Help - cracked engine head OMG I think I just ruined my wife's car!

The grey Permatex is OK.

Well, I will provide a "how to" here:

1. Remove the two wiper arms. Remove the black rubber gasket that runs along the cowl tray. Remove the two black plastic cowl pieces. Remove the windshield wiper motor and the sheet metal cowl tray.
2. Remove the air cleaner housing.
3. If the brake fluid reservoir is in the way, unbolt it and suspend from the hood using a wire hanger or rope so that it is out of the way, yet you do not spill fluid, damage the hoses, or allow air to get into the system.
4. Remove the wiring harness connectors on the four spark igniters and the four fuel injectors. Remove the three bolts and the plastic clamp that secures the engine wiring harness which runs along the back of the engine valve cover and move it out of the way.
5. Remove the two crankcase ventilation hoses on the left side (driver's side) of the valve cover. (Left is from the point of the view where you are standing at the back of the car.)
6. Remove the four spark igniters. While you have them out, clean the outside plastic body using solvent (I use a paper towel moistened in paint thinner) and inspect for cracking, burns, etc. Replace any igniters that have flaws in the body.
7. Remove the nine bolts and two nuts that secure the valve cover and remove it. Discard the valve cover gasket.
8. Clean the gasket surfaces of the cylinder head, front engine cover/oil pump, and the engine valve cover. If any residue exists, clean it off using a plastic tool so that you do not damage the aluminum machined surfaces.
9. Install the new valve cover gasket on the valve cover. Apply a bead of FIPG at the two places where the engine cover meets the cylinder head on the right side (passenger's side) of the engine. The idea is for the sealant to seal the junction between those two aluminum pieces.
10. Install the valve cover on the cylinder head. Do not wait more than 3 minutes after applying the FIPG. Start from the middle of the valve cover and move progressively to the outside corners. Tightening torque is 88 in.-lb. Use a 3/8" torque wrench and make sure you recognize this measurement is in in.-lb., not ft.-lb. Hence, the torque is ~7.3 ft.-lb.
11. Install the four spark igniters, using tightening torque of 80 in.-lb.
12. Install the PCV valve and replace the crankcase ventilation hoses.
13. Mount the wiring harness on the valve cover and install the 8 wiring harness connectors on the spark igniters and fuel injectors. Make sure that each connector clicks in place to show the connector is locked.
14. Replace the brake fluid container if you had to move it. Reinstall the sheet metal cowl tray. Mount the windshield wiper motor and use 49 in.-lb torque on the five mounting bolts. Install the two black plastic cowl pieces and the long rubber gasket. When parked, the wiper blade end points at a dot on the windshield, which helps you to make sure the wipers are correctly aligned. Use 15 ft.-lb torque on the wiper arm nuts (note this spec is ft.-lb.; hence the spec would be 180 in.-lb if you are thinking in those units.)
15. Replace the air cleaner housing, and make sure the clamp to the throttle body is tight. Make sure the wiring harness connector for the MAF sensor is locked.
16. Look around and reinstall anything else that was disturbed or removed as part of the process.

 

A little bit of super glue will fix it alllll up.

Back in the day, I had an 98 eclipse. While installing a drain like, I accidentally made a square instead of circle ⭕️ for the fitting on the oil pan. I used jb quick weld, and two plates. The car never leaked oil. Drove it another 3 yrs during college up and down the northern Cali to Southern California. I ended up getting rid of the car. I Never fixed the oil pan lol.

 

change your oil and filter, odds are you got bits of metal in there..

 

Please take pictures of the valve area after getting the valve cover off. The more pictures the better. lets see how your oil is doing.

 

Looks like your keeping up with the oil changes as it looks pretty good in the valve area.
But what’s going on that The outside of the engine looks so bad?

Is this the first time using a torque wrench? Some torque wrench settings are hard to understand.
It’s good to check the settings though.
I do that once in a while. I will set it at 20 lbs and check it on a wheel lug and see if it clicks at 20 lbs.
I put a new intake on my crown Vic the other day and it’s a plastic intake And the bolts are 22 lbs. it’s alot of work and must be torqued correctly so I checked it on a wheel lug.

