hell yeah the vehicle i bought to be reliable and boring blew its headgaskets, hell yeah previous owner fucked the gasket surfaces, hell yeah a fucked header stud won't back out
hell yeah
oh hey for diy-ers reading this: get a damn carbide gasket scraper. I have spent my whole life using razorblades to clean gasket surfaces and it has always both sucked and fucked up the surfaces. I bought a square-faced carbide gasket scraper and it's amazing.
doing my water pump soon, will get a scraper – thanks for the advice :solidarity:
This is the one I used, nothing but good things to say about it:
https://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p/lisle-81810-carbon-scraper-5-designed-to-remove-gasket-residue-from-steel-aluminum-heads-and-manifolds-81810/11961186-P?searchTerm=gasket+scraper
Thanks, I'm just venting. I'll probably weld a nut onto the stud, but my welder's fucked so I'll have to waste a friend's time to do it. My real primary transportation is just a pile of gears and shafts on a workbench waiting for backordered parts and recalled tires, this was supposed to be a no effort get-around machine. Now I'm fucked, I'm developing an emotional attachment via aggravation and I'll probably have to keep this heap forever now.
it's embarrassing to say, but older harley. I'm not a harley guy, I'm a simple machines kind of guy and the evo motor fits that bill. stupid simple but apparently the previous owner was an amateur's amateur.
Sounds like the kind of person that could fuck up installing a new lawnmower blade.
One rocker cover allen head bolt with a sub 20lb torque spec was rounded out, but the actual rocker bolts that hold the rockers down had one completely loose, and the head bolts were all way below torque. Previous owner is a land of contrasts.
holy shit lmao, do you have a strap wrench? That might work by attacking the bolt from the outside, I dunno though, I use it on pipes, something small like a head bolt might be too small to wrap the strap
I've got two nuts on the stud jammed up, but it just backs the jamnuts when I try to work it loose and fucks up the threads unfortunately. The other one came right on out when I was removing the not snugged down headers to get this job started, so no fuckin clue how this one got so stuck. Soaking it in Jack spray (way better than wd-40 fwiw) and I'll try again in an hour or two but I think it's just going to be a wire wheel and weld a nut on resolution when I get over to a friend's house with a working welder.
Your situation sounds pretty dire. Good luck with your next attempt. The last resort I can possibly think of is temperature of the metal itself, like for example if you're working in a cold garage. I got shit that only leaks on my car motor if the temperature gets down in the 20s. After driving a bit and the engine warms up the gaskets get snug and the leak quits. Edit: 20F I mean, not C.
It's definitely not heated out there but it's just in the 40s-50s (f) lately, so torching it might do the job. I might try cleaning all the flammables off it this evening and hitting it with a torch, but I suspect I'll end up at my friend's joint tacking a nut on tomorrow. The other option is used Buell heads, but hotting up this bike is the complete opposite of my plans.. I already hotted up my Honda thumper that I had to pull apart and am now stymied by back-ordered parts to fix a case leak.
Hell yeah, got the heads torqued down on the brand new head and base gaskets, went to torque down the pushrod tube retainer bolts and hey presto the front two pulled the aluminum threads straight out of the case. Gonna have the pull the front head and jug off to drill and helicoil the holes. :live-slug-reaction:
