Maverick and Comet Forum Archives - General Maverick/Comet Discussion www.fordmaverick.com

#1 greg Broken bolt  
:slap:I feel like an idiot. Tonight I was putting the Mav back together (had to get leaky radiator fixed) while the car was warming up so the thermostat would open I saw that oil was seeping out of one of the valve cover bolts on the left side. I tightened it up and all was good. Then I saw the same thing on the bottom front bolt on the right valve cover. Well guess what I broke the head off of the bolt.

In all your professional opinion's is this thing going to be OK to drive to work in the morning about a 30 min drive. I drove it for about 10 min tonight and it is just still seeping out of the broken bolt on the the exhaust no major leakage. I won't need to drive it again until Friday then next week I can try and get the bolt out of the head.:disappointed:
Message created at 12/18/11 06:46 PM
#2 Mavericknutt Re:Broken bolt  
It should be fine for that Greg
Message created at 12/18/11 08:45 PM
#3 greg Re:Broken bolt  
Thanks the more I thought about it I figured it would be. I hate broken bolts.
Message created at 12/19/11 01:13 AM
#4 Grabber5.0 Re:Broken bolt  
That sucks. Hopefully it won't be too difficult to remove.
Message created at 12/19/11 08:53 AM
#5 greg Re:Broken bolt  
I am going to attempt to drill a small hole into it then use an easy out. All with out removing the valve cover. Probably won't get to it till Saturday or one day next week.

I will keep you all updated because I know this is riveting stuff that keeps people up at night.
Message created at 12/20/11 10:03 PM
#6 greg Re:Broken bolt  
Well got the bolt out. Did not come easy. I drilled the center(almost) with a 7/64 bit and tried a #2 easy out. It would not budge. After many attempts went to 5/32 bit and #3 easy out. It felt like I was going to break the extractor so I thought I would just drill out the bolt went with a 1/4 and this is where things went from bad to worse. When all was done I got half of the bolt out in one piece and the other half in shavings and the hole was a little egg shaped now. I re-tapped and was able to get a new bolt in. This time I applied some RTV seal to each bolt in hopes that oil does not weep out of the bolts this time and that I will not be tempted to over tighten them. I have let the RTV sit over night before starting the car to check for leaks so hopfully tomorrow all will be fine.
Message created at 01/01/12 06:52 PM
#7 Grabber5.0 Re:Broken bolt  
Glad to hear you got it out. At least it is just a valve cover bolt and not something that requires a lot of torque. Let us know how it goes.
Message created at 01/02/12 10:01 PM
#8 greg Re:Broken bolt  
Have drove the Mav the last two days and the valve cover bolt is holding on with no leaking. I guess goes to show enough permaseal can stop almost any oil leak.
Message created at 01/06/12 08:36 PM
#9 maverick racer Re:Broken bolt  
Permaseal works wonders.:clap:
Message created at 01/06/12 10:51 PM