ughhhhh bolts!!!

[01boneless]

ok guys im tired of pricking with oil leaks so this week im gonna pull off the valve cover and easy out all the broke bolts. now for the holes whats my best option helicoils,retapping or what and how do i do it. im new with striped out bolts because a moron over tighting them 10lbs of torq. so what bolt do i need like what size i know there all diffrent lenghs. thanks guys

[CJM]

Honestly your gonna find it aint gonna work to well at all. I been there with a friends 400, we found helicoils-problem is helicoils pull out of the soft aluminum the topends made of. So I tapped for a larger size, was ok till we realized the spec for 33 ft-lbs is for the head bolts-not the rocker cover bolts.

But really there aint no way you stripped or busted them at 10 ft-lbs unless your torque wrench is way outta wack.

Heres what I would do:
1. Go to a store and find some 7mm bolts, home cheapo or lowes should have them.
2. Find a metric tap for said bolts, maybe lowes/home cheapo or you might have to hunt for it.
3. Tap the holes
4. Install the bolts. Issue is its kinda hard to tap some of them b/c they go ALL the way into the cylinder metal and that means you also gotta remove your head to do this properly.

My friend found out the hard way, we gave up and got a new head and cylinder.

[01boneless]

well crap i guess ill just go to the hard ware and get a stander thred bolt (fater threads) and sock it in there and worry about those bolts when its time to rebuil or i may sell it next summer but thats a diffrent story lol

[CJM]

Aint gonna hold if you do that.

Try the tap method, it can work you just gotta take your time and you gotta remove the head.

[01boneless]

how hard is the head to remove im new to motors and im suprised im even going under the valve cover lol

[CJM]

Its a bunch of bolts and removing the cam and cam gear. Rather easy once you pull it apart. About all you gotta do is make sure you retime the cam in place with the marks, and make sure you dont drop the timing chain (use a screwdriver or some thing to tie it to the frame. Most important part to worry about is to stuff a rag into the sleeve of the cylinder so no shavings get in there and then squirting out the holes very good with brake cleen and some air to make sure the shavings are gone. Also using wheel bearing grease as a lubricant for the taps works better than oil-the grease makes the shavings stick to it.

Look for a service manual on google, shows you how to do it.

Course your gonna need a gasket tho, one from the dealer is fine.

If your not up for this task then it might be a good idea just to buy used parts of ebay. Im also not 100% sure but I know only some of the bolts go into the cylinder, not all of them. Could you get away with just tapping them into the head-possible but you never know if it will leak till you try it.