Removing/refitting One Single Head Bolt ?!

[DamirGTI 342]

Well ... i did forget to refit the additional washer on top of the big spacer on the head bolt above the water pump did the tightening job (but I havent using OE 300deg. method) all the way and strangely , the bolt didn't break trough the surface down into the water pump housing and i've been driving the car for nearly 1 year since then without any problem what so ever

 

So , what should i do now ? leave it as it is or remove out this bolt and add the missing washer ?!

 

Anyone tried removing/refitting one single head bolt before ?

 

Damir

[pug309twin40s 1]

if its been fine for a yr then leave it alone, removing that bolt now with everything settled down(headgasket etc) might cause problems.

[DamirGTI 342]

Well i dunno , i'll refit it back ... better still as it's supposed to be there anyway , it's been fine so far but who knows what might happened in the future ..

 

Some pics :

 

 

 

 

Damir

[welshpug 1,657]

looks fine to me! there is a certain amount of leeway that you can omit the 3mm thick washer but not the 22mm thick spacer.

 

here's a picture of how much clearance you have, circa 10mm, the bolts normally stick through about 2-4mm I think.

 

edit, helps if I post the pic!

 

Edited February 14, 2009 by welshpug

[DamirGTI 342]

Cheers for pic WP ! .. i'll have a look on my engine how much the bolt thread protrudes down the block hole .

 

The washers are 9mm thick , so that might be "tight" :

 

 

Damir

[welshpug 1,657]

yeah, I would be tempted to check just in case it has touched, what age is that engine? I checked servicebox and it specifies 3mm for P1 but no dimensions listed for the P2.

[Alteran 1]

Reading this thread has reminded me.. Yesterday i took the head off my 1990 1.6 and all the head bolts were the same length and the washers were the same thickness. I heard a rumour that there was one bolt that was longer than the rest? Is that true?

[welshpug 1,657]

nope, there is one larger spacer as shown above.

[Alteran 1]

Ah.. That spacer has probably dropped down then as I removed the bolt. Thank you for the vital piece of info!

[DamirGTI 342]

.... removed that bolt just about now and guess what - as soon as i started undoing it the coolant started leaking down the block as well - DOUGH !! .. yes was gone trough but by looking carefully down the hole after removing the head bolt i noticed something what looked like piece/end of an broken bolt ?! but not this mine freshly removed ! it's some old one , i suppose someone else did the same mistake before ..

 

So , the head bold torqued on top of this the remains of the broken one acted like "a cork" ... anyway i cleaned up the area , mixed some epoxy liquid metal and spread around two layers inside the gap .. just hope it'll hold up !!

 

 

Damir

[Anthony 1,003]

Admittedly I've not tried it with bits of a broken headbolt stuck in the hole, but I've epoxy'd blocks with the waterpump holed due to missing out that spacer, and has worked just fine with the repair outlasting the rest of the car