Irritated...

I over torqued a valve cover bolt so I had to remove the valve cover to extract the broken bit and when I did I found this:

I think I'm more irritated at the fact that I don't have all the parts together that I want for being in the engine this deep than I am about the broken head bolt...

I also think it's a bit odd that a broken bolt would find its way to that resting spot without a bit of "help"...

This is the same "previous owner" who left me a bag of goodies in the "spare" transmission

Good times

oh, if you look closely (down and to the left of the head bolt) you can see the valve cover stud I was in there to get.

Think of it this way, it was a divine intervention.

Nah, just divine postponement

I ordered the "Inline Six Power Manual" a couple weeks ago, it should be making its way over here soon... then the fun begins!

I loved working on strait 6's The ford strait 6 200 was my favorite you could take it apart starting after lunch, rebuild the head and the carb and have it back together by dinner.

That aint to bad at least it is a center one. That would probably run that way for years. I am a bit nuts I would try and get the bolt out with out removing the head. Get a revers drill that you can get at the remainder of the bolt. It may just spin out. IF not then get a bolt extractor with an extension and tap it in the hole in the bolt that you jsut drilled and see if it grabs and you can spin the bolt out. Being it is a 6 I would not spend to much time on it. If it was a V6 or V8 especially a modern one I would try the extraction first as I hate removing all the tubing wiring and all the other stuff. The actual head and manifold removal is easy . I am in mid head gasket replacement on my 94 mustang and if it was not for all the other junk I have had do deal with that is not related directly to the motor it would not be that bad a job. BUT there are more wires vacuum lines coolant tubes and brackets that have to come off. I literally spent 4-5 hours getting all the stuff off. The heads exhaust manifolds and intakes took 20 minutes with the exception of one stripped head bolt and once I had the proper tool to grab the stripped bolt it was simple.

And while I am rattling on. My car is a 94. A 94-95 top end gasket kit for my car is about $70. For a 96-97 it is about 170. I know realise that I should have put the another 94 motor in my car and not the 97 that I did put in there.

Try a pick 1st see if you can spin the rest of the bolt down in the hole if so grab a 1/8 arc welding rod set welder to about 110amps and jam it down the hole quickthe flux will keep the sides from arcing you want to jam it quick so the rod just spot weld to the bolt then kill the power and let the rod cool and spin it out and replace.

I figured I could have it out over a weekend with my current facilities (working in front of a garage the car wont fit in, on a grass driveway with waffle-board) but I figured my "since I'ze in here" would drag the project out an extra day or so

I'm really wondering if the previous owner replaced the valve seats with hardened replacements... I'm guessing that since I've been running unleaded for about a year now without any issues that it's probably good to go.

hey, since I'ze gonna be in there, I wonder if I could find a Hungarian machinist to do some head work for me?

since it's been running just fine for you for a while now, i'd say to just put the valve cover back on and pretend you never saw the broken bolt.

Back the rest out with a pick, drop in a new one and re torque the head.

The guy before me owned the car for 16 years, so really there's no telling how long its been in there like that... Maybe I will just put it off until I'm ready to "get into the engine". Besides that will allow me more time to collect parts.

Then again, if I get bored when the wife visits the states in September...