Well im just about done with a head gasket job on my JDM B16A and of course, something had to go wrong... And of course it was the last bolt I had to torque down... It was the cam cap bolt in the very top left corner of the head, by the distributor. It snapped clean in half with a nice 'ping'. Yes, I was using a torque wrench, it was set to 195 in/lb (16 ft/lb).

After removing all the bolts and the cam cap rail I (luckily) managed to get the bolt out by drilling and using a left-hand-twist bolt remover. I then inspected the rest of the bolts... and f***ing s***, almost all of them have MASSIVE amounts of stretch distortion... Then I took off the exhaust cam cap rail. About half of them showed signs of stretching. I guess someone had overtorqued these before...

So, what should I do for replacing all of them?
I have read about people having problems even with brand new oem bolts...
I was thinking of just getting some 12.9 M8x1.25x50 Socket Head Cap Screws and use some properly sized washers. Any good reason not too?

 

Just use ARP Head studs? Is that what you are replacing? I have head of people snapping these (OEM) head studs even at the correct torque. I can't explain it. But I don' think I'd go with anything less than the best.

I may be thinking of the wrong thing. Correct me if I am.

 

Sorry, I guess I wasnt clear. I broke one of the cam cap hold down bolts. NOT a headbolt (Yes, im using ARP).

 

Oh! My bad. Haha. Okay. I see what you're talking about. I can understand that from the original post now. I just got on head studs and stayed there in my mind. I'm not really sure. Seems unusual to me. Never replaced the cap bolts.

 

Anybody?

I went to my local Merit Fastener yesterday and all they had in M8x1.25 50mm long was grade 8.8. I didnt get them because im just not sure if 8.8 would be strong enough...

 

Some yahoo had done same to cpl of bolts on my b16a "spare" head (bought 2nd already built head + installed it + 2 bolts were stretched to point of narrowing in middle also,ugh!) Luckily had 2nd head w/ hardware to replace em. Pretty certain that grade 8.8 will suffice. (grade 10'd be betta,but just don't over torque teh 8.8'z...)

 

I would just get all those cam cap bolts from honda. I've never heard of problems with those, but someone could have over-torqued them. Just replace them all and hope none of the holes strip out. I bought a car before that needed a bunch of heli-coils thanks to some gorilla over tightening everything.

 

Buy them at honda man its worth it

 

I have read several reports of brand new cam cap bolts from honda breaking. Im not taking thrat chance. I have ordered 2 diffeent kinds of bolts from mcmaster carr. Class 12.9 Socket Head Cap Screw, and 10.9 Black Finish Steel Hex Head Cap Screw. Both packs of 25. They were only $7 for each pack. I also picked up some M8 washers, since neither of the bolts have flanged heads. I'm still not sure which ones im going to use...