[Vwdiesel] broken head bolt

[Sandy Cameron]

At 09:07 AM 10/7/02 -0400, you wrote:
 <The way bolts hold stuff together, is that they stretch like a rubber band
and provide a constant clamping force. The're hard to remove under these
conditions, or if siezed. Since its now broken, it will be close to finger
tight (unless siezed).>

How true.

I was looking at a friend's Ford Tempo once that was leaking a bit of oil
from between the head and block at the front, and since it was running all
right, decided to to check the head bolts. The one at the front between 3
and 4 had it's head snapped off right at the level of the top of the head,
and the bolt head was just lying in the pocket loose.

I thought (groan) I would have to take the head off to remove the bolt, but
poked at it with a dental pick, and it moved!
This bolt probably broke on assembly or shortly after, and oil had been
leaking down into it's hole for a long time.

I fiddled it up with the dental pick high enough to grab with needle nose
pliers, and finished removing it with my fingers.

(If it had been tight, I might have arc welded a smaller bolt to it to apply
torque)

Installed a new ford bolt, the leak stopped, and the car ran well for years
until sold.

Sandy