2.5 broken Head bolt

[Jon Scully]

Hey Guys,

I am the proud new owner of a 1986 s10 2.5,

I bought the car for 600 cash-- good deal it was an old mans truck with 149km on it, with a no mods, and in really good shape EXCEPT.....


There is a broken head bolt, looks like it will be easy to pull out once the head is removed.... bur I want to hear you all chime in with your advice--


Does this happen often with the 2.5?

Should I rebuild the head or just change the gasket and put a fresh bolt in.....

Any thoughts or opinions are very welcome,

thanks for the advice in advance....

Jon

1971 blazer 4x4 350 4spd-- all stock
new-- 1986 s10 2wd all stock

http://thunderbay.kijiji.ca/c-ViewAd...AdId=323904070

[Bus Ted Knuckle]

The bolt itself will be easy enough to deal with when the head is off, but why is it broken to begin with?
Posted via Mobile Device

[Jon Scully]

I figured the bolt would come out fairly easy-- even if drilling is req'd--

WHy is it broken?????? Not sure but here's my thougths:

The PO, since new, drove it on short trips once or twice a week for a few years, with the odd fishing trip in between.,

In our super cold winters-- I suspect that the the engine/head cooling heating cycle led to the bolt breakake,




On the other hand-- besides the broken bolt and small antifreeze leak, she runs like a charm lol


My dilema is whether to fix it now, or wait for more failure: I am leaning towards fixing now.

thks

jon

[Jon Scully]

No advice for the Iron Duke?

[Andy's Auto]

The old Iron Duke is notorious for breaking head bolts. Not a hard job. Pop the head off, get an Easy-Out. Grab a headset and a fresh set of head bolts. Done literally hundreds in the last 20 years.

[Jon Scully]

Thanks for the advice, and knowing that this is common-- beleive it or not that is reassuring.

The question I have then is this:

Thsi is my daily driver, do not want to invest much.....should I be rebuilding the head? Or should the gasket kit/new botls be good enough?

Oh ya....just got her home and almost have the head off.....IT was getting late and I got held up by the little nut that holds the 3 fuel lines on te back of the head....easy-- but getting too frustrated to keep going.

Tomorrow--- that bolt, and te head bolts and the head/intake etc should come off in one piece--

thanks
jon

[Andy's Auto]

With 149KM on it it is a judgement call. If it ran good you would problably be better of sending it off to a machine shop to get it checked anyway. You might have some corrosion on the head surface that might prevent a good seal. Even though it is a straight forward job no one wants to do it twice. BTW my first new anything I bought was an 89 S10. Iron Duke 5 speed. Put 121k on it the first year I had it.

Andy

[Jon Scully]

I will try to post some pics of the head removed later tonight. Will call around the machine shops today as well.

Thanks Andy's Auto- I may be asking more advice.

Jon

[Jon Scully]

UPDATE:

SO I got the head off with no real issues. The whole gasket looked pretty rough and the engine surface and head surface will require some elbow grease....

What I would like are some pointers on getting the broken bolt out-- I have not had the best of luck in the past with easy outs....

There is about 1/8 or better of bolt sticking out of the engine-- with one third broken flush to the block.

Please any advice /parts list would be good:

What I have is a set of left hand drill bits-- no good easy outs --- any advice?????? really want to get this done soon
thanks,

jon

[Andy's Auto]

Jon, the factory bolts will most likely have a bit of sealer on them. A little bit of heat, a few well placed taps of a hammer to loosen then up a little wont hurt. Sears sells a few different type of easy outs so a road trip is in order.

If kharma is on your side you might be able to use those lh drill bits and have them dig in and the threads might come out,. It does happen sometimes. I have had a few come out fairly easy but i have also had to heli coil a few as well. Pioneer makes a nice set of upgraded head bolts that cure the breakage issue.

Good luck and godspeed with you man. And i am not yelling, i'm invoicing!!

[Jon Scully]

Thanks Andy's!!!

I will try that if need be, I was also try this method.....after a few practice tries:

http://www.fordgarage.com/pages/studremoval.htm

I have a mig welder, and will practice with 'spare' bolts in a vice to simulate the conditions,......

al else fails I'll bust out the LH bits, and buy an easy out lol,

Thanks Again for your interest and help!

Jon

[Jon Scully]

Update: Removed the bolt with easy by welding a nut on top, no damage. BUT....I got everything back together and she has 2 problems: IT runs really rough, like the timing is out....barely idles and shakes......and the valve cover leaks --- (I cleaned/ scrapped with acetone finnish) and used high tack and cork). It started right up, but sounded quite rough so I did not un it long--a minute max...and cleaned up and came in. I am not a mechanic, but have done jobs like this with no issues in the past;

SO: What to do / check.....THis is where you all can chime in

I just did the above.... so tomorrow/friday I will:

-set to top dead centre
--Make sure the /rotor are on right
--- go over all vaccum lines and fuel lines
THEN WHAT....

HELP advice, appreciated,

thanks in advance
jon

[Andy's Auto]

It sounds like either a vacuum leak, possibly a bad coolant temp sensor, egr valve haveing constant vacuum, or timing. Time to check it all.

Andy

[Jon Scully]

Originally Posted by Andy's Auto

It sounds like either a vacuum leak, possibly a bad coolant temp sensor, egr valve haveing constant vacuum, or timing. Time to check it all.

Andy

Thanks Andy! That gives me some things to go over. tomorrow night.

I have to take the valve cover off to silicone the gasket it in (used a cork with high tack and she leaked straight away) SO can you tell me how to check that I set the rockers on OK....What I did was re-install to factory torque...I did not set each to TDC as I did this though.....could that have been a problem? What is the 'proper' way?

Thank's again Andy-- If you were closer I'd offer to buy you a beer / coffee

[Jon Scully]

Thanks again for the advice: I just checked all components....nothing obviously wrong....but going around and snugging up all connections made a big difference-- IT is running and starting smoothly, but seems to have a lot of smoke still---it is prob residual from the assembly lube and the pile of !@$# in the cat conv.....but I will do a compression test tomorrow to determine if the rings /seals are going and that the head gasket sealed....

hindsight is 20/20....should have done the compression test first lol

after that: shocks, a couple front end parts, and ebrakes....hope to have it safety checked and on the raod early next week

[Jon Scully]

update and one more qustion:

All is running good now, and no leaks: BUT-- It stalls when I put it into gear....checked for vaccum leaks and it is all good--- Not sure what it could be??? Would rather not start changing sensors all willy nilly--- is there any ne sensor that would cause this?

A couple more things:
1) It wants to die pretty much as soon as I touch the gear selector (auto)
2) I can keep it alive by giving it a bit of gas....
3) even with a FULL tune up---it still takes a couple of cranks to start, even when warm

thanks for any and all advice or ideas!
jon