Rounded a head bolt

Putting my heads back on this weekend, and hit a small snag on the driver's side. One of the bolt heads rounded, the one in the back of course by cylinder 6 exhaust. It's about 20 degrees shy of making the second 90 degree turn. Should I just go on and risk it? I may try to find a 15/32" 12 point which is just under 12 mm to see if it will fit. I'm kind of running out of time on getting this back together.

 

Can you tack weld a cheap socket onto it

 

Do not take a chance, try to remove with the smaller socket and replace with new bolt, if you can not get it out, more drastic measures are needed, carefully drill bolt head off, remove all the other bolts, remove head, then remove the stud, start over...not fun by any means...

 

You could mark the head of the bolt with an awl/chisel/etc and put a little paint on it and take some pictures. Then recheck after a few hundred miles to see if it's loosening at all. Not sure if this is best, but if you don't want to disassemble everything, then it might be worth a shot.

With thread pitch of 1.25, if you are off by 20 degrees, that's 0.07mm difference from other bolts, but keep in mind that the bolts are designed to stretch and there is probably some variance in how far each bolt is in after the initial torque. That and the gasket will allow for some slight variance.

The bolt must have already been pretty tight for it to strip assuming you cleaned the bolt holes well and oiled the threads and washers.

 

I don't have a welder so that's not an option. Yeah I cleaned out the bolt holes and oiled the threads and under the bolt head as per the FSM. I also put a paint mark on the head and I was using one of those angle torque gauges, this one from Autozone. I think my Craftsman socket starting wearing down as I look at it now. I found a 15/32" 12 point online and ordered it, although I'm not confident that's going to work. I may be able to get one of my Irwin bolt grip sockets on it if I want to back if off, may be. Cutting the head with a Dremel would be a distant second as that would screw up the loosening pattern I believe. I'm kind of wondering why Toyota goes with a 12 point bolt there? I had this vision of driving it tomorrow, not happening.

 

Take a large pair of vise grips. Clamp them on tight as possible, hammer the bolt head over the needed amount (if there's room). Or find a slightly smaller socket, sae or metric, beat it over the rounded bolt head, then torque it the rest.of the way, you can just leave the socket on there if.you have to. I've removed a bunch of lug nuts that way

 

Although these are possible stopgap solutions, it does not solve the ultimate problem, a stripped head on the bolt....best to do it right, why take a chance that the head gasket will fail because of improper /not enough torque, cause, if it does, you got to take it apart again anyway...

 

Take it off out a new one on.

Do it right the first time

 

^^^^^this

 

Here's the culprit. Yeah, I always want to do it right, in this case though it's going to take some effort and time, which I'm short on as I'm getting transferred in a few weeks and have all the moving stuff to handle. Getting some vice grips on there is about impossible. Would you guys try to back that one out only or go through the entire loosening process, pull head, replace gasket, install eight new bolts?

 

get a bolt extractor, its a socket used for problems like this. you just take a hammer and knock it on and than use a socket wrench and turn it off. not so bad it has happened to us a couple of times rebuilding motors.

 

Id di the eighf bew bolts

 

Your out near the last of the tightening sequence so just tighten the bolt. If you remove all of the bolts you will need a new gasket set.$$$$$

 

Do precisely this. ^^^^^^^^
Here is a link. http://www.sears.com/craftsman-10-pc-damaged-bolt-nut-remover-set-low/p-00952166000P

 

Yeah, thanks for the link. I actually have a Craftsman bolt remover kit like that one although not the low profile version. I also have the equivalent Irwin kit. I've used them in the past on exhaust nuts and they worked well, in this case though, they're not biting down on the bolt head, just turning. I'm waiting for the seemingly rare 15/32 " socket to arrive. I may try to touch the edges of the bolt up with a fine Dremel bit to give the bolt remove something to grab onto.

 

You shouldn't need to do anything to make the bolt remover work, I've used the craftsmans on totally destroyed by vice grips bolts.

Get a clicky torque wrench, the needles ones suck. Unless you're looking dead on you may not be getting the torque you think you are, and just as good odds you're getting a lot more and rounding heads

 

I agree with Indy. If you can't get it out with a bolt remover...........the bolt is waaaaaaay over torqued or stuck.
I hate the 90 degree angle bullshit. I usually do the first one, put a torque wrench on it, figure out what the torque value is and go from there. Who ever came up with the bolt stretch crap needs to be beaten. Make sure the threads are well lubed and you won't have a problem.

 

When I torqued mine I had an old used socket and a new one, both Craftsman. The new one was much tighter, so I used that. So for anyone else doing this job, make sure your socket is nice and tight.

 

the key is stop using 12pt sockets. go buy good 6pt and call it a day

 

The head bolts have 12-point heads!!!!!!