Stuck / stripped 12 mm 3VZ head bolts....
 

As I have been sequentially loosening the head bolts (which appear to be over-torqued), I have one remaining 12 point, 12mm that doesn't want to budge. I have bought 3 new 12mm sockets, but no go. I still have the cams in the heads, limiting the diameter of the tool I can use.

Is there a special tool? A trick? If I drink enough Jim Beam and Coke and stare at it REALLY hard, will they pop out?

Thanks folks.

I'm not sure, but you could try drilling it and using a backout......

No, but you won't care anymore :laugh:

I'd shoot EB an e-mail and beg for some of his advice. http://www.engnbldr.com/

Is there a special tool? A trick? If I drink enough Jim Beam and Coke and stare at it REALLY hard, will they pop out?

__________________________________________________ _____________

>>>*Well, I don't know if the Jim Beam will get the bolt out, but drink enough of it and you won't care....

Is there room to get a solid drift in there, like an old Ford kingpin or something like that? If so, set it firmly on the head of the bolt and whop it one. Sometimes the shock of the impact is enough to let it start to move.

*One other trick it to tighten it first, then try to back it off.

If the head of the bolt is damaged so you can't get a good bite on it, then drill right through the center of the bolt head, small at first, then step out until the head of the bolt pops off. Lift the cylinder head off the bolt shaft, now you can get at the shaft of the bolt with a pair of good vice-grips.

So far , that has worked for us....*EB

Aah yea good old EB advice.

if you go the drill route, and a pair of vise grips isnt cuttin it, you can always weld a nut on to the top of the (now) stud.

depending on which bolt it is you MIGHT have enough room to weld a 6point nut to the top of the current bolt and use a 6 point socket on it.

Yeah, take the cam off and use a bigger, better socket.

I don't know the part number, but Snap-On makes a great 1.2" socket. It is star patterned and 12 mm, if I remember the bolt size correctly. It gets really slim in the right place to work around the cam without hitting it. Gove Snap On a call, or ask one of the gys driving thier trucks.

http://us.f1.yahoofs.com/bc/5af83a4b...ILhpDBjwNizcBb

Thanks guys!

I pulled the cams and put an extractor socket on it, Craftsman type. There will be a stud kit installed; I won't deal with those damn 12 points again. Besides, I'll get a 'top down' torque with this application.

I really appreciate the help!

Studs? What studs? I don't know of anyone who makes quality studs for the 3vze. And don't say DOA Racing, because theirs have proven to be CRAP!! Do a search on 3vze head studs and you'll see what I mean.

IIRC ARP makes studs.

Dead thread revival!

I'm attacking the same problem, except the bolts are on the outside. Tried the Crapsman extractors, called 'bolt out', not even close to getting the kinda force needed.

Now trying to drill them out....

advance sells these bolt extractors made by Irwin. It works pretty well if you haven't already started drilling...
http://i983.photobucket.com/albums/a...r/SSPX0450.jpg

Hi, budro! I heard there're some other Austinites here.

Here's Sears's offering, $20; $20 more for the big ones that fit in the empty spots. Looks quite the same as Advance. It didn't get near the bite needed to loosen them. Just for fun, got the needle torque wrench out, and went way past max, 140 ft-lbs, which was not hard. The extra force needed to break the others was way, way more, I couldn't get close to it, good thing my friend's pretty strong!
http://i872.photobucket.com/albums/a...d-day-2018.jpg

I'm pretty sure the head bolts are over torqued, and the camshaft bolts too, took some real muscling to break them loose.

First trip to sears, bought one of these: grip tite, metric, but immediately broke off one of those pins, with almost no force at all.

Yup, looks like the same design as the Irwin product, and yeah usaually doesn't do the trick bit good as a last ditch effort. I didn't catch whether or not you got the bolt off yet. Did you? My sympathies by the way I think I would have lost it if that would have happened to me when I did mine, well, just a couple months ago.
By the way, there is an awesome shop right here in town called Austin Fuel Injection-Performance
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie...h&z=16&iwloc=A
They do it all from selling simple replacement parts for injectors to a full on rebuild with all of the ultra-sonic cleaning and yada yada yada.
You might think about dropping off your injectors while your busy with the build.