Broken valve cover bolt(Worst)

[Howdy_Doody]

You could JB weld in a stud into the head, then just use a nut and washer...

 

[Lightning]

Well, we were thinking of get a helicoil and put rtv around helicoil and under the valve cover bolt shoulder. Then just screw the bolt in. Do you guys think that can prevent from getting coolant in the engine?

Best options at this point:

1) Take the head off, take to shop and have them repair it properly

2) Take the head off, install new one bought from someone here

3) Sell the car to someone with mechanical ability to prevent further damage to this collectable

 

[LOUDSHO92]

Short of removing the head and having a shop repair it I think solid key inserts would be your best bet: Solid Key Inserts

I hope they would make a good enough seal though.

Seems like you have your work cut out for you.

 

[RAYJAY]

Short of removing the head and having a shop repair it I think solid key inserts would be your best bet: Solid Key Inserts

I hope they would make a good enough seal though.

Seems like you have your work cut out for you.

basically the same thing as I'm describing, but you use a cut off bolt with either loctite shaft lock on the threads or jb weld on threads like plumber's dope

we plug a lot of holes like this in our cast iron at work when we pull threads out, the helicoils really don't hold great in cast iron

Jeff

 

[K-Dawg]

Sounds like this engine doesn't have much more life in it.

 

[FastAndFurious]

Haha. My dad and I finally fixed it. Just put the helicoil in and stuff valve cover bolt with rtv. That's been working so far. So leaking or anything.

 

[RAYJAY]

Haha. My dad and I finally fixed it. Just put the helicoil in and stuff valve cover bolt with rtv. That's been working so far. So leaking or anything.

question is how do you know its not leaking...... keep checking your oil for antifreeze

Jeff

 

[FastAndFurious]

Yeah I'll keep checking oil. Do you know any symptoms that show you if it's leaking or not?

 

[SuperHO]

I hate to say it, but I'm gonna anyway....I toldja so. Next time, just RTV the bolt to the valve cover and call it good. You've got plenty of other bolts to hold the puppy down.



To answer your question, coolant mixing with oil with come up milky looking. it'll almost look like really pale caramel. Probably pretty frothy, too. It'll smell sweet, like antifreeze. Chances are, if you saw coolant when you poked a hole in the head, you're gonna be leakin coolant into the oil...which is a bad thing.

Check and see if JB Weld or Qwiksteel can bond with aluminum. If not, find something that can and patch the hole. After you get the hole band-aided up, RTV the damn bolt down and drive the car until the patch gives way and kills the engine...then do a 3.2/MTX swap and call it good.

 

[K-Dawg]

Your patch probably isn't going to hold back 16psi of coolant, so eventually the car will start to overheat.

 

[FastAndFurious]

Hope it will hold back the coolant. It's been running ok so far. I always check engine oil before I take off. If there's any coolant leaking, I'm going to swap head or do something else for it.

 

[yamahaSHO]

Personally, at this point, I would just look for a junk yard head and swap it. We've done it before and it was probably the best fix. We did it for other reasons, but that'll probably be the "safest" bet.

 

[FastAndFurious]

I'll have to fix fuel quick-disconnect soon too. I'm thinking about taking off the intake and fix both of them at the same time. I'm broke so I don't know when I'm going to do it tho.

 

[platoribs]

You could just continue to drill down until your out the other side of the engine, maybe the oil pan. Now if any of that pesky antifreeze works it's way out of where it's supposed to be it'll just fall out the bigger hole in the bottom.

Be sure to tak lots of sharp right hand and left hand turns to make sure you slosh out all the antifreeze.:wave: