johnd311

Guys/Gals,

I had the fortune of snapping one of the valve cover bolts as I was tightening them up a bit today, so I thought I would share a cheap and easy solution in case this happens to anyone else.

I went to Ace Hardware and grabbed the Irwin 53701 extractor kit (about 5 US $) which includes an EX-1 spiral screw extractor as well as a 5/64" drill bit. The broken portion of the bolt which remained was protruding a bit and didn't sit flush, so I made a small indentation in the middle of the broken bolt shaft with a hammer and a tapper, and then I drilled a little less than 1 mm deep into the broken bolt with the 5/64" bit. I then worked the spiral screw extractor into the hole I made in a counter clockwise direction until I couldn't turn it by hand anymore. I grabbed a small adjustable wrench and continued to torque the screw extractor counter clockwise with my wrench parallel to the extractor in order to increase the surface area contact between the tool and the extractor, which is quite small. Eventually, I could feel the broken bolt tug loose as I torqued the extractor into the bolt, and I was then able to pull out it with my hand the rest of the way.

Hope this helps one or more people. Next time I torque my valve cover bolts down, I will be more careful.