The bolt on the left side closest to the fan (when facing the car from the front) won't go back in, the hole is stripped. How unsafe is not having that bolt there?
The threads on the bolt look pretty worn down but inside the hole I can't see any threads, looks practialy smooth. I thoguht about taking out another one and comparing them but I'm scared the rest might be stripped too. Just hope it survives the 200 mile trip back to college. Plus my charging light is on. If the rest of the bolts in the head are stripped and my alt dies, it's new engine time.
one less valve cover bolt going to hurt?
Re: one less valve cover bolt going to hurt? (madbouncy)
I'm missing one valve cover bolt (stripped) and have had no problems. At worst, it might ooze a tiny bit of oil, but it hasn't caused any issues for me. It's not an area that sees any kind of oil pressure really, just lots of oil splashing about.
I'm going to get a Helicoil kit and fix it come Spring. The fun never ends.
I'm going to get a Helicoil kit and fix it come Spring. The fun never ends.
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Axel Grungy
- Posts: 4711
- Joined: Tue Jul 08, 2003 8:13 am
- Car: 2001 G20 5spd
- Location: Cincinnati OH
Re: one less valve cover bolt going to hurt? (madbouncy)
get a 6x1 mm tap and tap the hole
Re: one less valve cover bolt going to hurt? (xero1)
Good to hear. It made it back to school fine, I didn't really go easy on it either, did at first but after that I was like, well if it's going to break I might as well be having fun while it breaks. I'll just get a helicoil kit, never used one before though. Need to look up how to figure out what size one to get. You know off hand xero1? I'm not really sure what 6x1 mm means, sorry.
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Redline240
- Posts: 892
- Joined: Sun Dec 08, 2002 1:34 pm
- Car: 95 240sx
Re: (Redline240)
Yeah I didn't see mine leaking at all but it was dark. I'll check again tomorrow morning when I can actually see. I ordered a helicoil kit, had to go to 4 stores to finally find somebody that could at least order one in. He said it woudl be in the next morning though. $35 though, doesn't even come with a drill bit but it needs a 1/4inch one and I figure I can find one, or wait till I go home and I know I have on there. It came with 12 coils though, so I might just take all teh bolts out of my cover and see if I need to do it to any others.
Re: (Redline240)
Same here. Its leaking oil enough to make my oil go low. I didnt realize it was leaking, so I dont know how long this has been happening.Redline240 wrote:I lost the center one on back, ever since it's been leaking a little down the back of the engine and on the transmission...gonna replace it while its off the road...
Redline
Are there any clamps or anything to help out?
Re: (Neejay)
Are you sure that's your only leak? I find it hard to believe you're losing that much oil from one valve cover bolt. Like I said, it's not like the oil is under pressure at that gasket.Neejay wrote:
Same here. Its leaking oil enough to make my oil go low. I didnt realize it was leaking, so I dont know how long this has been happening.
Are there any clamps or anything to help out?
Anyway, I suppose you could uhhhh...use a zip tie. I guess it wouldn't melt. Personally, if you're losing that much oil from that leak, I'd fix it properly.
I might put a helicoil in all of my valve cover bolts. It's really easy to damage the aluminum head, and if you're going to be taking the valve cover off more than once, it's probably worth it just to do the helicoil. Those things are pretty damn cool.
Re: (BadMojo)
Yeah, if you could see the oil residue where I guess I stripped the bolt, you'd understand. You can see the oil seeping from valve cover.
And I tried to research a little bit on helicoil...but how the hell does that work?
And I tried to research a little bit on helicoil...but how the hell does that work?
Re: (Neejay)
In a nutshell, you drill out the hole, tap it, thread in the spring-like insert and there you have it. You've got something to thread that bolt in (the coils) and it'll be stronger than the way it was before it got all ****ed up.Neejay wrote:Yeah, if you could see the oil residue where I guess I stripped the bolt, you'd understand. You can see the oil seeping from valve cover.
And I tried to research a little bit on helicoil...but how the hell does that work?
