Argh... friend over-torqued valve cover bolts!

Nvidia · Oct 16, 2006

Tonight my friend and I were taking a look at the fox because it's practically pissing oil. I had my dad offer some input too and all he could recommend was that I try tightening up the valve cover bolts to try to stop one of the leaks.

Well, I make the horrible mistake of handing my friend the ratchet and told him to tighten it up. I was standing there watching him and I saw him tighten it really good, and then I saw the resistance break and it spun pretty freely after that. Before I could piece together what had just happened (have a terrible hangover from last night, but that's another story) he went for the second bolt. This one he twisted a little bit, but just got it tight and left it. Then he went for the back bolt (closest to firewall) and he repeated what he did to the first bolt.

Went and asked my dad for some fatherly automotive advice and he told me that he stripped them and that he could have damaged the threading in my heads (Holley aluminums btw )

It took everything in my body not to punch my buddy after what my dad told me, but the, "uh oh, I just messed up your car bad huh?" look on his face kept me from saying anything.

I was going to try to get it to where I work tomorrow so I can put it up in the air and figure out where all the oil's coming from, but I'm afraid the oil's gonna just gush out once the car warms up. Is my dad blowing it out of proportion a little on the consequences, or am I in for a battle? (I have a feeling in my gut it's #2)

Anyone else have similar experiences on things like this, or suggestions on how I can fix/take it to get fixed?

z2o_what · Oct 16, 2006

well... if he stripped the threads in the head out you will either have the rethread it and use a bigger bolt (prolly have the drill valve covers out a little), or put a helicoil in the stripped holes.

not trying to be an a-hole but i would have just changed the gaskets instead of tightening the bolts to try to get the leak stoped. but i know what its like wanting to do a quik fix.

Maryland Stang · Oct 16, 2006

Take it to a professional and have the now stripped out bolt holes helicoiled. I recommend a professional since the tone of your post leads me to believe you don't have a lot of experience.

04sleeper · Oct 16, 2006

Helicoil the bolts that are stripped. You can get a kit for the size that you need and do it yourself. It's not that hard to do.

Then I would recommend ARP valve cover studs along with the Ford metal gaskets. All of you leak troubles will go away.

RYC CUKR · Oct 16, 2006

The Ford metal gaskets kick ass. They came stock on my 93 and I had the VCs off so many times I can't count and never any problems with leaks.

If the bolts are stripped I would drill them out and put some helicoils in them. Not hard to do but take your time if you haven't done it before or make a practice run on a scrap chunk of aluminum if you can find one.

Daggar · Oct 16, 2006

04sleeper said:
Then I would recommend ARP valve cover studs along with the Ford metal gaskets. All of you leak troubles will go away.

Valve cover studs!!!! I should have known that ARP would have had something like that. I'm all over that. I'll be getting a set to have on hand for the next time I pull them.

04sleeper · Oct 16, 2006

Daggar said:
Valve cover studs!!!! I should have known that ARP would have had something like that. I'm all over that. I'll be getting a set to have on hand for the next time I pull them.

Yeah, I used them on my 88 GT when I had a solid roller cam in it so I could easily pull the valve covers to adjust the rockers. They worked awesome!

They also make it very easy to line up the gasket, even though I used the metal Ford ones which are easier to begin with, and also to line up the valve cover itself.

They just drop right on.

Nvidia · Oct 16, 2006

Wow, thanks for all the advice so far guys. My worries have settled a lot.

I think I'm gonna go ahead and buy the Ford Racing valve cover gaskets and the ARP valve cover studs, but I have two questions:

First off, will I have any issues with the valve cover gasket if my valve covers are aftermarket? They're just a polished chrome, and I have no idea who makes them. Actually, I just found them online: http://store.summitracing.com/partd...232+4294908331+4294840126+4294839018+400178+0 Or is it just kinda one-fit-all? I also noticed the FR ones all say, "Designed for Valve Covers without a lip" - what are they refering to here - the outside lip on the ones I have where the studs go?

Second, anyone feel like pointing me the links to where I need to go to buy these two things online?

For the valve cover gaskets, I found this:
http://www.fordracingparts.com/parts/part_details.asp?PartKeyField=1818

For the ARP valve cover studs, I found this:
http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?part=ARP-200-7604&view=1&N=700+115

Thanks again for all your help guys - I really appreciate it

rd · Oct 16, 2006

If you did not break off the bolt heads, just take the bolts out, clean the holes, and try running a tap in there gently. Then try a slightly longer bolt.

If that doesn't work, try installing some studs with locktite.

Then go to the helicoils.

04sleeper · Oct 16, 2006

Nvidia said:
Wow, thanks for all the advice so far guys. My worries have settled a lot.

