Yeah, i'm going after the head gasket on my 81 L24. i finally got the head off and found a wicked gap in the gasket and the #6 full of water, but in the process i definitely made things complicated breaking one of the bolts. Does anyone know where to find head bolts for this engine? Even if i get em i still have the problem of getting out the old bolt.

 

Well, you can probably still get the head bolts from the dealer. As for getting the broken bolt, you can try reverse drill bit for removing that. That or you just drill out the hole, and retap.

S

 

Yeah, so the dealer had a few, which is all i need. Thanks for the tip! It actually hadn't occured to me to call the dealer. I'm probably going to try vice grips on the small amount of the bolt that protruding from the block, and if that doesn't work i'm going to pick up some reverse drill bits.

 

You might want to have a bolt hole tapping kit just in case.

S

 

...or a helicoil kit?

 

Yeah! What he said! One of those.

 

Sarin,
You ddo or don't know what helicoil is? If not I can explain better.

 

I do, I just didn't think of it when you came up with it. Those come in real handy for rethreading a hole. I've used a couple of them on my 88 ranger when it broke the starter off.

S

 

Yeah, they're a good thing to have around. The local hardware stores don't carry them in metric, though. When I need those I have to order from McMaster Carr and purchase in whatever their minimum quantity is. Bogus.

 

Try looking for Helicoil kits on eBay. I picked up an M6 and an M8 kit recently for less than $15.00 each shipped. Of course, it takes a little longer to get them that way, but if you're not in a hurry, you can save some cash!

 

No new engine for me. The one i found was kinda sketchy with no mileage available and the guy was really pressing me saying that he'd sell it but someone was coming the next day to pick it up and so on. I'm just going to drill mine and helicoil it. I found some helicoils at an idustrial supply store in town, so i figure i'll at least try that. I really wanted to go with the l28et but no cash or time to do an overhaul.