Richard S

I'm in the middle of tearing down the engine on my 1987 S4 due to a bad head gasket. I was going to remove the camshafts today, and of course managed to strip two bolt heads on the camshaft bearing caps.

I was able to carefully loosen 15 of the 16 bolts on each side, but unfortunately there was one stubborn bolt on each side that wouldn't crack loose. Sure enough, the triple square bit slipped a tiny amount and stripped the inside of each bolt head.

So what now? What is the easiest/surest/cleanest way of getting these last two bolts loose? Looking for some options before I do anything (else) stupid.

Thanks in advance,
Rich

Kevin in Atlanta

Carefully drill off the heads. Use a vice grips to remove what's left.

GregBBRD

Common problem. Hit the top of the bolt with a hammer....hard. This will break loose the surface tension between the bottom of the bolt washer and the cam cap. It sometimes will also force the the little ridges of the triple square back inside enough to be able to pound the tool back in and loosen the bolt.

Petza914

You can also try heating it with a propane torch. The heat will cause it to expand which may move the sealing surface just enough that when it cools back down you'll be able to remove it. After it cools down, you can also try cooling it further with ice which will make it further contract.

Luis A.

I recently tried all these methods but drilling the head out was surprisingly easy. The hammering, even in anger, didn’t work for me. I forget the size bit I used but it was such that it only took the head off by the time the tip of the bit was reaching the ‘core’ of the bolt. As others have said, the headless bolt, stud at this point, came off using only my fingers.

Bigfoot928

If you are going to drill it buy a left handed drill bit. Best case it bites and backs the bolt out, worse case you drill it out.

Richard S

Thanks for all the advice! Looks like I'll be drilling off the bolt head. I'll report back on the results.

Rich