alright. i got a problem. during our long tube install, snuffles and i read a tutorial. it gave directions to torque the header bolts on at 11 then 18 ft. lbs. in the process of the first bolt (second from the back driver side) the head snapped off. yay.

also, when we first got under the hood, we found the furthest header bolt on the driver side was missing.. so we thought. nope the head was missing
so now i have 2 bolts headless in the far back of the driver side headers.

now. i drove the car home about 8 miles or so. thats it, havent touched it since.

so i talked to a local mechanic that works on my parents cars. hes telling me that because of the absence of backpressure i could damage the valve or something or another. (remember im an amateur mechanic lol) they said they have to take a look to see if the bolt is stickin out of the head to remove it. but because its stronger than the aluminum block it could possibly cracked it when it was torqued. this is all theoretical and such.
and that would be a huge problem.

i WAS gonna drive it open headers about 40 minutes away to get a custom ypipe made. but apparently thats a bad idea now too. so i dont know what to do. i need this bad boy running by saturday. and he cant even look at it til wed. so i need to order a ypipe i guess? i dunno i really need some help here... whats my best course of action. what can i do RIGHT NOW to help this situation. if you want to IM me @ saintjezter. leave a message ill get back if im away. thanks.

 

anyone?

 

So the two bolts that are broken are on the same side? I had one broken bolt and it stayed like that for a long time. I didn't have the time to pull it out and fix it. As for driving with open headers to get the Y made. I've seen and heard of many doing it and not having any problems. The only problem that I see is with the O2s They are so close to the exit of the collector you can burn them out if you go for a long period of time on open headers. But if you are just going to the shop you should be fine.

The bolts really need to be fixed and right now I think that's the biggest problem.

 

i dont think its that big of a problem. I mean broken bolts ar an irritation, and in some cases a major setback, but there isnt usually damage besides messed up threads, and i figure it would cause a leak, probably a bad leak, but i have never heard of any valve damage from a leak at the header. I just tightened mine, the torque steps seened unnecessary, i'll just retighten them in a few miles.

i cant help you on the bolt removal though because i havent done it and i dont want to pass second hand information, but i've never heard of anything more than at worst tapping new threads and stepping upt to a bigger bolt.

 

more than likely you're going to have to pull the head and have someone who can weld. they're going to have to get those bolts out somehow, and if the threads are or get messed up in the removal process, get that bolt hole helicoiled.


either way, since its on the back the head will have to come off.

 

This is NOT a minor problem. I would take off the header and see if you can grab the stub with a set of locking plyiers...

If this does not work, you will likely have to pull the head off and get a professional shop to help you get the busted bolts out and fix the threads....

 

its starting to look like i do have to pull the head. either way. the far back bolt has no real stud as far as we could tell. we didnt even know it was there til we tried puttin in the bolts after mountin the header. i talked to a shop and he quoted me 585 to pull the head.. just in labor and said they couldnt do it cuz it would take too long. so im pretty fucked right now. gotta try and figure this out. lol man this sucks... this is my daily driver too. so im in a real pinch here.

 

It's not that hard to pull the head yourself. If you have another car to drive do it yourself. You can download instructions that will walk you threw the hole thing. If you weren't so far I would say bring it here and we could get the head off pretty quick. So take the header back off,pull your intake then pull the head.

 

[QUOTE=robertbartsch]This is NOT a minor problem.QUOTE]

sorry i didnt mean to make it seem like a minor problem, its just the guy heard that the head could be cracked and what not which doesnt seem to be the usual case with broken header bolts. What i really meant was that it may not be as bad as the mechanic was telling him it could be, still a problem though.

 

its all good. ya i called a friend, he said he may know some1 who can help me out. if not, ill have to do it myself with a buddy of mine. lol lets jsut hope we dont mess anything else up. but i really appreciate all the help guys. i want all the facts before i take action. and im hoping i can get my baby runnin by saturday for a local meet.

and thanks 02SOM, ya if i could drive it np id take the trip. but i may have to do it outside and everything. so we'll see what happens. im waitin for a phone call.

 

You're in NJ, call TTP. They should be able to help.

You should have to pull the head.

 

well i got a guy comin over, a friend. he's going to see if a possible drill and easy out will work. im praying it does... but if it comes down to it. ill take the neccessary measures..

 

Hey SaintNJ, if it doesn't work out for ya, give me a ring.

 

will do man. lol lets hope it doesnt come to that. but ill keep ya in mind. thanks