I think I'm gonna go ahead and buy the Ford Racing valve cover gaskets and the ARP valve cover studs, but I have two questions:

First off, will I have any issues with the valve cover gasket if my valve covers are aftermarket? They're just a polished chrome, and I have no idea who makes them. Actually, I just found them online: http://store.summitracing.com/partd...232+4294908331+4294840126+4294839018+400178+0 Or is it just kinda one-fit-all? I also noticed the FR ones all say, "Designed for Valve Covers without a lip" - what are they refering to here - the outside lip on the ones I have where the studs go?

Second, anyone feel like pointing me the links to where I need to go to buy these two things online?

For the valve cover gaskets, I found this:
http://www.fordracingparts.com/parts/part_details.asp?PartKeyField=1818

For the ARP valve cover studs, I found this:
http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?part=ARP-200-7604&view=1&N=700+115

Thanks again for all your help guys - I really appreciate it

Those studs should work just fine.

As far as the gaskets I would try Jegs. http://www.jegs.com/webapp/wcs/stor...atalogId=10002&storeId=10001&categoryId=29431

If you have stamped steel valve covers with a lip on them it may interfere with the metal gasket. Stamped valve covers tend to flex in between bolts causing leaks. The best valve covers are solid, either cast (like stock 87-93) or fabricated. They do not flex between the bolts and seal much better.

For stamped steel valve covers, the only real way to make them work is with some valve cover washers like these.

http://www.jegs.com/webapp/wcs/stor...irect&categoryId=18025&parentCategoryId=11221

They provide increased clamp load over the valve cover and help keep the cover from "bowing" or "flexing" in between the bolts.

I do not care for stamped steel covers for this reason.

vristang · Oct 16, 2006

I stuck with the stock cast Al valve covers.

I found some studs for the valve covers at a local hardware store.

I also found a set of studs for the lower intake manifold.
If you like using studs on the valve covers, try using them on the lower intake.
I won't ever use bolts on the lower manifold again.

Helicoils are fairly easy to do.
The hard part is going to be drilling a straight hole when you oversize the current stripped hole.
If your good with a drill it won't be an issue. For the best chances of success, I suggest pulling the head and drilling on a bench.

Good Luck,
jason

2000xp8 · Oct 16, 2006

Don't be pissed at your friend, it could of just as easily been you that did it. It's not hard to break or strip valve cover bolts or holes.

I've done both.

Mine happened to top bolts, and i just left them, and they never leaked. I'll assume if you try that with the bottom bolts, it will leak.

But tapping and heli coiling is easy, nothing to worry about.

krallman · Oct 17, 2006

factory torque settings for tightening down the vavle cover was 15ft/lbs for when you do it again

310stanger · Oct 17, 2006

never let a buddy that has poor "feel" with tightening things work on your car. i learned that lesson, and from now on theres never a good excuse for me to not jus do it myself. the only person other then myself who works on my car is my mentor of sorts, a ford senior master tech who has pretty much forgotten more about these fox cars then ill ever know. but let me give advice on valve covers. 1. dont overtighten. a good way of doing this is using a 1/4 ratchet. this allows you to get a good feel by hand. 2. if your using cork gaskets you only need the bolts tight enough to make a firm seal but you dont wanna crush the cork. 3. take ur time and tighten slowly. 4. concentrate on the feel. 5. once the bolt start to jus about slow down STOP your now done. needless to say if this is difficult i dread what other projects youll be tackling. jus my 2 cents.

mantix33 · Oct 17, 2006

well you should always use a torch wrench but thats besides the point... anyway, in an alum. head i would probobly use a timesert not a helicoil... gm uses timeserts for all the northstar engines... little harder to use but well worth it

vristang · Oct 17, 2006

mantix33 said:
well you should always use a torch wrench but thats besides the point... anyway, in an alum. head i would probobly use a timesert not a helicoil... gm uses timeserts for all the northstar engines... little harder to use but well worth it

I've never heard of a 'timesert'

Can you elaborate?

jason

new46stang · Oct 17, 2006

This may help.....

http://www.timesert.com/

04sleeper · Oct 17, 2006

new46stang said:
This may help.....

http://www.timesert.com/

Cool.

Never heard of them.

new46stang · Oct 17, 2006

04sleeper said:
Cool.

Never heard of them.

I personally have used both and they both work well. The timeserts that I used on my dirt bike swing arm actually had a tool you use to flare out the bottom, so there is a shoulder on top and flare at bottom. I don't think you can do that one valve cover holes because they are solid at the bottom if you understand what I mean. They should still work well.

Matt

04sleeper · Oct 17, 2006

new46stang said:
I personally have used both and they both work well. The timeserts that I used on my dirt bike swing arm actually had a tool you use to flare out the bottom, so there is a shoulder on top and flare at bottom. I don't think you can do that one valve cover holes because they are solid at the bottom if you understand what I mean. They should still work well.

Matt

I know what you mean.

I will do a little more research on these. I always like to keep up with good stuff.

Argh... friend over-torqued valve cover bolts!

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