They come with instructions. Just be mindful of the little bits of metal when drilling.
Re: (BadMojo)
Except that a ziptie would provide basically zero compression. Each bolt puts down over 1000 lbs of clamping force on the cover against the head. I agree that missing a single bolt shouldn't lead to an immediate leak. If it does, then the gasket probably wasn't in very good shape to begin with.BadMojo wrote:Anyway, I suppose you could uhhhh...use a zip tie. I guess it wouldn't melt.
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azncorruptedo17
- Posts: 1031
- Joined: Sun Jun 20, 2004 4:37 pm
- Car: 1991 Nissan 240sx SE
Re: (DAEDALUS)
just shut it with silicon... high temp silicon from autozone or something
the Orange silicon. should help in case any oozing from the oil
haven't checked the replies maybe someone already mentioned this?
the Orange silicon. should help in case any oozing from the oil
haven't checked the replies maybe someone already mentioned this?
Re: (DAEDALUS)
Its a fairly new gasket. But Im missing one bolt, and another one (or 2) are stripped. So does that mean the screw is stripped, or the hole?DAEDALUS wrote:Except that a ziptie would provide basically zero compression. Each bolt puts down over 1000 lbs of clamping force on the cover against the head. I agree that missing a single bolt shouldn't lead to an immediate leak. If it does, then the gasket probably wasn't in very good shape to begin with.
EDIT: Good idea azncorruptedo17.
Re: (DAEDALUS)
Yeah I think I'm just going to do all the bolts around the valve cover. I don't really want to drill through the valve cover and tap it too. So I'll just wait till I get home and take it off and see how many are messed up. What usually causes this? just like overtorqued bolts or would it just happen over time? When I pulled out the bolt it had all the shavings on it and there was some alluminum in the bottom of the bolt. I didn't think about it at first till I tried to put it back in and it just went strait down all the way and I was like, oh ****, I broke it, in which case I chased the cat with a hammer threatning to shave it.
Re: (madbouncy)
Yeah, overtorqued bolts would easily do it. If you've ever looked at the torque specs for the valve cover bolts, they're very low. Aluminum is pretty damn soft compared to the bolt you're putting in there, as Daedalus said. It's pretty common, I think.madbouncy wrote:What usually causes this? just like overtorqued bolts or would it just happen over time? When I pulled out the bolt it had all the shavings on it and there was some alluminum in the bottom of the bolt.
Just Helicoil 'em all and you'll never have to worry about it again.
Re:
Yeah it's only like 29lbs I think or something. I looked up the helicoil stuff, it sounds easy enough, aslong as I can drill strait (no drinking that day) and I should be good. Now if only I could get the god damn company to get my coilovers in, they said a week and it's been about 6. Yippy for having to ship stuff from japan. They said it cleared customs and shipped last monday, so hopefully it'll be in this week so I can do it over christmas break. Yeah I'm probably stupid for sticking with the shop but they were nice, cheapest and the closest. Plus when I go I'm going to complain until they fix my car. After I get the coilovers paid for and in my car of course, so they don't try and just kick me out after I ***** at them for awhile.
29...in-lbs? Definitely not 29 ft-lbs, maybe 5 ft-lbs or thereabouts. Make sure you're looking at the right units in the FSM, they give values for 3 systems as I recall. Maybe the aluminum's a different mix, but on my car when I overtorque the bolts they just shear off, and then I have to get an extractor on the shank, but if one or the other does strip it'll be the aluminum.
Re: (DAEDALUS)
I'd double check before I did the work, but I'm seeing 5.1-8 ft lbs of torque. This first number listed is newton meters, the second metric and the third is in ft lbs.
Re: (BadMojo)
Yeah you're right about the torque, it is really low near that. I must've read it wrong. Usually why I try to have the manual next to me if I do any work on the car. Though I didn't even have a chance to use the torque wrench, just sat there with the stock spinning it thinking, hmmmm, something odd here... It's weird because they give the torque in inch lbs rather than ft. lbs. Crazy bastards.