middle of it’s range for best results.
My butt hurts just thinking about this thread. Thanks for keeping us up to date.
Yea, I only have a 1/2 inch so 16 ft lbs is on the low end. I saw the torquing head bolts countless times 🙂
Well, an update today. Went to Honda got the head gasket, vtec solenoid, and an air assist valve. Then I drove 25 miles to the shop that I’ve never been to and gave him the parts. Well, apparently Honda gave me the wrong part and it wasn’t the vtec solenoid that needs to be replaced, but the VTC oil control valve. I honestly think one of their mechanics broke it since it’s plastic and just forgot to disconnect it, but oh well.
So I went back to Honda and returned the vtec solenoid and they will have the VTC oil control valve tomorrow (it seems they never have the part…ever). At least the VTC oil control valve was around $50 less so that’s good.
So tomorrow I will go by Honda again and get the VTC oil control valve and bring it to the shop. He said that everything should be back together by tomorrow.
It was really cool looking at my head/intake manifold laying out on the bench and looking at the pistons etc, etc.
Now, I’m off to see the domestic vs import video..seems quite interesting and very controversial as well.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.