Hi Scotty,
I have a 2010 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited, I bought it brand new. It has 247,846 miles on it and still runs great. I change the oil every 3,000 miles religiously and only use Royal Purple oil and Wix XP oil Filters. I change the Transmission Filter every 60,000 miles. It is very well kept, spark plugs and wires get changed every 100,000 miles. Radiator flushed every 5 years and etc...
It is also modified quite a bit, the front axle is a Dynatrac Prorock 44, with 4.88 gears, RCV axle Shafts and Reid Racing Knuckles. The rear axle is a Dynatrac Prorock 60 with 4.88 gears. I have ARB Air Lockers Front and Rear. I also have 1350 Adams Double Cardan Drive Shafts.
This Jeep has been with me all over the world, 17 countries to be exact. I was Active Duty Military for 26 years, unfortunately due to injuries I had to retire. I am a 100% disabled Veteran.
Unfortunately while changing a valve cover casket on the passenger side one of the bolts snapped of flush.
I used Felpro Gaskets.
Currently I put the other seven in and torqued them. Luckily the one that snapped was in the middle bottom. Easy to get to and easy to keep an eye on it.
These are a pain in the rear to change on the 3.8 liter. I did the driver side first with no issues. Other than having to remove the PCV Valve hose (which I also replaced along with the PCV valve), alternator bracket, remove the spark plug wires, the coil pack, the coil pack mount and then try to find the right angle to get it out and back in. I hate engineers.
The passenger side was less to deal with other then the spark plug wire tray. It wasn’t hard just a pain in the butt. I pulled the cover back off and found it broke flush on the head. At this point it was 1 am, I said with the heck with it put the seven bolts back in and the eight hole I filled with high temp RV.
I figured I will watch it over the next few days. If it does not leak, I am going to let it be and not worry about it. If it does leak, then plan (b) get it drilled/extracted out or get some one to weld a nut to it to back it out.
What do you all think?
Should I bite the bullet and pay to have someone extract the bolt or just keep an eye on it to see if it leaks?
Is 7 bolts enough to keep downward pressure and prevent it from leaking?
That would just drive me nuts. I would get a nut rosette welded on it and back it out. I never had any luck with Easy Outs.
Use a hammer and chisel.
Or get a left-handed drill bit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXf-73xqZQM
I snapped my valve cover bolt when torquing on my 1999 Accord. I tried to remove the snapped bolt, and couldn’t, but after consulting some knowledgable folks, suggested it would be okay to leave as is. It’s been almost a year, and so far so good. I keep an eye on it, just in case there is a leak.
I may try again to remove it one of these days, when I need to work on the car.
A bolt broken off flush is usually not sitting tight: the force required to screw the remaining part out would normally be minimal. When I had such a problem, I (of course after removing the valve cover) degreased the area, carefully protected everything around except for the bolt itself with putty (plasticine), creating some sort of a circle dike also protecting the thread from the glue getting into the bolt hole, then glued the remaining part of the same bolt on top of the broken-off part (using excessive amounts of some epoxy glue I had available), waited overnight for the glue to settle, and then screwed the bolt out with my bare fingers. I was pleasantly surprised how easily it went out. Then I removed the putty and reinstalled the valve cover with its gasket.
If I were you I would not drive around long-term with one bolt missing - I would be afraid of residual valve cover deformations due to uneven tightening, since my valve covers are fairly thin alu.
