Removing Cam Bolts /Cam Gears

[ktm]

Any tricks or tips to removing these? Need to do the head gaskets and haven't been successful with the air gun. I am planning on getting a 1 1/8th wrench to hold the cam and then use a breaker bar.

Any other suggestions or advice?


Thanks

[Wayne Presley]

They can be tight...

http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/cc175/vcpinjectionpb/20130531_145759_zps79f3d7b2.jpg (http://s213.photobucket.com/user/vcpinjectionpb/media/20130531_145759_zps79f3d7b2.jpg.html)

[Mechie3]

I wrap an old timing belt around the crank pulley and one around the cm pulley and hold both ends with vice grips to stop it from turning. Put some valve grinding compou d in the bolt head to help prevent the bit from slipping out and stripping the head. If it strips out, weld a Nut to it.

[ktm]

Everything went pretty well. Broke a couple of adaptors but otherwise broke loose with a bit of leverage. Used a 1 1/8 wrench on the cams and then a 10mm hex with 3' pry bars on each.

We rebuilt the heads, replaced the head gaskets, pulleys, timing belt, and water pump. Who knew a simple head gasket could be soooo expensive!

[BrandonDrums]

I wrap an old timing belt around the crank pulley and one around the cm pulley and hold both ends with vice grips to stop it from turning. Put some valve grinding compou d in the bolt head to help prevent the bit from slipping out and stripping the head. If it strips out, weld a Nut to it.

I agree with this. However it's extremely rare for this to work. You'll start ripping the timing belts or rounding out the bolts even with the grinding compound on some of these. My engines were extremely pesky so even with the official Subaru Service Tool for holding the cam gears in place I couldn't get the bolts out by 'hand'. If you're like me and don't have a welder, instead you'll want to drill the bolts (without damaging the hex part of the bolt, you'll need that to unscrew the bolts).

Keep in mind, you aren't drilling the heads completely off (and risking the bolts getting stuck in the cam gear with no head to turn), you're drilling to weaken the bolt collar to allow it to stretch a bit so you can turn them.

Here's the key though: You want to drill slowly with lots of pressure and you want to be able to sharpen your own drill bits which is actually very easy with a dremel and even easier with a bench grinder. Instead of buying the most expensive coated drill bit by itself, you can get a decent set of hardened bits and sharpen them and do the job a lot faster for less. Trust me, I know. All drill bits will dull on these bolts. Get a big set instead and sharpen them as they get dull. I actually found that the OEM sharpening job on most lowes/Home Depot bits aren't aggressive enough for hard metal A good hand-sharpening job more than doubled the performance for me. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkDe8IatSw0

I don't have a welder and I've had to get 2 sets of bolts out of out. Out of the 8 I've done (and I bought the subaru specialty tool to hold the cam gears) and only 1 of those came out by 'hand'. I used a 6 foot long pipe-on breaker-bar cheater combo with a $30 impact grade stubby hex drive bit and the bolts just started to round out on the inside but not turn.

So, take your drill-bit and drill down through the neck/collar of the cam bolt enough to weaken the bolt's collar so you can un-torque the bolt with just a breaker bar. Once your drill bit stops cutting a good amount of metal each turn, take your dremel and sharpen it.

It will take you about an hour to do all 4 but it's worth it compared to buying a welder (and risking melting the composite cam gears if you're inexperienced) or trying to take the engine to a shop to have nuts welded to it.

[Mechie3]

I agree with this. However it's extremely rare for this to work. You'll start ripping the timing belts or rounding out the bolts even with the grinding compound on some of these.

Maybe it's the type of vice grip you're using? I've done 6 or so motors this way and only rounded out 2 bolts which was because I found I had put an english hex in my 10mm spot and was doomed to fail from the start.

[BrandonDrums]

Maybe it's the type of vice grip you're using? I've done 6 or so motors this way and only rounded out 2 bolts which was because I found I had put an english hex in my 10mm spot and was doomed to fail from the start.

It could be. I have the right hex but I have regular Irwin vice-grips that only clamp at the end. Are you using the needle-nose types?

I really just think I had engines that were particularly tough to deal with. Both had been rebuilt by the dealer earlier in their life and from what I read they did seem to be far more pesky than what other folks were dealing with.