E30 Zone

Since adjusting the valve clearences there's been a bit of oil leaking from the rocker cover gasket. Its a new gasket so I thought that I probably just needed to tighten the nuts a bit. So I used a torque wrench set to 11 lb ft as suggested in Bentleys.

Guess what - I still managed to snap off on of the studs

Can I just replace the stud?? If so is it an easy job?? Any ideas how much oil I'll get through before I can change it????

Your help would be much appreciated.....

Cheers

You cando this moderately easily, it depends how tight the remaining part is.

You need a set of stud extractors. These can be cheap, but buy a good make. Drill a hole down the centre of the old stud. The stud extractor may work, or it may snap. You have to be gentle.

To try and prevent this, soak it well with WD40 first for at leasta day. Then take a piece of 3 mm steel rod, use it as a drift and give it agood hard thump a few times. Be careful not to slip and damage the aluminium head.

Take your time over this job. If you rush it and break the stud extractor, it'll be much more difficult. Obviously heat would help, but you would probably need to take the head off to heat it properly and safely.

I know how you feel. Had something the same with one of the things threaded. Got hold of a helicoil set to repair the thread, haven;t used it yet but looks like it will do a good job. If you try the stud extractors but ruin the thread then you could try the helicoil kit to repair the head, only cost about Ԛ£30 for the set.

sabrje wrote: So I used a torque wrench set to 11 lb ft as suggested in Bentleys.

Guess what - I still managed to snap off on of the studs

The rocker cover studs should only be done up to 10Nm, not 11 lb ft. This may be why you broke it.

11 lb ft is almost 15Nm. Still not very much I grant you, but more than it should be.

Ian.