The other day Gary decided to tackle a job on his other car (a Vauxhall Astra) that he felt suffered from a failing head gasket. Although not a Stag project one aspect of the task is something that many a car owner has suffered a some time. A bolt that proved impossible to ‘spanner out’ and in trying to do so you ruin the bolt head or it snaps off. To quote Gary ‘The Astra thinks it’s a Stag!”
Here’s what happened and how he overcame the problem.
The offending bolt was a star headed one which his air wrench failed to move. Plan B a neighbour’s 500n/m (389 lbs/ft) wrench stripped off the splines.
Grind off the head using a Dremmel and a Carbide Burr. Gary could not believe how hard the stretch bolts were.
Carbide Burr
As the picture shows access space around the bolt head is very limited.care needed to ensure the head casting was not damaged.
Limited access space
With the bolt head ground off the cylinder head could be removed. The picture shows the stretch bolt still firmly screwed into the block.
Gary then welded a nut to the stitch bolt and with a socket and some muscle power the bolt was removed. He felt that the heat from the welding traveling down the shaft of the bolt also helped to break the ‘seal.
As he commented, the final score was;
Gary 1; Bolt 0
