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Broken bolt in cylinder head 2.5 (Thank you Lord!)


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Well, the Haynes manual I could not find the torque specs for the camshaft bearing cap bolts for the Phase 1 2.5. However, the factory info is 14.5 ft. lbs which should be just about 174 in. lbs........which is where the #1 exhaust bearing cap on the top bolt decided to call it a day. Just at the point I'm about to stop and back it off, things broke loose. As in all the way loose. I put the torque wrench down and sat there for a minute. To my PLEASENT surprise, removing the bolt revealed the bolt had failed and not the aluminum head.

 

That I can deal with!

 

But I'm not so sure about this Harbor Freight Inch Pound 1/4 inch drive torque wrench........that I compared and verified with my 1/2" drive torque wrench at 14.5 ft. lbs before I started.

 

So either chock one up for Subaru designing the bolt to fail before the threads in the aluminum head or I got lucky. (I'll take either.)

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  • 2 weeks later...

I had no problem getting the larger bolts---the ones that fit the center and rear camshaft caps to the head---torqued to 14.5 ft. lbs which is what was specified by the few pages of the factory manual that a vendor was cool to send me. However, as for the smaller bolts that hold the front camshaft caps---the ones with the seals----I think I had one of them go to 14.5, then the next one broke as I metioned in this initial message board thread. I broke all of those loose again and ordered 8 new bolts for the front camshaft caps, then went back and reinstalled everything, stopping short of the 14.5 for the front ones---probably 10 or 11 I would guess.

 

Check the Haynes manual for the specs.---I did find the specs for the 2.2 engine and I seem to remember 120-144 in. lbs which would be 10-12 ft. lbs.; if you are using a ft. lb. torque wrench this is probably right at the bottom of the specs for the wrench, but about the middle of a smaller 1/4 inch drive in. lb. wrench.

 

I put each bolt back in the same hole it was originally in, and before fitting it all together I blasted each hole with carb cleaner, then WD 40 and trial threaded the bolts to make sure they threaded easy. When I finally installed them, I put just a shot of WD 40 on the bolts and then tightened them as per the pattern several times just a bit mo' snug ( I can say that!) before reaching the final torque values. Hope this helps!

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