Removing effin tight cylinder head bolts

[Barkychoc]

I've been trying to remove my cylinder heads today - finally got one of them off, ended up drilling out 2 head bolts after I rounded them off.

I found a 16mm socket a better fit than the 5/8" which I assumed they are.
My 16mm sockets now look like this. Admittedly they aren't top quality but I've never broken a socket before, you just would not believe how tight those bolts are.



The only saving grace was that whoever did the heads last only fitted the main 10 bolts - I initially thought because they were highly competent but I don't think they owned a torque wrench and they had fitted 10 bolt head gaskets anyway so couldn't have fitted the lower 4 bolts.

I've just ordered a 16mm impact socket and a 3/4"F to 1/2"M drive adaptor to I can use my 3/4" 1 metre breaker bar so I'll see how I get on with that

Chris

Edited by Barkychoc on Monday 9th June 20:46

[dogbucket]

I generally tend to use 6 point sockets were possible as they are stronger and less likely to round out.