Okay, before I rupture what squirrels eat, anyone have a trick to breaking loose the exhaust cam gear bolts? I'm doing my 3.5 swap and have the new motor on the stand. I've pulled just about all the timing equipment except the exhaust cam gears. I have tried breaking them loose with a 30" breaker bar holding the cam with another wrench and just can't break them loose. Those bolts are only supposed to be torqued to 85 lbs, so I'm stumped. I'd like to hear some suggestions or tricks form those who have done it before to see if I am just missing something or if there is some reason they should be that stubborn. I sure hope someone has a suggestion before I resort to using an impact wrench and risk fracturing the cams.

Helpful comments are very much appreciated.

 

Put a cheater bar on the breaker bar. You're doing it the right way though, so dont worry about that.

Im surprised yours are that hard. Mine were no harder than the int cam bolts, which were tough, but couldnt stand up to my 3ft breaker bar.

Worse come to worse I dont see the problem with using an impact on it. Obviously dont hold it there for more than 2-3 seconds at a time. As long as the cam itself is still bolted to the head you SHOULDN'T have any issues with fracturing it. Soak the bolt in PB blaster for a few minutes before attempting. I've taken off cam bolts before with a 250tq/500tq (set to the low setting) impact with no problems.

 

Are you having any trouble with the wrench on the cam moving?
I loosend up the cam bolts with all the timing stuff still hooked up and something holding the flywheel.

 

The wrench on the cam is holding just fine. I may try using a wood block between the wrench and the head to help fix the wrench on the cam so I can focus my energy on the breaker bar. I wish I had tried the cam gear bolts before removing all the timing equipment.

 

Looks like an impact wrench is my only option at this point. The wood block started to split under the force, so I backed off of it.

 

Sorry to revive an old thread, figure it's nice to close a thread with a solution though.

I ran into the same problem when a bolt from my VIAS system fell into my engine. I ended up using a 24mm wrench and wrapped a chain through the circular end of the wrench and then around part of the car (see pic). I used a couple bolts and bolted the chain to itself (again, see pic). An 18 inch breaker bar took care of the rest. It was still a tough bolt to break loose.

If the image doesn't work catch me on facebook. facebook.com/theaaronadrian

 

Can you get your hands on a longer wrench for keeping the exhaust cam in place?