Removing Cam Housing Bolt

[jjgrow]

Broke the end of a 6mm hex head wrench off in the bolt head of the last cam housing bolt. It was the kind that has a little bulb on the end and now that little bulb is in the bolt head. Not real tight, but too tight to come out with a magnet.

Any ideas how to get it out?

[ae1969]

drill it out......

[Sabyre]

Get yourself some Holy water, whole raw chicken, a live goat, a cow, a monk, a couple of nudie girls, some ky, nipple clamps... OH MY GOD WHAT AM I SAYING!!!

Yeah, try to drill it out, or maybe a punch.

[jjgrow]

I've used all the cuss words I know and some that I made up but that can't really be understood. I hold Stuttgart responsible - why can't the little access hole be just 1mm larger?

[gtroth]

What worked well for me: took the other bolts out, took cover off, and used a bolt extractor that fits over the part of the broken bolt that is still in the head (I used the #3 extractor from a Sears kit). Those bolts are expensive (for the 944S, ~$11 for the long bolts, ~$22 for the short). I also used antisieze on all the bolts when I put them back in.

I simply couldn't stomach drilling into my head, but that's me...

[AFJuvat]

Somewhere in the top 20 rules of auto repair says:

"Thou shalt NOT apply excessive torque to a fastener using a ball-hex wrench, for as surely as the sun arising in the morning, when yoyu do this to a critical bolt, the little ball tip will snap off and spread misery about the garage."

Thus it is written, so shall it be done.

In the short term, you are not in good shape right now. Your only option is to start drilling while not spinning the camshaft and having it crash valves into the top of your pistons.

Also note that Porsche supersceded that bolt - it is now a 10mm ZXN fastener (triple-square)

AFJuvat

[Dark Skies]

Any chance you could 'bounce' it out with little sharp taps to the side of the cap head whilst holding a magnet to it? Nothing heavy duty - just enough to vibrate it out. The side of a cold chisel or something with similar tensile resonance.

[Crippler]

I suggest taking the cam tower off the car if it isn't already. It makes it much easier to drill out that bolt and it doesnt take very long to remove and the cam gasket is cheap.

[sc3800ttops]

Since I did this same thing this past weekend. Tap a screwdriver against the piece that is stuck in there to loosen it up and then use a magnet. After busting my hex key I spent $30 on a set of hex sockets from Sears. If you stripped the inside you will have to extract it. I did one without drilling into the head.

Jason

[TCMdocs944]

Something sticky and medium strength to the tip of the broken peice....

Insert it so it mates up with its lost end. Gently fish out???