Stuck crankshaft pulley bolt, ugh

I thought red was factory?

I had red on my '00 3.4 and on my 2010 IIRC which (to my knowledge) had never been apart, I was the 2nd owner but the original kept meticulous records which I got any nothing in there about it.

I wire wheeled mine and then used blue when putting it back in.

 

Hmm, I don't think Toyota uses red threadlocker? I don't think I've ever seen red threadlocker from the OEM on any of the Japanese cars I've worked on, blue yes & I have seen white stuff.

I'm pretty sure my crank bolt didn't have anything on it, not red that's for sure. If it did it was probably white residue but I don't remember having to clean the threads. U less whatever red equivalent they use dries white but Loctite red dries red. I also didn't put anything on it putting it back on. I know for sure I was the first & only one to take all that apart.

 

I could be miss remembering or they could have been previously worked on.

Either way a little heat and starter bump usually breaks the crank bolt loose without any fuss.

I just recommend having the belt off and the EFI fuse pulled so it doesn't fire up and run with a loose harmonic balancer.

 

I have no clue. Or even if it is red, if its Loctite or another product. All I'm sure of is that red Loctite is very difficult to break mechanically, requiring heat to do so.

Well, based on my experience with seeing folks trying to remove the bolts reassembled with red......

 

I'm not judging the OP's decision on buying that compact impact but it's a waste of time trying to use any compact impact on any stubborn bolt. I think the OP should just put a pipe on the end of his breaker bar since he has the HB holding tool.

I'm not sure how his looks/works but with my homemade tool, I had the handle resting where the air box sits with a rag & a piece of wood under (shown in my pic earlier). That allowed me to use 2 hands on my breaker bar with cheater pipe. It took a lot of force to break that thing loose. My homemade tool didn't bend at all.

And I didn't heat it, I do that when all else fails.

 

Yeah it’s 20 year old truck on it's second engine. It's been apart. Fuck I'm not looking forward to heating this bolt. Anything to be careful of when heating the bolt with a torch? I've tried heating stuck rusted bolts before without any luck, but I was always cautious about heating too much or not enough.

Propane good enough or should I buy map gas?

 

Propane should be okay, it's actually burns hotter than map gas but map gas burns "sticky" which means the heat is more focusable and more heat is transferred to the object within the flame but if you already have a propane torch I wouldn't go out and buy a MAP gas one.

As for things to be careful with, not really anything beyond the obvious, have a fire extinguisher ready, make sure what you're applying flame to isn't oily or ignitable, a cheap $20 IR thermometer from Home Depot helps to make sure you're not overheating or under heating it, make sure your flame doesn't hit anything you don't want burnt or heated up those kinda things.

 

I just don't know what the "harmonic balancer" consists of. It's all just steel parts? Nothing that can be destroyed easily by heat?

I may end up not even doing the timing belt now if this doesn't work out easily soon. The current belt has 45k on it. I just did a head gasket job and the old timing belt is intact and marked from before I took the cam pulleys off.

 

It's two pieces of cast steel, an inner piece that the bolt goes through, a thin rubber dampening ring and the outer pulley.

So long as you focus the heat on the bolt head and don't over heat it you'll be fine, the inner piece won't absorb enough heat to damage the rubber.

If you T belt only has 45k I wouldn't worry about changing it till you're closer to 100k.

I thought you were doing your front main seal or water pump or something.

 

I used a 4ft cheater pipe....still didn't work. The thing was bending like you wouldn't believe. Then I hit the bolt with a torch and it finally gave. One of the best feeling ever when you feel the bolt move.

 

Let's say it's got red loctite on it. What would happen if a guy tried the starter bump?

I'm not considering this, just wondering.

 

More than likely it would still break free, if not then the head on the breaker bar may twist or shear off, worst case scenario it would just bind if the starter torque can't overcome the the bolt torque and effectively nothing would happen.


Why not try the starter bump method though?

That's basically the "go to" easy way.

 

I gotta be sure I do my best not to ruin anything. I've already been torquing hard on this bolt today and hitting it with impact. Last thing I want do is round it off in any way or worse yet, break it.

 

It would be damn near impossible to break that bolt.

It's fine thread forged billet and milled either 3/4 or 7/8 body IIRC. You'd split your socket or shear your bar head before you rounded the bolt head so long as you're using the proper sized 6 point socket.

 

I like that reassurance, thank you. I've got a brand new OEM bolt to replace it with when I get it out. Bummer is that I know I face another potential significant challenge once the bolt is out: remove harmonic balancer. Many people say they just popped off with a little pressure, others had to buy specific tools. I haven't spent anything on the puller yet just in case it comes off easy.

 

They usually do slide off pretty easy, if not a little penetrating oil like PB blaster, Kroil or my favorite Boe-Sheild T-9, let that sit an hour and you can usually walk them off with two hands wiggling or two pry bars.

DON'T LOSE THE KEY BAR, sometimes they like to half stick to the ballancer and half in the crank key way and then drop on the ground and become a pain to locate as it's only a little 3/16"x1" ish piece of hardened steel rounded on one face and it's absolutely critical piece as it takes all the rotational force from the crank and transfers it into the ballancer to run the belts.

It also needs to be put back in as close to perfectly flat as possible or it can make sliding the balancer back on a huge pain, this is easiest done when the keyways are at or close to 12 o'clock before removing the bolt.

Worst case if it doesn't easily slide off you can do the free rental of a 3 jaw puller from O'Reilly's.

If you're in Florida I may be able to come help you or you can bring it to my shop.

 

So @dankgus what's the rest of the story? Inquiring minds and all that.

 

Get the full size half inch earthquake harbor freight. Chances are your compressor isn't putting out the required CFM to get the full impacting power. You can buy high flow couplers to help squeeze out all the CFM you can out of your compressor. Also you can crank up the PSI over what the manual says not to exceed to make up the difference. I routinely go about 15 psi over Max which I believe is 100 PSI for the earthquake. Mine came right off using this setup.

I also have the really beefy socket made for this purpose but for a different vehicle. Those things work like magic.

 

With the radiator out, can use an impact. Need a really good impact though. I use this one. Takes them off nicely.

 

I just did this on my 2.7l because bad balancer.

Worked like a charm.