Today I replaced a leaky valve cover gasket on my 150k mile 2011 Mazda6. Everything went fairly well with disassembly with exception of a couple stubborn plastic grommets to work the wiring harness to clear the valve cover. Some packing tape came in handy to tie it back once it was enough out of the way. Removing old gasket, and installing new was straightforward. I thought to myself "Gee this is going really smoothly." Famous last words...
I borrowed my friends Torque wrench with 3/8" drive. Luckily my neighbor came home while I was working an he let me borrow his 1/4" to 3/8" socket adapter so I could use my 1/4" drive 8mm deep socket on the 3/8" drive torque wrench I had. Such luck.
Buttoning back it up is where everything went downhill fast. So I set the torque wrench to 84in/lbs for the valve cover bolts with the nut head. I start torquing....hmmm. this feels like a lot or torque. I loosen and retry a bunch of times. No clicks from the torque wrench. At this point I get concerned. I watch YouTube video on how to use a torque wrench. A couple more trys and finally on the center bolts I feel the torque wrench click. Ok, its working now. So on the fourth bolt (top left of valve cover) I proceed with torquing and SNAP. That sense of dread filled me. Busted fastener. Crap. Well....I'm too far along now. It's going to be dark soon and I at least need to get all the wiring harnesses back in and this job wrapped up. I call my buddy and he says to use oil on the threads of the bolts because I may not be getting a good enough torque reading due to friction in the threads. So I unbolt all the valve cover bolts and oil with motor oil. I proceed to torque the first bolt and SNAP (The bolt in the center of the valve cover). At this point I toss the torque wrench away and just hand tighten to feel and move on.
The valve cover doesn't spew oil out everywhere, but I only drove it for half a mile and shut it off for the night.
So now that I can calm down from kicking myself I try to figure out my next step. What do with the broken fasteners. The broken fastener in the top left of the valve cover gasket looks like it could be worked/threaded out from the bottom possibly. But the 2nd fastener that broke in the center is the threaded hole between the 2 spark plugs in cylinder #2 and #3. How is that going to come out??? The fastener hole terminates in the engine head. How is that going to come out? How big of a pile am I in here?
Anyway, here are pics of the engine, and the carnage. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ZawSIEiG0TAXekEMQd3JjNt3FvFH-5SD?usp=sharing
Time for a mental cigarette break tonight before I figure out what next steps are tomorrow morning. I may take it in to my trusted mechanic and see what they can do in terms of tapping it out. It's really that fastener in between the spark plugs that's got me very concerned.
Am I just an idiot who doesn't know how to use a torque wrench? I mean, one fastener snapping could be blamed on tired metal, but two? That makes me pretty sure I'm the idiot here.
I borrowed my friends Torque wrench with 3/8" drive. Luckily my neighbor came home while I was working an he let me borrow his 1/4" to 3/8" socket adapter so I could use my 1/4" drive 8mm deep socket on the 3/8" drive torque wrench I had. Such luck.
Buttoning back it up is where everything went downhill fast. So I set the torque wrench to 84in/lbs for the valve cover bolts with the nut head. I start torquing....hmmm. this feels like a lot or torque. I loosen and retry a bunch of times. No clicks from the torque wrench. At this point I get concerned. I watch YouTube video on how to use a torque wrench. A couple more trys and finally on the center bolts I feel the torque wrench click. Ok, its working now. So on the fourth bolt (top left of valve cover) I proceed with torquing and SNAP. That sense of dread filled me. Busted fastener. Crap. Well....I'm too far along now. It's going to be dark soon and I at least need to get all the wiring harnesses back in and this job wrapped up. I call my buddy and he says to use oil on the threads of the bolts because I may not be getting a good enough torque reading due to friction in the threads. So I unbolt all the valve cover bolts and oil with motor oil. I proceed to torque the first bolt and SNAP (The bolt in the center of the valve cover). At this point I toss the torque wrench away and just hand tighten to feel and move on.
The valve cover doesn't spew oil out everywhere, but I only drove it for half a mile and shut it off for the night.
So now that I can calm down from kicking myself I try to figure out my next step. What do with the broken fasteners. The broken fastener in the top left of the valve cover gasket looks like it could be worked/threaded out from the bottom possibly. But the 2nd fastener that broke in the center is the threaded hole between the 2 spark plugs in cylinder #2 and #3. How is that going to come out??? The fastener hole terminates in the engine head. How is that going to come out? How big of a pile am I in here?
Anyway, here are pics of the engine, and the carnage. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ZawSIEiG0TAXekEMQd3JjNt3FvFH-5SD?usp=sharing
Time for a mental cigarette break tonight before I figure out what next steps are tomorrow morning. I may take it in to my trusted mechanic and see what they can do in terms of tapping it out. It's really that fastener in between the spark plugs that's got me very concerned.
Am I just an idiot who doesn't know how to use a torque wrench? I mean, one fastener snapping could be blamed on tired metal, but two? That makes me pretty sure I'm the idiot here.