Extremely corroded valve cover screws.
 

The 12 8mm collar screws bolted to the valve cover are so rusted that some requires a 7mm hex. I'm afraid of shearing the bolt, what's the best way to remove these? What can I do if i do shear them?

They've been soaking in liquid wrench for a day now.

Soaking them with penetrating oil helps and cleaning the rust off the head of the bolt so the socket can grab the best. Rocking the bolt is a technique used on other stubborn bolt with a process of loosening and tightening a bolt till you can feel the bolt thread release if you feel the thread are held on too much, then unscrew it. If the head is the problem only it might take some time as you will have to work on it one at a time tapping down the 7mm socket for a tight fit.

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Thanks and good luck.

If you twist one off some times you can just twist the nut out with a pair of vice grips or even pliers if there's enough left to grab on to. If its sheared at or below the deck you can buy easy out drill bits that you use with your drill on reverse and back them out that way.

One of the best tools for corroded screws/bolts is a hand impact driver, such as
http://www.mcmaster.com/#impact-drivers/=nl7jvl (top of the page)
This is like a screwdriver that instead of twisting you tap on the end with a hammer, and it both sends an impact through the bolt and also twists it (there's an internal cam). A few whacks with one of these and the corrosion will usually break free and you can unthread the bolt with a normal wrench. It's amazing what sorts of bolts you can get out with one of these that you were convinced were stuck for good.

I agree. A hand held impact is a super tool for this kinda thing

It's caused by rain water entering the hood scoop. If you are unlucky and break off the head, remove the rest of the screws and valve cover. you usually can extract the broken stub out of the cylinder head with a vise grip or equivalent. I've never had to drill one out of the head.

Kroil works extremely well. Buy It from Kano Labs.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...s/IMG_0750.JPG

The bolts corroded evenly around the nut
8 7 and 6mm lol

im doing mine next week and they look like that. if they know it would get wet should of went with stainless steel or something to cover them.

how long did it take u from start to finish. did u get the parts from dealer or u ordered them. gasket/ bolts

Don't mean to revive old thread but I wanted to give my 2 cents.

All of the bolts directly underneath my intercooler were corroded. So here is how I handled it.

1. Soaked in PB Blaster for a week ahead of time. You can hit all the bolts even with the intercooler still attached.
2. I used a 6 point deep 7mm socket and hammered it on to the corroded bolts. You don't need to ring the bell just a lot of little taps will do
3. Try turning the bolt after you feel like you get a good grip, if it starts twisting away try to hammer it down some more.

This is just how I had to do it, I make no guarantees that this will work but it worked on all 4 of my corroded ones. I picked up all new bolts for putting it back on, 4 with the posts and 8 of the normal looking bolts. Part numbers are above from ECS.

Good luck all future readers!

^^^^^:thumbsup::thumbsup:^^^^^

Although it may be obvious, this detail escaped me as I wondered why a number of my underbonnet bolts were rusty.

I'm about to do my valve cover gasket and have noted the rusty heads on several of the bolts. I thought I'd get new ones.
I was gobsmacked and astounded at the $ price for a new set of 12 bolts. YIKES! :eek2:

I went ahead and bit the bullet and shelled out $129 for a full set.

Does anyone know if these particular bolts have a coating?
The black ones appear to be black oxide?
What about the silver ones?
Perhaps sacrificial?

Why are they so damn expensive?

Well, the mailcarrier just dropped off my new bolts. I was expecting the longer ones to be black but they're not.

The coating appears to be zinc flake?
Like Dacromet or something?




This is my first "modern" car, I'm coming from mid 80's Saabs --- I'm not used to such shoddy fasteners but I reckon it's a universal cost-saving thing in the hypermodern automotive industrial world?

I'm so glad I researched and took note that modern bolts can suffer catastrophic corrosion and are pretty much "one use" only, like if I hadn't have got a new motormount bolt before I changed mine out it'd been a pain-in-the-arrrse because the one I removed was super scary:




So, this is the brave new world, cheap as chips and brittle as sheeit?
:impatient:

I thought it was bad enough that there's a proliferation of janky plastic anchors/fasteners/clips and such stuff,
but jeez, the quality of metal bolts has seemed to seriously suffer as well with the advent of modern times.

On top of a bit of anti-seize on threads (I use Liqui-Moly LM508), I've been spraying/coating exposed heads of bolts with a product called Fluid Film, which in my experience, has done a good job of heading off rust.

I tend to order all my OEM parts from The BMW MINI Part Store. They're the online store of a dealer in Ohio. Best prices online and fast shipping.

Also, AoxoMoxoA, thanks for the tips!