[djunified]

Hello everyone.

Well todays job was fixing the sheared off thermostat housing bolt, which due to my stupidity :angry:. Luckily, the bolt that sheared off was the upper left, so access to it was easy. I managed to drill through the old bolt, and go with the old nut and bolt routine. Once the coil pack was out of the way, it looked like the rest was easy until I ran into the head of this bolt that just happened to fit a T-45 bit. Once I got it removed, coolant started trickling out, but not too much was lost as I got the nut and bolt for the thermostat tightened quickly. I put that special looking bolt back in and tightened it down. What I am now wondering if it was one of those torque-to-yield head bolts that I just finished reading about now. From what I read, they cannot be reused. I don't have much experience with cars, so maybe you guys can help me out. Thanks

 

[prismatic]

Head bolts aren't torx.

When I tore my Vulcan down the only places I found torx were on the idler pully and the lower intake manifold.

 

[djunified]

Thanks for the reply. I kind of figured it held some part of the intake manifold, but I just wanted to make sure.

 

[Dubeckyj]

The head bolts are the bolts that hold the cylinder head to the engine block. As Prismatic said, your bolt was from the lower intake manifold. Just FYI, the LIM has coolant passages from the heads to your t-stat housing, which is why coolant came out when you took the bolt off. But underneath the LIM is the lifter valley, which is all oil-lubricated. Pull your dipstick and see if it looks milky. There's a chance coolant now dripped down into the lifter valley and mixed with the oil.