was replacing valve covers. While doing driver side i got too torque happy and over torqued one of the bolts. I heard a crack and it was an instant FML moment. crack is near the front of the car. The crack is at the 9 o'clock position at the bolt in the picture. Do i need a brand new valve cover? think Z1 will just ship me out one for free? lol

 

Of course you need a new one, unless you want your engine to be covered in oil. Live and learn.

 

dcains..live and learn!

well i double checked it and it wasn't a crack. that hairline "crack" is just a groove. I double checked with my old valve cover. no crack at all. what i actually heard was the breaking of the bolt itself. now i have half the bolt inside the valve head.

 

Even worse fml

 

not really. instead of buying a whole new valve cover. i can just buy 2 bolts and extract the busted bolts inside there. saves me about $178

pretty good scare if you ask me.

*fingers crossed extraction of bolts goes ok*

 

Certainly cheaper to replace the bolt, and it should be fairly easy to get out. Good luck.

 

you using a torque wrench, my guess is no

 

I'd buy a full set of new bolts for the valve cover and re-install it with the bolts torqued to FSM spec. Odds are you over-tightened more than just the one that broke and you have some stretched bolts attaching your valve cover now. Torque wrenches are cheap. Even good torque wrenches (i.e., Precision Instruments) aren't that expensive. There's no reason not to be covered there if you're going to be doing your own engine work.

 

Well i went to dealership and bought 2 today. total was close to $8. I broke 2 so i bought 2. but now i'm reading ur post about stretched bolts. This is something new to me. can you elaborate on this?

 

Sure. The reason your bolt snapped was because you over-torqued it. That can happen easily if you don't use a torque wrench and follow the tightening guide and pattern sequence on something like a head or even a valve cover. Since you managed to snap one of the bolts by over-tightening it, I'm guessing you over-tightened the others, causing the bolt to stretch (could be very noticeable, could be hardly noticeable). These aren't grade 8 bolts because they're meant to give so you don't damage the head when you attach them. Personally, I'd never bolt ANYTHING into a head or engine block without knowing the torque specs first, because it's too easy to mess things up. Buying a new set of bolts, using an appropriate torque wrench, OEM gaskets, etc., ensures that you're doing it right and won't run into problems down the road.

 

I never tq valve covers. So unnecessary if you know what you're doing. Try to back them out with a small flathead and replace the broken ones and if it isn't leaking oil then I wouldn't even replace the bolts

/endthread

 

Metal has an annealment point. You went beyond on those two bolts. The others are probably close. The bolts will expand and contact with change in temperature from driving. If another snaps, you might get metal fragments under there. If the cover is sitting crooked from a ghetto install you might warp it once again from changes in temp and cause a leak.

 

UPDATE.

So i extracted the 2 bolts. double checked the cover and wasn't cracked. this time got a proper torque wrench and cleaned up all the old RTV. put some new RTV on around the valve head and installed using the sequence haynes manual called for.