Snapped Camshaft bolt, what not to do when installing rocker arm stopper

[spoonman]

My rocker arm stoppers from Tomei arrived today, according to the installation instruction that come with them, they say to torque to 11.8Nm the cam nuts, at this low setting i discovered the hard way to make sure the wrench does not move higher then this setting, which happened just by handling it.. One of the bolts snapped on me.

Has this happened to anyone before?
were you able to get the broken bolt out or did you have to drill and tap a new one.

I have now removed all the bolts holding the intake caps on, the FSM says to tighten in a specific order which is all good, but the cam is sitting up at the back by about 2mm, is this normal due to the weight of the cam gear and chain?

 

[andeep]

Could you use a screw extractor tool?

I think that the head is ally and the bolt is steel, so you should be able to weld a nut onto the bit that's broken off without it welding to the head.

 

[craig8585]

You will be able to get that out fairly easily. Something like this will do it fairly easily I would have thought..

http://www.google.co.uk/products/ca...a=X&ei=Ro2cTdGnDJOt8QPC2I3sBg&ved=0CGQQ8gIwAA#

 

[Hypnotik]

It's probly raised because it's not seated all the way and one of the lifters is holding it up. If you finish torquing it down it should seat properly.

 

[spoonman]

broken stud came out easy enough, problem now is the intake cam is sitting high and pulling into the center, i take it this is due to the tension on the chain, can i just push the cam back into its seat? or will i damage something in the process, the back of the cam goes in easy enough but the front is rather tight and i dont want to damage anything.

 

[mitto]

put blunty... thats BAD. you never want to do that with cams!

you are going to want to REALLY dry the area out using small amounts of brake cleaner. then put a damp NOT wet, rag around the area. drill into the bolt, then hammer in a torque bolt, or something of that kind to crack it off, using a hoover to collect any swarf dropping from the drilling and being very careful not to leave any in the head. The problem with welding is putting that much heat into one spot on the engine, plus, weld spatter on the cams would be pretty catostrophic lol.

when you put the cam back in, follow the torque pattern in slow movements, like half turns on each bolt as it goes in to ensure the cam goes in flat. you will have to pop it back into its seating.

where are you based? if you get stuck, i know a few guys that can come out and fix it for you.

 

[spoonman]

put blunty... thats BAD. you never want to do that with cams!

you are going to want to REALLY dry the area out using small amounts of brake cleaner. then put a damp NOT wet, rag around the area. drill into the bolt, then hammer in a torque bolt, or something of that kind to crack it off, using a hoover to collect any swarf dropping from the drilling and being very careful not to leave any in the head. The problem with welding is putting that much heat into one spot on the engine, plus, weld spatter on the cams would be pretty catostrophic lol.

when you put the cam back in, follow the torque pattern in slow movements, like half turns on each bolt as it goes in to ensure the cam goes in flat. you will have to pop it back into its seating.

where are you based? if you get stuck, i know a few guys that can come out and fix it for you.

Cheers Mitto, i got the broken bolt out easy enough, went and brought a easy out kit, then when i went to punch in the starting hole, i noticed that the broken bit of bolt turned so i tapped it around and around until it came out, as for the cam i put the rest of the bolts into there places and very slowly turned one at a time about 1/4 to 1/2 a turn and went in a pattern of turning the loose ones until they reached tension, the the next and so on, slowly the cam sat back down in its seat, no damage or scratches as far as i can see, guess once the engine goes bang i guess i will know that it didn't go right.

i was not going to go any where near the inside of my engine with a welder, thanks for the offer of help but i live in New Zealand so it might of been a long trip.

 

[mitto]

haha, not bother man. you seem to have got the job done! it's a real cock of a thing to happen, consider yourself lucky you got the snapped bolt out!

 

[spoonman]

i was more worried about the cam seating right, now i just have to find a replacement bolt...