Bit of bad luck I suppose. I just went to re-torque the head nuts on my hatch tonight and one of the studs that holds the rocker arm assembly on is stripped. It went in fine and torqued up fine, but I guess the heat cycles must have stripped it.

 

I've put about 200km on the motor since I did the Head-gasket this summer and everything seems okay so far. I'm about to take the car 2 hours out of town tomorrow so I guess I'll keep my fingers crossed.

 

anyone else have similar experiences? I know for a fact I drove this car at least 100km last winter with one head nut missing entirely (fell into oil pan) and another on the same side finger tight. PLUS a completely stripped stud on the opposite side. I'm amazed that's even possible.

 

Reminder to self - never buy another "fixer-upper" with an all aluminum engine.

I've done a lot of head gaskets and I've never stripped one yet. Your experience is not typical. The history on your engine is probably to blame.

 

It is relatively easy to heli-coil all of them when it's apart. I haven't needed to do it, but other's here have.

 

If nothing is warped, it probably won't blow the head gasket if a single stud is stripped. Many engines don't have but 4 studs around each cylinder. The Subaru engines have 5.

 

GD

as always GD, you're the man!

 

Good to know.

 

yea, I've had no luck at all with this motor. It's be "worked" on before by previous owners so I'm sure you know how that goes. There were a couple of really new looking studs in the block. I should have replaced all the head studs while it was open but I'm not employed and its only a winter beater... too much rust to bother fixing up properly. More than one heli-coil on any block starts to get a little embarrassing :S

 

The weird thing is that the bolts that hold the rocker arms on (the one that stripped) were the ones that were in the best shape! they had the least signs of corrosion and the threads where the cleanest of the bunch! Go figure!

the rocker arm assembly has worked itself loose on the side with the stripped bolt.

 

Is it possible to remove the head and heli-coil that hole without removing the engine from the car? it looks tight by do-able.

Yeah - you should have no trouble doing the heli-coil with the engine in place.

 

GD

What do folks helicoil with if the head stud is 11mm x 1.25?

are they not available?

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/20-NEW-M11-X-1-25-X-16-5mm-Helicoil-Thread-Inserts-/300664237144?_trksid=p2141725.m3641.l6368

What do folks helicoil with if the head stud is 11mm x 1.25?

You are confusing us.  The head stud is usually the cylinder head bolt.  The camshaft head bolts are different and much smaller diameter.  Just take one of those bolts to the auto parts store and they will measure it and set you up with the right size helicoil kit.  And then you will need a drill bit of the exact size printed on the helicoil kit face.  Putting some thread locker in the hole before you finally set the helicoil, is not a bad idea.

Wow.  I thought with the rarity of the bolts / studs the same would be true for helicoils.

Amazing!

Sometimes the two long head bolts that also hold down the rocker shafts strip out in the block by using an impact gun to remove them.  I usually pull those out by hand for that reason. The helicoil method has worked for me in the past.

Edited May 15, 201510 yr by Crazyeights