My ‘05 OBXT journal

[RumblyXT]

Is there a particular installation orientation to the 1/2 moon clips?

They all have this indentation on one of their sides, does it matter how they’re installed or can go either way?

[xt2005bonbon]

I don't think it matters.

[RumblyXT]

I had the Left Head cam cap RTVed & torqued without any problems at all..

Then as I’m torquing the outer cam cap bolts on the Right head, this happens.. ^%*#*^!! 

I should have stopped.. the outer bolts need more torque but definitely got over-torqued. I felt like I was doing too many rotations but the wrench wasn’t reaching torque.. it wasn’t clicking, as I’m thinking in my head something is wrong, the bolt snapped, damn it! 

 

Edited April 27, 2023 by RumblyXT

[xt2005bonbon]

Is this a bolt for the cam caps? Ah man. That sucks.

[Enlight]

Yeah, but think about how good it's gonna feel when you extract that bolt

[KZJonny]

Ugh. I feel ya man, happens to the best of us. I snapped a bolt of inside the wet clutch on one of my motorcyles doing the same sort of thing. Trusted the torque wrench too much, should have listened to the nagging feeling it was too tight.

I cursed a whole bunch for a while. Threw that torque wrench in the trash and got a better one.

Spent a while carefully drilling out the remains of that bolt and backing it out...

Good luck with yours man! Are you lucky enough there is maybe enough to get a stud extractor on?

 

[xt2005bonbon]

Good reminder about using a good torque wrench. When I rebuilt my engine, I also had a bad feeling about mine. And yep, mine was not working right either, but the other way around (provided lower torque than what you thought). And I was torquing the heads to the block! Critical step too. Anyway, I caught it when I had that feeling...

Good luck OP. Take a break, go surf or something :). Come back and start with a fresh mind!

[RumblyXT]

I swear, sometimes the best torque wrench (especially for low torque applications) is the hand itself right on top of the ratchet.

I’ll get it out tomorrow.. next time, I’ll put some oil on the bolt threads.

Thanks for the encouraging words guys.

 

Edited April 27, 2023 by RumblyXT

[RumblyXT]

2 hours ago, KZJonny said:

Are you lucky enough there is maybe enough to get a stud extractor on?

 

Hmm.. you gave me an idea. I was planning on drilling it out, but I might be able to get it out with a spiral flute type bolt extractor. Thankfully the broken piece is not too deep in.

Something like this might work.. I wonder if you can just buy one instead of the whole set.

Edited April 27, 2023 by RumblyXT

[KZJonny]

Oh man. Never visit the rust belt.

I use those on every job I do that involves a car. I have 2 sets in different sizes, and it’s nearly time to replace the small set some are getting dull, haha!

They work really well, as long as you have enough for them to grab.

Edited April 27, 2023 by KZJonny

[RumblyXT]

It's my first broken stud.. thankfully no rust issues in South FL.

I was also thinking of drilling the center and hammering a small hex key to remove it. It's not much of a bolt left, but the hole is small so kind of difficult for an extractor.

 

[RumblyXT]

Fwiw, this also served as a lesson to not apply so much sealant on the cam cap (even though I thought I went pretty light with it). But after I removed the cap, the oil ports were partially covered with RTV after they were torqued. No wonder why the manual mentions to not overdo it with sealant.

Everything happens for a reason I guess. We all really do have that six sense and we must learn to listen to it. 

Edited April 28, 2023 by RumblyXT

[RumblyXT]

Much easier than I thought. Thank God!

I’m going to buy 4 new bolts as more than two might have been stressed, just to be safe.

And I’m ditching that cheap HF torque wrench just in case..

Edited April 28, 2023 by RumblyXT

[rhino6303]

1 hour ago, RumblyXT said:

Fwiw, this also served as a lesson to not apply so much sealant on the cam cap (even though I thought I went pretty light with it). But after I removed the cap, the oil ports were partially covered with RTV after they were torqued. No wonder why the manual mentions to not overdo it with sealant.

Everything happens for a reason I guess. We all really do have that six sense and we must learn to listen to it. 

I always use a toothpick or something similar to put in the oil ports when installing the cap to keep the oil channel clear.

[RumblyXT]

1 hour ago, rhino6303 said:

I always use a toothpick or something similar to put in the oil ports when installing the cap to keep the oil channel clear.

Dude.. That’s a great idea! Haha So you place them in the channels, install the caps, then pull the toothpick.. is that what you mean? 

[RumblyXT]

Well.. I tested the HF Torque Wrench this morning at 3 different torques throughout its range capacity which is: 20-200 in/lbs. I applied (5, 10 & 15 ft-lbs = 60, 120 & 180 in-lbs respectively).. with a bolt held tight on the bench vice.

All torques applied clicked and each felt progressively stronger, having to apply more force than the previous x1, x2 & x3 the force.. I know this is not “the ideal test”, since I don’t have a digital gauge to display the applied torque..

But my conclusion is it wasn’t the Torque Wrench that was bad, it was operator error on my part. I kept applying torque surpassing the given FSM value because the bolt kept rotating in its place.

The outer cam cap bolts get torqued at (14.5 ft-lb/ 174 in-lb). That’s really not much torque at all. I’ll be more cautious next time.

Edited April 28, 2023 by RumblyXT

[KZJonny]

2 hours ago, RumblyXT said:

Well.. I tested the HF Torque Wrench this morning at 3 different torques throughout its range capacity which is: 20-200 in/lbs. I applied (5, 10 & 15 ft-lbs = 60, 120 & 180 in-lbs respectively).. with a bolt held tight on the bench vice.

