I took off my spark plug cover to take a peek at my plugs and as I was looking I noticed one of my cylinder head nuts was loose. I call up acura and get the torque specs and they say 8 ft-lbs. As I'm tightening them, one of them snapped off. Im flipping out, they are probably going to rape me on this one. **** this ever happen to anyone?

 

it shouldn't be more than $5.

Can't say I've ever had that happen to me.

Where did it break off? Are you going to have to get the damn thing machined out, or what?

 

that happened to me about a month ago. i havent replaced it yet. it shouldn't affect anything. it shouldn't cost that much. go to acura and see what bolt it is. or you can take off your valve cover and check the bolt to see if you can get it at a store or something. http://www.acuraautomotiveparts.net/...DER+HEAD+COVER

 

What kind of torque wrench were you using and what was it's range?

To acurately measure 8Ft/lbs you should be using a Inch Pound torque wrench or a very HIGH quality foot pounder with a scale that starts at zero.

 

for 8 lb-ft, you really dont need anything else but your hands. it should only be hand tight, then maybe a quarter turn after that and thats it!

 

Its my fault and I'm a dumbass and wasn't thinking. I was using a big sears torque wrench that only went as low as 20 ft-lbs so I figured 12 clicks below the 20 mark would be 8, well I was wrong. I tested it on my bicycle wheel nut and it had no torqing click at all so I just twisted the **** out of it. I wasn't really thinking. To replace the bolt, will they have to take off the cylinder head and stuff or does it go in from under the block?

This isn't the first time that the cylinder head nut was loose, when I first got the car I took off the plug cover and noticed it was loose, it was like halfway off. So I tightened it with a ratched to a reasonable torque (hand tight). Well when I looked today I decided that maybe I didn't tighten it enough last time so I better torque it. I should have never used that big *** wrench for that little nut. Me



[Modified by 97RedTegGSR, 11:01 PM 8/27/2002]

 

You can replace just the stud by itself. Goto Honda/Acura parts and ask them you need the valve cover post/studs. Just remove the valve cover and use a deep socket 10mm to remove whats left. No biggie

 

i've snapped 3 of those damn things, the first two was before the engine rebuild, i bought a complete new set to put on when rebuilding engine, and after i got it back i was putting in my iridium plugs and the top right on plug cover snapped...i went apeshit!!! what i've figured out is that theyre more likely to snap/break when hot. Thankfully iridium plugs supposedly have a 100000mile life, so it'll be a while before i have to look at them again...hopefully!

 

bump.

 

I've snapped one too. They cost like $1 to replace, don't worry about it. I keep an extra in the drawer now just in case

 

I picked up the car today but the part I don't get to tomorrow. Costed me 4.95 plus the 41.00 for them to 'look at it' . They recommended replacing the valve cover gasket too but it was 45.00 so I passed on it. I thought this was going to be some insane job of removing the whole head and **** to replace that stud, thank god it wasn't. Thanks everyone for your replies.