The bad news is it’s going to leak where your boned that bolt. It must be fixed. If not all your work will be for naught.

 

I have had factory-specified torques turn out to be excessive for aged fasteners before. More than once if the threads were cut into aluminum, it's been possible to strip them out before the specified torque is reached, necessitating a little interlude of helicoil-installation.

Nowadays, especially with smallish fasteners, I'll set my wrench for the factory setting, but if I feel any sort of relaxation starting to happen as I get anywhere near the final torque, I'll just declare that one torqued and move on.

Naturally, that probably wouldn't be the right approach for genuinely critical fasteners....

-Chap

 

Get the bolt out with a bolt removal bit? Maybe you could manage to just loosen all the valve cover bolts off,, get the broken one out and replaced, and retorque them all, but reduce value a bit. Could be oil on the threads was a contributing factor, would necessitate reducing torque.

 

20 lbs torque is not much at all. You may be better just doing it by hand and snug it up.

I'm getting ready to change the plugs and gasket on mine. Interesting to see how tight the valve cover bolts will be. I bet there not real tight at all. There's not alot of pressure its sealing against there all you really need to do is squish the gasket real good. I personally wouldn't even bother with a torque wrench. Done many valve cover gaskets.

 

@Patrick Wong mentioned 88 inch/pounds up the page, and I'm seeing 74 inch/pounds, in my pdf of the Repair Manual:



Those translate to 7 and 6 foot/pounds respectively: 1/4" torque wrench territory. If you don't have one, I think just using one hand on the centre of a ratchet wrench would keep you out of trouble.

 

I bought the gasket for it and laid it out to straighten up its wrinkles and said thats not the right seal , pretty sure its a square valve cover. Nope its this crazy looking cover you just posted lol....

The gasket by itself looks ..well not right.

 

Well, you are correct that the manual says 74 in.-lb. However, notice the primary spec is 10 Nm which converts to 88.5 in.-lb.

Look further in the manual for the ignition coil bolt tightening spec, and notice the spec is 9 N-m or 80 in.-lb.

In any event, it is really unfortunate that Drclaw had one valve cover bolt snap. I hope that the stud is protruding above the surface of the cylinder head. If he is unlucky, the stud will be below the surface and it will be necessary to drill a hole in the stud and use an easy-out to remove the stud. That will not be easy to do without causing damage to the threaded hole or getting metal shavings in the cylinder head..

 

I would try drilling out and using an extraction bit. Course it's not my car lol, easy to say. Maybe put the old valve cover on for this chore, and a couple of bolts to stabilize it. Centre punch the broken off bolt good, and start with a smaller than recommended drill bit, just to get started. Take your time, and blow the shaving's out of the hole thoroughly.

 

I'm a bit curious about the torque wrench. The spec says 74 in-lb, which is just a hair over 6 ft-lb. You mention that you used a 3/8 drive torque wrench, but I've never owned a 3/8 drive torque wrench that is incremented in in-lb. The ones I have seen are extremely $$$. Torque wrenches are designed/calibrated to be best used for values between 1/4 and 7/8 of full scale. So a wrench with a 100 ft-lb max reading should be used for torquing 25ft-lb to 87.5 ft-lb. So if we assume your torque wrench was ft-lb, what range is it and what what value were you torquing to?

After writing this, I happened to read through the thread again and realized I had missed a few things, including the discussion about 10n-m, 88 in-lb, 74 in-lb etc. All-in-all, it absolutely stinks to have broken a bolt off, especially if it's below the surface. Center-rear means access will probably suck also. If you decide to mess with it, I wish you the best. Hopefully, it just doesn't leak. At least it's not under any pressure.

 

I have a 3/8" torque wrench that goes down to 5 foot pounds, equates to 60 inch pounds. Debatable how accurate it is at that number, but hey.

I've asked for a bday present a 1/4" torque wrench.

AgAin, just one-handing it, one hand on the centre of crescent wrench, I think would be ballpark.

 

Is Father’s Day before your birthday ?