Broken Rocker bolt

[Glenn from Denv]

Hi all,

I started disassembling my 3.8 RSR motor yesterday and one of the heads for the rocker bolts snapped off leaving rest of the bolt in the cam housing.

Are there any "gotchas" that I need to know about before using one of those "Screw-out" tools?

Thanks.

[john walker's workshop]

if the head snapped off, then the bolt should be relaxed, allowing the rocker shaft to be tapped out normally. no?

[Rot 911]

Like John said, with the head snapped off I would think the bolt would just tap out. Not sure if this helps, but you can read about my rocker arm bolt misadventure here: Engine Tear Down: Disaster Narrowly Averted

[Glenn from Denv]

I don't think so...

The cam housing for my car is from 993. The bolts I'm talking about hold the rockers/rocker shafts to the cam housing (2 per shaft). They are oriented perpendicularly to the one that you showed in your pictures. They are accessed by removing the cam covers and the heads of the bolts are plainly accessible. The head is a (4mm?) Allen.

Although there is very little "tension" now that the head is broken off, the tail of the bolt is still screwed into the threads of the cam housing.

[Bill Verburg]

One wonders why the bolt broke

[Glenn from Denv]

Good question Bill.

Let's just say that I did something really stupid...something like not rotating the cam to relieve the spring tension on the rocker before trying to remove the bolt...

[Bill Verburg]

Ah.....

[Jim Sims]

If there's little tension in the shank of the screw remaining in the hole perhaps you could use a small diameter sharp pick to attempt to catch the fracture surface with the pick point and screw it out. A left handed cobalt drill into the center of fracture surface may also back it out. Jim