One of the pressure plate bolt holes on my Fidanza is damaged and now, I need to remove the flywheel.

Anyway, I now need to break the flywheel bolts, bolts that were secured using red loctite. That means heat. That would be all well and good but, there are 4.25 quarts of flammable liquid right next to those bolts. I'm not too keen on using the butane torch I'd normally use.

So, those of you who are removed flywheels secured with red loctite, how did you do it without burning your car to the ground?

 

it doesn't take that much heat. Apply the heat and as soon as you see smoke apply the tool and remove the bolt.

 

The flash point of gear oil is something like 400 degrees or higher, but you would still have to get a flame to it to make it ignite at that temperature, so I don't think I would worry about what is inside.

 

Indeed, the oil (engine oil, actually) probably will not ignite. The worry is the bit of oil and grime that is on the outside of the engine, I suppose. And, in addition, the rear main seal. Have you guys been able to remove the flywheel without damaging the rear main seal? I'm not ready to replace it just yet.

 

I slightly damaged my flywheel bolts trying to get them out, but they all came out after some work(no torch). I replaced them with new bolts from DaveB. I think you would be remiss to not replace the rear main seal while the flywheel is off, but then you might as well get the upper oil pan, also. It's kind of a lot of work, but you'll be glad you did it. My rear-main wasn't really leaking, but I replaced it while in there because the pan was leaking. However, to each his own.

 

Eh, I'm leak free and I don't want to try to change it right now. The car has been on the jack stands for a week and I'm really missing it. If I think it's possible to repair the damaged threads in the flywheel without taking it off the car, I'm not going to take it off.

 

Oh, I got it. I thought you meant the flywheel bolts. Reading>me. The pressure plate bolts should be able to be removed with an easy out. Drill slow and straight with a cobalt bit of the matched size, get deep enough for a good bite, and gently apply pressure until your bolt twists. Patience is key.

 

O, that's not quite it either, haha. Let me explain properly.

A pressure plate bolt hole stripped out today and so, I plan on fixing it with a threaded insert. In fact, I may just install threaded fasteners in all the pressure plate bolt holes. In order to do so, I was concerned that I would have to remove the flywheel and so, I'd have to break the flywheel bolts that have been secured with red loctite. Needing heat, I am concerned that I might damage the rear main seal, which isn't leaking as far as I can tell. Damaging it would mean that I would have to drop the upper oil pan, which is a job I cannot afford to do at the moment, because I just want to get my car running again.