Stupid me tried to work on my car again. I broke two of the five bolts that hold the valve cover on, I used a torque wrench and followed the manual saying5ft-lbs but they still break. They broke right at the top of the thread and the threads are inside the head right now. For the moment I used a gasket sealer to just stick the bolts on so nothing falls into my head. What am I sopost to do now? Can I start the car to drive it to get it fixed? I think in these cases that you drill out the hole again,retapthe hole with a tap and dye set, thenreplace the bolt but I am gonna have to have a shop do it because I don't have the tools and I don't want to have to tow my car to the shop. Is it ok to drive for now?

 

is it leaking oil? if it's not leaking oil, I would say you can drive it to a shop, i do not see a reason why you couldn't... if it's not leaking now, it will eventually start leaking...

You could go and find you a set of easy outs, it's a special drill but that you drill into the broken piece of bolt, and then you reverse the drill and it backs the bolt out, probably best if you have an impact/hammer drill for that one though incase the threads are stuck or something... Not sure where you get easyouts, either auto parts store or sears.

or I suppose you could get a tap and die set and drill the bolt out, and re-tap the hole... Easy Outs are the better way to go though. You can also you healacoils, you would drill out the hole just big enough that the proper healacoil would fit, purchase the same replacement bolt, and your good to go, again, Easyout is the best way to do it... re-use the original holes.

 

Ok that helps thank you. I don't know if it is going to leak or not yet because I haven't started it since I broke them and I am kind of scared to try.

 

My parents were in town and I called and ask them to pick up new bolts for me and the ppl at the store need to know what the thread pitch of the bolts were, do you happen to know?

 

you should really get the actual valve cover bolts. You can get them from Honda.

 

Yea I know that but from me telling my mother over the phone to tell someone who works at advance auto what I need doesn't work very well and I need my car to go to work tomorrow, I would like it if advance had the bolts I need instead of waiting until tomorrow and driving30 mins to the honda dealer and paying out the *** for 2 bolts.

 

You should be able to get the bolts out with a screwdriver. Just try pressing into the bolt adn turning it out. It has worked for me quite a few times.

 

Like the thread is the only think left in the hole right now, I don't know if I have a screwdriver that small butI will try it tomorrow when it gets light outside again. I just need to get the new bolts from honda and I think I will be alright aside from my dad yelling at me for this for about an hour already. Also, something happend to my spark plug wires, the part that goes into the tube had like metal inside it and I pulled the wire out and the metal sayed connected to the spark plug instead of disconnecting from it and comming out with the rest of the wire, I just put the wire back in the way it was hopfully it makes the connection again or do I need new plug wires too? I hope not because I just had these replaced for free but I'm guessing they were a cheap knockoff brand or something.

 

Ok I got one of them out okay using a screwdriver and the other one is about one more turn away from me being able to get plyers on it but it doesn't want to turn anymore. I think if I have to I will cover up the valvetrain and then make a line in it with a dremel so I can get the screwdriver on it better. I'm probably just going to replace the spark plug wires before I turn it over again also. That helped a lot guys thank you.

 

chances are they won't stock those bolts anyway. Call them and ask them to order them for you. Around here the dealers place their parts orders on Tuesday afternoons and the parts come in on Thursday.