nh7cy

so i was in the process of taking off my cam housing the other day, i had just gotten some brand new metric ball end hex keyes and had some great success in getting most of the bolts loose in the cam housing. i had gotten all but two of them loosened when SNAP!!

the ball end of my hex key snapped off in the head of the hex bolt.

does anyone have any suggestions on how to get this thing out now??

keep in mind its in the cam housing. i've tried drilling the broken peice of hex key out of the bolt head but none of the bits i have even scratch the thing.

any help would be greatly appreciated. i had been hoping to get this done by thursday.



Update: Here's how we fixed it.

Arash came over with his grinder and dremel. The head obviously did not want to be removed but we got it off.. eventually..

here are pics for your enjoyment..

the unsuspecting cam housing..



not anymore..!



new camshaft housing design, with proposed oil ventilation duct.



the opposing screw with the peice of hex key still stuck in it. after endless drilling, hammering, and general tampering with, it still wouldn't budge.



so out came the dremel..



and the drill to finish it off.



in the meantime.. on the other side of the car.. "but i wanted DARK CHOCOLATE!!"



the camshaft housing finally came off! yay!



and after much, and i am not exaggerating here.. TONS of prying and PB later.. the head finally came off too!



the head and the camshaft housing finally off the car.



now time for the easy part! ..and belt tensioning..

rberry951

maybe you could tap on it with a small screwdriver to try to make it loose in the hole, then use a magnet to retrieve it.

Fishey

Your screwed.

I did the same thing and tried many different things to get it out. The major problem is that since its down in the hole you cannot get anything in there to pry it out.. I have to say ball socket hex keys should never be used. I learned my lesson and I should have posted it to warn others but I guess that happens..

Mike C.

Yikes. The only thing I can think of is to try hitting the the offending ball with a punch. Maybe it will loosen up enough to get a strong magent in there to pull it out.

Yabo

some good drill bits made for goign through easy outs and such? Gonna be hard to find somethign that long though.

nh7cy

well atleast now that the ball end is broken off i have a normal key

i was thinking that when i bought them as well, didnt listen to my intuition i guess.. oh well

also, i tried sticking a screwdriver in there and hammering the end in order to chisel the bit out but no luck..

how on earth did you manage to get the thing out in the end?

nh7cy

i really hate hex bolts..

apierce918

if all the rest of them are out, start prying... somethings gonna give, be it the housing, or the bolt, if you bend the bolt some (mine bent before i broke my housing... yes i said broke my housing) you may be able to get something to cut the bolt, only need an 1/8" or so. since its the inside bolt, i think your housing will handle it, but be careful when prying because you can gouge the head easily. but if you can get something through the housing, between the lifters you could get some good leverage

Weston

Get some drill bits that are meant for drilling hard metal. There's a big difference between these and regular drill bits. I discovered this while drilling the holes in Autopower bolt-in roll cages... regular bits sort of worked, but it took forever and was a pain, and my titanium bits were nothing but garbage. I went and paid $10 for a bit at Home Depot... it was advertised as a "cobalt" drill bit or something like that, and it worked extremely well. However, I had a lot of holes to drill and I ended up breaking it, so I bought a $5 bit from Walmart and had pretty much the same results with it. In both cases, the bits were advertised as being designed for drilling metal and they made claims about being able to drill faster and such. I'd highly recommend these for anyone who has to drill hard and/or thick metal.

apierce918

cobalt bits are the hardest ones we sell at my hardware store

nh7cy

guess i'll throw my money at buying a metal bit, and if that doesn't work, i'll start prying at the head.

MPD47

DO NOT start prying at it. You can buy spare cam housings on rennlist cheap, and spare cams are CHEAP too. Best bet would be to cut a square hole in the cam housing so you can get the proper tools down in there.

tod84944

This has happened to me. You can use a 1/4 , 10mm IIRC socket. Put it on a extension, and hammer it over the outside of the bolt. I have use this method when I broke off the ball end of a hex socket, and when I have stripped them out. The best thing to do is take one of the bolts you already have out, and see which socket would fit over it if hammered hard. Like I said, I think I used a 10mm, but it might have been a 8. Also.... use a 12pt.

nh7cy

that socket idea is quite helpful thanks

Fishey

Thats what I did..