Dead battery, broken exhaust stud, tow ports, gas tanks, welding, carbs.... YIKES!

[m5040]

A suggestion for easier disassembly. Use a quality brand of Never Seize when you disassemble anything. It keeps exhaust parts free for years and dissimilar metals too. It can also be used to protect areas when welding as it seems the molten weld won't penetrate it (do your own test with that). What I mean by that is if the bolt/stud is broken off below the surface, you can Never Seize the tread area and weld up to the surface without damaging the parent material.
JUST KEEP IN MIND THAT WHEN YOU COAT A FASTENER WITH NEVER SEIZE YOU HAVE TO REDUCE THE TORQUE SPEC BY 30% due to the lubrication.

 

[MossRoad]

Bumping for reference

 

[MossRoad]

bumped thread up for reference for another member.

 

[MossRoad]

I've had a broken valve cover bolt for a long time. It's a shoulder bolt, and snapped below the shoulder when I tried to remove it. Very little pressure and just snapped.

So I drilled it out, and promptly snapped off the EZ out in the broken bolt. Grrrr.

Can't drill out the EZ out because it's down in there about an inch, and the broken EZ out is raised. No way to get a drill bit on it, and even if I could, the EZ out is too hard.

I can remove the valve cover and seal it up, but it will start leaking again in a few hours. That drips on the heads and smokes and I'm concerned about a fire. So I only mow about half an hour at a time.

Last week it started smoking really bad, and I pulled in the driveway and it was dripping pretty bad from the bottom of the pan. That much is not coming out of the valve cover, so I have a pretty bad oil leak coming from somewhere else.

So first things first, clean the entire engine and engine compartment and tackle the known leak first.

I found a youtube video of someone with the same problem, and they used a diamond bit hole saw from Harbor Freight. It's not meant for metal, but it works. About $9.

So I bought a few bits of different sizes and settled on the 3/16" bit. Dip it in water, drill for 5 seconds. Dip. Drill. Dip. Drill. Repeat.

About 15 minutes and it was out. Worked pretty well. Went right down around the broken EZ out and ate the softer bolt and part of the EZ out bit as well.

I lost the threads on the hole, of course. So I cleaned it all out, packed it full of JB Weld and the next day I drilled and tapped the hole. To make sure the hole was mostly centered, I drilled a 1/8" hole through the broken shoulder bolt head and used that for a jig. Got the starter hole pretty well centered, and enlarged it with a 5mm drill bit for a 6mm tap.

Cleaned up the valve cover and head surface, put on a fresh bead of gasket material and put it all back together. Waited the appropriate amount of time, snugged it all up, and gave it a try.

Seems to have worked. Mowed for half an hour with no oil leaks from the valve cover. Now I have to figure out where the big leak is coming from.

(click to enlarge)

 

[ponytug]

Nice repair! Exhaust / head bolts breaking off and taps snapping are my personal mechanical nightmares. That diamond drill is a great find!

In general, I'm partial to Helicoils, but it doesn't look like you had the room.

All the best,

Peter

 

[MossRoad]

Thanks. If it doesn't hold, I'm debating the Helicoil route VS replacing the entire head.

Then, if I'm gonna do one head, I might as well do both heads.

And if I'm gonna sink $500 in heads and gaskets into it with over 1000 hours on it, maybe I should go the entire engine route...

It's a vicious circle!

 

[ponytug]

Thanks. If it doesn't hold, I'm debating the Helicoil route VS replacing the entire head.

Then, if I'm gonna do one head, I might as well do both heads.

And if I'm gonna sink $500 in heads and gaskets into it with over 1000 hours on it, maybe I should go the entire engine route...

It's a vicious circle!

I hear you. I lost my old pickup to that cycle. The exhaust manifold developed a crack, which I could not repair in a lasting way, which lead to speaking to engine rebuilders who basically told me to count on having to hire an EDM or ultrasonic bolt remover tech for at least half the bolts on the manifold, which meant pulling the engine and transmission on a rebuilt engine with 400k on it...having someone else do it was half the cost of a new truck...scrap value was the price of tires. Sigh.

Then again, you can get to your engine, and if you rebuild it, you could have fun with the rebuild, nikasil cylinders, tuned up fuel injection, 110 octane, nitrous...oh wait, you want to push snow with it?... maybe not...
I hear that Deutz makes some nice 30HP engines.

All the best,

Peter

 

[ArlyA]

And you think we should buy one of those?

 

[MossRoad]

I hear you. I lost my old pickup to that cycle. The exhaust manifold developed a crack, which I could not repair in a lasting way, which lead to speaking to engine rebuilders who basically told me to count on having to hire an EDM or ultrasonic bolt remover tech for at least half the bolts on the manifold, which meant pulling the engine and transmission on a rebuilt engine with 400k on it...having someone else do it was half the cost of a new truck...scrap value was the price of tires. Sigh.

Then again, you can get to your engine, and if you rebuild it, you could have fun with the rebuild, nikasil cylinders, tuned up fuel injection, 110 octane, nitrous...oh wait, you want to push snow with it?... maybe not...
I hear that Deutz makes some nice 30HP engines.

All the best,

Peter

2003 Suburban has 188,800 on it this morning. It's had a non-functioning O2 sensor in the exhaust manifold since we got it 2 years ago. Mechanic said he can:
a) try and remove it and most likely break it instead
b) drill the manifold, weld on a nut, and insert a new one
c) remove the exhaust manifold and install a new/used one, but probably break exhaust studs in the process
d) just drive around with the check engine light on like everyone else.

I chose plan d.

 

[MossRoad]

And you think we should buy one of those?

Most definitely.