well i was trying to help my pop out by changing his alternator, water pump and thermostat on his 93 3.0l xlt and the water pump came out no problem, but the thermostat bolts sheared off. i've tried soaking them in pb blaster, and i've tried using a torch on the aluminum to brake loose the bolts, but so far it's not working. dad's talking about scrapping the van. i know that i if i had a 90* impact drill i could drill it out, but i don't have a compressor w enough air capacity and i don't have the tool.

now he wants to return all the parts we bought for it (get about 400 bux back) plus sell a couple parts (maybe another 200) and then scrap it for 200... and he has brand new rubber worth 400... so we might go that route, since i found some nice 4wd's on c/l.

but to fix THIS problem, what would you guys do? pull the lower intake manifold off and bench tap it?

 

well, I had both bolts broken. It is a really roblem when hard steel bolts brake in soft alloy. well, this is trivial problem anyway. Last week we had manyfold bolt broken on Mecedes OM 501LA engine. Hardered bolt in cast iron block...... we spent 4 hours to drill it out.

Try not to brake them. Do all carefully, do not use impact wrench. Heating helps. But be carefull, really carefull, becouse you may damage gaskets. Is the Thermostat bad? may be it is not the time to chage it )) LOL

when we got bolt heads broken we welded 10mm nut (for 17 mm socket) to piece of bolt and screwed it out. It works!

if you'll get them broken againe.... drill them out.

If you'll get thread damaged, rethead to M9X1. and use 9mm bolts.

you may remove air intake and do on desk.

Anyway, it is not so big unsolvable problem making you nock walls with yoir head...

 

well, I had both bolts broken. It is a really roblem when hard steel bolts brake in soft alloy. well, this is trivial problem anyway. Last week we had manyfold bolt broken on Mecedes OM 501LA engine. Hardered bolt in cast iron block...... we spent 4 hours to drill it out.

Try not to brake them. Do all carefully, do not use impact wrench. Heating helps. But be carefull, really carefull, becouse you may damage gaskets. Is the Thermostat bad? may be it is not the time to chage it )) LOL

when we got bolt heads broken we welded 10mm nut (for 17 mm socket) to piece of bolt and screwed it out. It works!

if you'll get them broken againe.... drill them out.

If you'll get thread damaged, rethead to M9X1. and use 9mm bolts.

you may remove air intake and do on desk.

Anyway, it is not so big unsolvable problem making you nock walls with yoir head...

 

It's not too big a job removing the lower intake manifold and drill out the bolts on a bench. Worse comes to worst, you can always find a lower intake at the local junkyard.

I would stay away from the impact tools as they will crack the manifold in no time at all.

Good luck.

 

You can also try those extractor type drill bits. They are designed to cut with the drill spinning in reverse. The hard part is keeping them on the hardened bolt body, and away from the soft aluminum.

This kind of problem is usually caused by moisture getting into the threads and causing corrosion, most of the time from coolant leaking past the thermostat gasket. You can prevent it in the future by really sealing the gasket, applying some anti-sieze on the bolt thread, use stainless steel bolts, or all of the above.

 

well the car had two modes of coolant temp: hot and almost over heating. the coolant was sludge and rust water and it looked like the thermostat housing was leaking. also thermostat barely opens by hand... new one opens up good

we (well he did while i went job hunting) went to foster autoparts to buy a new L.I.M., and found one for 40 bux. good deal too! came w both fuel rails and fpr and all six injectors. dad and i just removed U.I.M. might replace the vaccume lines while we're in there... lol

any tips on cleaning the iacv?

 

yeah the bolt extractor didn't work. it looked like the thermostat was leaking a bit... going to buy stainless steel bolts and use both the paper and rtv sealer to help prevent leakage again.

 

anyway the problem is trivial. do you have bolt heads roundes ore broken now? if not, try to use acid. First step - try vinegar, then acid from battery (with syringe suck a bit from battery)....

 

the heads sheared off. i'll try practicing the acid trick for future reference, but this manifold is garbage, my dad tried to drill them out so we could tap them the next size up and it got crooked and all sorts of messed up ness

 

so you look for a manyfold.... ((

 

Those are very plentiful in most scrap yards. I don't know if there were different types for different years, though those gasket kits I've gotten seem to suggest there were. To be safe, just bring yours to the crap yard with you to compare.

 

I used to swap manyfolds. some tips.... if you wanna reuse gaskets use sealant. else manyfold may suck oil. pay attention to small sealing made of silicone. they may let oil go out.

 

nope this thing is getting the new treatment. all new gaskets, alternator, waterpump, plugs, cap and rotor, thermostat, and we got a new intake manifold. dad went to a truck parts place where the pull the parts for you, picked up a new manifold from a ranger for 40 bux. came with fuel rail injectors and a thermostat... lol so now we have some spare parts layin around.

any one have any tips for adjusting the valve lash on the 3.0l? we had to remove one push rod to remove the old manifold, and dad decided to remove them all to help with cleaning. manual says we need a special tool to deflate the lifters??

 

To deflate listers just press with hands on rod, but if you are strong and heavy man, do not ise to much fors becouse you may got rod bent. usally 30 kg is enought to push all oil out of lifter. Ufter inital start up valvetraine will nock for 5-20 sec till oil fill lifters.

I did not deflate them the last time I took engine apart and everrething works fine

 

huh then perhaps we will just throw it back together then see what it does