Stuffed Bolts On Spark Plug Cover

[Galois]

ok, so i went to change the plugs yesterday. had about 2 hours of light left so it was always a stupid idea, but me in my ambition just went for it.

took the cover, various hoses and electrical plugs off and started unscrewing the 8 allen key screw things holding the cover on the plugs. got to the end, and unbelievably, the last 2 had had their allen key thread stripped. so what was meant to fit to fit the key was circular.

so after spending an unjustifiable amount of time fiddling desperately with allen key and pliers, gave up, and put it back together.

spoke to a mechanic this morning who said i should use a chisel and hammer to turn it. yay, that can't go wrong at all.

so yeah, thoughts? suggestions?

thanks in advance

[**RB2530**]

spoke to a mechanic this morning who said i should use a chisel and hammer to turn it. yay, that can't go wrong at all.

Hammer and chisel to hammer it out!! ??? Maybe these are the only tools he can use properly.

Is the socket in the head 'completely round'? Sometime you can get away with tapping (gently) an imperial hex driver that is just slightly bigger than the metric size. By hex driver I mean one of the attachments that you find in those screw driver sets you can get. Alternatively get an imperial allen key and cut it down. The you have something to grip onto with vice grips etc.

OR

If the top of the head is raised above the plastic enough you can use a dremel with a small circular blade to cut a slot across the top of the bolt then use a flat blade screw driver to turn it out.

OR

If you are confident enough you could drill the head out so that you can remove the cover. Then you should have better access to what remains of the bolt and use vicegrips to turn it out...

Good luck with it...

[DriftSquad]

drill it out.. then never put the cover back on.. you dont need it. and with it off the coils stay cooler! =)

[rgr34]

drill it, or grind the head off...

[Galois]

thanks for the replies guys, feel a bit better about it now. was never really confident in belting a chisel in the engine bay anyways lol.

so if i drill/grind the head off, how much access will i have to the bottom of the screw?

[08yannch]

thanks for the replies guys, feel a bit better about it now. was never really confident in belting a chisel in the engine bay anyways lol.

so if i drill/grind the head off, how much access will i have to the bottom of the screw?

little to none. u will be able to get the cover of but getting the the remainder of the bolt out of the head will be a pain in the ass.

i had the same problem with mine. dont cut anything u need an assortment of flat head screw drivers and a hammer. first try to hammer a flat head that is slightly larger than the alan key hole so that u can un screw it or if that dont work get a small flat head and get it in-between the outside of the bolt and the cover and hammer away what ur trying to do is just get the bolt to turn a little bit so that the first method i said will work.

grinding and cutting or drilling will be difficult with the bolts being at the back

ok mad082 feel free to under mind my post now

[cheegar]

buy 2 cheap ass allen keys from super cheap and superglue it in the bolt then just buy two more bolts to replace them.

[08yannch]

buy 2 cheap ass allen keys from super cheap and superglue it in the bolt then just buy two more bolts to replace them.

thats a real good idea. do it this way :)

[Munkyb0y]

i had a similar issue with an allen key bolt on my boss kit recently. thread was stuffed, and the hex became rounded in my efforts to get it out.

i used one of these bits. nice an tight, or slightly too big, and hammer it in there. it should grab enough for you to unscrew the bolt.

Edited March 24, 2010 by Munkyb0y

[Galois]

thanks for all the feedback guys. i got talked into trying an "easy out" screw thing. it was like a reverse drill bit. anyways, under surprisingly little drill pressure the top of the screw just sheared off the rest of the screw. And since i'd lost one i gave up and just drilled out the other one. i'll have a look at what's left on the weekend when i actually change the plugs.

not sure what i can do about the stubs, but its probably not worth bothering with.

thanks for the info, there's definitely a lot of options if this happens again

cheers

[mad082]

there may be enough there to grab with a pair of pliers, if not, if you have a dremel type tool, do as was said above and cut a groove into it to use a flat screwdriver to undo it.

[Birds]

Yep do what Paul suggested and cut a slit into the head for a flathead to go in. Alternatively, weld a cheap allen key to the bolt head and turn.

I'm thinking of leaving my cover off permanently because it's a pain in the ass removing the intake everytime I want to access the coils. I'm just concerned about dust/oil collecting in there.

[The Bogan]

The cover stops water getting into the coils and plugs, mine went rusty and started to missfire

[Munkyb0y]

yeah ive wondered about how much crap might get in the valley with no cover. i leave mine on coz it looks prettier

[mad082]

i ran mine without the cover on. it lets the heat escape from the coils better so they last longer. as for keeping water out, i degreased my engine with the cover on and was carefull with where i was spraying the hose not to spray around the cover as i knew water would still get in. i still managed to get enough water in there to cause a bad misfire which actually took longer to go away because when the engine heated up and started to boil away the water the steam couldn't escape very well.