All torques applied clicked and each felt progressively stronger, having to apply more force than the previous x1, x2 & x3 the force..

My conclusion is it wasn’t the Torque Wrench that is bad, it was operator error on my part. I kept applying torque surpassing the given FSM value because the bolt kept rotating in its place.

The outer cam cap bolts get torqued at (14.5 ft-lb/ 174 in-lb). That’s really not much torque at all. I’ll be more cautious next time.

Sooooo without getting into all the details of it, I would suggest you still get yourself a new torque wrench if you're ever going to do this kind of thing again. I spent a lot of time learning about them after I broke a couple bolts rebuilding my first engine years ago.. (my motorcycle as before, good place to learn the basics of engines...)

The long and short of it is that most torque wrenches have a rated +/- acceptable variance around the value that they are set for. I think we all "get" this and know that they're not perfect, but probably better than 'mechanics feel' and guessing for high importance fasteners: head bolts, valve cover bolts, cam caps, etc....

HOWEVER, what is often overlooked is that the +/- variance, especially of cheapo wrenches, is relative to the maximum value of the range of the wrench. In your case, let's say the torque wrench has an acceptable variance of 2%. What that means is that it is 2% of the 200lb maximum of the wrench, therefore: 200 x 0.02 = 4lbs.

Doesn't seem so bad right? Except that it is +/-, so for example, @ 100ft/lbs setting on the wrench, you are going to be theoretically anywhere from 96 to 104 ft/lbs. Okay, not too bad.

But what happens when you're waaay down at the delicate end of the wrenches range? Let's set that wrench to the minumum of 20ft/lbs. +/- 4lbs.... You might be anywhere from 16 to 24 ft/lbs!! Not awesome on a small fastener.

Phew!

Anyway, this doesn't mean throw out the wrench, just maybe keep it for lug nuts. The solution is to have multiple torque wrenches with small ranges. Like a wrench that does 20-50 ft/lbs, then one for 50-to 150 ft/lbs maybe, etc... The one you have should be pretty accurate at the top end at least. OR you can buy torque wrenches with very high accuracy and a small +/- variance in torque application, but that is where costs tend to get really high really fast.....

TL:DR - Cheap, one size fits all torque wrenches break shit. Buy expensive, or buy several with specific ranges.

EDIT: Sorry, I missed that the wrench was 200 INCH LBS. Not Ft/lbs. This does change the equation a little, but not a lot. The math is the same, only everything gets turned down to in/lbs. Theory remains the same too, where a 20-100 inch pound wrench is better than a 20-200... etc...

Edited April 28, 2023 by KZJonny

[xt2005bonbon]

Good job OP. Yeah, always go easy on the RTV. I was going to post earlier and thought you put a little much RTV for the oil pan too. Already done though.

I bet now that I said this, you will worry about it

[RumblyXT]

I totally get what you’re saying KZJonny.

And you are correct, I saw yesterday when searching for one, the more accurate ones for low torque get really expensive, in the $200+ range.. I’d like to get either a Japanese or American one, they probably have much better quality control.

Before I bought this cheap one from HF, I watched a video where this guy was comparing about 8 different wrenches from different manufacturers and crazy enough, the HF one seem to be among the top. It’s acceptable variance is (+/-4).. it seems it depends if you get a good one or not. This one, from “feeling” it giving torque seems to be working fine for all the torque settings I’m giving.

 I just finished torquing everything on the Right head (cam caps and cam cover).. I’m going to re-check the Left one, don’t want to leave it with the doubt there was liquid gasket in the oil channels.. 

Right cam cap..

Edited April 28, 2023 by RumblyXT

[RumblyXT]

By the way, I took the spare cap bolts from the ej255, don’t want to delay this any longer.. when I re-torqued the Right cam cap, the bolt that broke started doing the same.. not getting its torque. I’m afraid it could actually be the threads, but they seem fine.

I really felt if I kept going with the torque, the same might have happened.. So this time I didn’t go all the way, was very careful and gave it 1/2-3/4 turns more and left it there. 

Fingers crossed!  

Edited April 28, 2023 by RumblyXT

[RumblyXT]

My music while wrenching in the garage.. really like anything from Andy Hunter, Paul Oackenfold, Tiesto, etc.

This song was the cover for an old PS2 game: SSX from the late 90s- early 00s..

Dear Lord, time flies.. 

 

 

[xt2005bonbon]

You like trance and stuff huh. Then you must like Armin Van Buuren and PVD. I only liked Armin up until ~2004-2005. After that, trance became poopoo. Carl Cox is not bad either. Slower BPM but he has some good live mixes too.

I listen to that stuff when I go to the gym or hit a DH trail . Careful listening to this late at night driving a turbo car..

Edited April 28, 2023 by xt2005bonbon

[KZJonny]

14 minutes ago, xt2005bonbon said:

I listen to that stuff when I go to the gym or hit a DH trail . Careful listening to this late at night driving a turbo car..

I still dig some of the really old trance, and still think Tranceport is a great album by Oakenfold.

A thing I concur with tho, is being very careful about what you put on when you're alone on a highway at night. Playing The Crystal Method loud enough to drown out the engine and being 2 coffees deep into a long drive can = some very seriously, unintentionally high cruising speeds...... 

[RumblyXT]

I’m glad I re-checked. The oil channels on the left head are covered with RTV..

Time to redo it..

 

 

How it’s supposed to look.

Right Head intake cam (no RTV in oil channels).

Edited April 28, 2023 by RumblyXT

[xt2005bonbon]

Is this a banjo bolt with a filter in it? (bottom left of the pic)