the rear middle cam holder - over-torqued the 2 bolts, they snapped, and i hate my life.

and i also hate this shitty haynes manual...

what can i do about this? i'm half ready to call it quits and tow this piece of **** to import builders.

 

Shoulda bought a Helms, and two steping your torque sequence helps.

Did you use a torque wrench?
And MOST important, did you add oil to the threads and head of the bolt?

 

mask the whole head/area off, and use an extractor on that sob, i had to do it on 2 bolts too cuz the mother ****** tq wrench was broken!!!!

 

yeah we used a torque wrench. and added oil to the threads & head of the bolt...
the haynes said to torque it 86 lbs, but i only did 76 because it sounded a bit much... and it looked like that was still enough to say oomph to my bolt.

 

The same thing happened to me when I was helping reassemble my motor. Had to drill out the part of the bolt stuck in the head. 2 hours of wasted time. Be very careful about metal shavings.

 

OMFG!
Cam Bolts are not supposed to be that much.
Sounds like you applied head gasket torque specs.

 

Woa, 86 ft-lbs is way too much on those little bolts. Go back in the helms and read the torque setting again, should be in inch-lbs. On the bright side, get a good bolt extractor and unless they're in there really good they will come right out.

 

yeah, i seriously need a helms manual

 

just out of curousity, is the car drivable without those two bolts? i mean the cams are already pretty snug, but i'm pretty sure i know the answer.

finals week, what a great time for this to happen...

 

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, yup you knew the answer.

What you need is an INCH POUND torque wrench, the cam bolts on LS engines are 96 INCH/lbs which translates to 8 ft/lbs. I think the VTEC heads are like 14 ft/lbs. Either way you shouldn't use a regular 10~120 ft/lb torque wrench on them. Go get/borrow the right tool for the job, or you'll be sorry.....

 

22 actually.

 

thanks guys... looks like i'll be getting myself an easy out tomorrow morning from OSH,

and i hope acura stocks these little bolts

 

I wouldn't try an easy out to start with!!! I did the exact same thing and this is what I did. Go to your local industrial supply house and get a couple brand new speed steel or cobalt reverse drill bits. Use a drill on very very slow speed and you should be able to turn the peice right out since the head of the bolt is what gives it its staying power. If you try using easy outs you risk making an even bigger mess since there are oil journals down inside some of the bolt holes. May the force be with you...

 

Sometimes you can use the proper torque, do it in two steps, use anti-seize on the threads and the bolt still breaks on you. Never gets any better.

 

Same thing happened to me today **** hayns !!!!Luckly i only broke one bolt one bolt and easily got it out with a reverse thred kit i stole from my pop.....

 

I snapped one those myself, I was kinda freaking out, and didnt know what to do till my boss came by and just unscrewed it with a pick. it should be able to come out easily, without the head on the bolt the threads arent tensioned.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by bradford &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">without the head on the bolt the threads arent tensioned.</TD></TR></TABLE>

That is the key.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by earl &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Sometimes you can use the proper torque, do it in two steps, use anti-seize on the threads and the bolt still breaks on you. Never gets any better.</TD></TR></TABLE>

That makes me feel much better. Don't ask me how I know though

Phil