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Hi guys, I was changing my valve cover gasket and accidentally overtightened one of the bolts. The bottom part of the small bolt got stuck in the cylinder head. The worst part is that my brother attempted to remove it and got his drillbit stuck in that bolt also. So now, there is a drill bit and bolt stuck in one of the holes for the Cylinder head, and I was told the thread is definitely messed up.


My brother (who is a mechanic) brought home some drill from work and drillbits to hopefully remove it and still couldn't budge the thing at all.

I need to get this fixed as soon as possible and the only two options I have come across is either (1) buy a new cylinder head and get it towed to a shop to get it replaced or (2) remove the cylinder head and take it to a machine shop to fix it somehow.

I honestly don't know much about mechanics and cars at all so i'm worried I might mess up my car even more if I attempted to remove the cylinder head.

It irritates me so much that a simple 3 dollar bolt can make my car completely undrivable and may require hundreds of dollars (possible thousands, i have no idea) to fix.

Attached is a picture of how it looks, it's the bottom left hole (that looks silver). Sorry guys, I couldn't get a closer pic since I downgraded my phone plan and had to use a macbook to take the picture.



Sorry for the long post but does anyone here have any specific recommendations or what would be the best (as well as the cheapest) way to fix this for someone who knows little to nothing about mechanics?

I would definitely appreciate!

 
Rep Power: 519

What I would probably do:
3) Put the valve cover back on and DRIVE it to a machine shop. (Hope it is near by!)
Don't break any more bolts in the process.
You will need to buy a new bolt too, they are sort of special.

I say a machine shop since you say there is a drill bit broke off in it. Most mechanics won't deal with drilling it.
BUT a mechanic may be needed to remove the rocker shafts and bridges. Not really a good job for a rookie.

It may leak a little bit, take a quart or two of oil with you.

Take your tools so you can yank the cover off in a minute or two so they can see what the problem is.

See what they can do to help you.


HTH

 
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Thanks for your reply! The only problem about that is the closest Machine Shop I called specifically requested to bring just the cylinder head and not the car.. I'll do more calling though. What are temporary fixes for that open hole on top of the valve cover to drive it around? (I might not have a choice as I need it for work and school).

I bought a set of new bolts for my valve cover but was told that the hole will need to be rethreaded? and will require a specific bolt for that thread.

 
Rep Power: 519

Ok then, go this route:
OK
Just take the single part with the broken bolt in.
Not the entire head.

Google images.......
Something like doing this:



(I know, I know. Not exactly the same as yours. Just go with it.)

Then take just the problem part to the machine shop, like one of these:


Take one valve cover bolt so the machinist can see what threads it needs.

Best I could come up with. Pulling the head is too much unnecessary work, when you can "just pull the little part off" (it ain't quite that easy though).


Stick the rubber donut on it and duct tape it down? HellifIknow.
You can buy a lot of oil for the price of a tow truck though.


DISCLAIMER: This is what *I* would probably do if I was in your shoes.
You may be better off getting it towed so you don't run it out of oil.
I have no idea how far you have to go, or how fast it may leak oil.


HTH

 
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Thanks for all the help ezone! I had my uncle come over and check it out. In the end, he said that the four bolts holding down the valve cover is good enough so that one broken one isn't necessary to fix. We just covered the hole with a bolt, a couple washers, and a nut. Seemed like such an easy fix and I was really stressing out about it.

Thank you for the help though! Much appreciated!

 
Rep Power: 212

Though this has been resolved I wanted to add this simply because if someone searches it and has a similar experience I am hoping this will help:

I, too, overtightened a valve cover bolt and broke the bottom half. It was the top right one (one of the taller ones). All I did was put the bolt back in, but around and underneath the bolt I put some JB weld on and let it harden. Hasn't leaked a drop of oil since. So if you can't find the hardware to do the fix that the OP did, JB weld with the original bolt will fix it right up as well.

Looks just like this:

 
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Well to add just a "bit" to this thread. ( pun intended)

I have broken off bolts on my motorcycle in crashes at the track. I used a small reverse threaded bolt remover to try and get it out. Well one time that broke off in the bolt, much like your drill bit did.

My solution was to get the smallest dremel grind stone I could and actually ground out the remover and bore a hole in the bolt then a larger remover was able to pull the bolt.

Next time you go to Sears, stop and look over the stones and grinders and make mental lists of shapes and such. Drilling hardened steel drill bits is not all that easy, but grinding it out with the Dremel really was cake. I was shocked how well it worked! I did it with 1 four dollar stone so it's cheap too

Hope this helps others in the future!

 
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Call me at 484-467-7335. I do a lot of work on these problems.