I got the engine out of my daughters car this morning and stripped the 12 points from one of the flex plate (flywheel) bolts. Has anyone ever done this before? What did you do?

I believe these are stretch to yield bolts and must be replaced anyway. I'm thinking about chiseling the heads off, but the surface on the plate looks like aluminum, so I'm a little afraid to get rough with it.

Any suggestions?

Have a great day,

I have gotten bolts like this out by putting a pair of vice grips on it really tight and turning them off this way. Another way I removed a bell housing to engine block bolt that I had "rounded" off the hex was to actually cut the head off using a pneu grinder and after I pulled the block out of the way I was able to just turn the remaining part of the bolt out.

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Jim

Jim,

You don't understand, these are 12 point stretch bolts that it takes around 100 ft/lbs or more to get them to budge.

I think I will be okay with this. The crankshaft is micing okay so far. I will be able to leave the flex plate attached and pull it through the hole in the engine to trans adapter.

My next problem is more of a challenge, a slipping rod bolt.

Thanks,

Larry, I did that once on a BMW 2002. It has six point bolts, but I did it anyway. I had to grind the bolt head off,sacrificing the flywheel due to gouges from the grinder. I was then faced with a stub protruding from the end of the crankshaft. I got it out by placing the end of the crank in a bucket with penetrating oil for a week. The trick then was to use a torch to really heat the remainder of the bolt and then using vise grips to turn it. With the flywheel out of the way, there was no pressure against the bolt and it came right out.

Steve Hutson

Yikes, Déjà vu.

In addition to all the excellent suggestions already mentioned, there are two others, one of which you probably already know about – an “easy out”. Although at 100 ft. lbs., that would make me a bit sweaty. Used *in conjunction* with some of the other ideas, it may give you better capability to apply torque though.

As a last resort for getting bolts out of anything, there are machine shops that can remove bolts with an electrical process. They essentially use a strong arc that burns the obstinate bolt out of the surrounding metal. It even works on a bolt that has an easy-out snapped off in it. Not cheap, but effective.

Good Luck!
RTH