Valve cover bolt go SNAP!

[HopefulSHO]

So we're doing the upper 60k on a friend's SHO today, and as I was torquing down the valve cover bolts...one of the small ones on the side of the timing chain goes snap!

Go figure. Wasn't giving it that much torque either.
Anyone have one of these buggers?

Tanks,

Jeremy

 

[BenSwanson]

i think josh at sho nut has a set of four of them. same thing happened to me, i just drilled it out and put a bolt and 2 nuts on it, so far no leaks!

 

[sdpatt]

Those valve cover bolts don't take much torque. You can overdo it with the pressure from one finger. The required 8-11 lb-ft can be easily exceeded with disastrous results. An excerpt from my procedure with cautions from my own "lessons learned" is shown below. I have made both of the mistakes listed in this paragraph.

46. Install the valve cover bolts and washers (place the best looking bolts on the forward valve cover) and carefully torque them to 8-11 lb-ft (96-132 lb-in). DO NOT over torque the valve cover bolts. This can result in the either the bolts shearing or the aluminum threads in the head stripping. Neither is desirable.

<small>[ May 30, 2003, 08:52 PM: Message edited by: sdpatt ]</small>