Slight oil leak / broken hex bolt

[seapadrik]

Hello All,

Long time since I checked in with the forum.

First some background and then a few questions. After my complete overhaul of engine, I unfortunately had to re-open up the rear housing in the boat to replace my reversing gear. After reassembling everything on-site the engine has run like a charm. I have however noticed a slight oil leak ( which gets mopped up my some pads I keep under the engine).

Upon inspection, I found the oil leak to be coming from the port side rear of engine where it meets the oil pan. I checked those 5/16 hex bolts and to my surprise they were not completely tightened. I then brought out my impact driver and 6 inch extension and was able to reach down and tighten those.

Until.......You know where this is going...I ripped that head right of that hex bolt. I broke it off just minutes after I took this photo. From frying pan into the fryer. In spite of this, the oil leak is not ridiculous amounts of oil.

So, I guess i should just try and do a very small drill-bit into the center of this hex bolt ? the material seems soft enough. Should I try the ez out ?

Also, assuming I get lucky and get that out, should I try and pry that up and inch or so and insert some permatex into that seal ? or just lock it down tight ( but not so tight I rip the head off again ! ) ?

Thanks

[Al Schober]

Definitely NOT an EZout! When you break that sucker off, you'll have a real problem.
I'd recommend a 1/4" LEFT hand drill bit. That's about the tap drill size for the 5/16 thread. I suspect the left hand drill will get into the broken bolt a bit and just back it out.

[ndutton]

Good luck with the leak repair. In the picture, the electrical ground rod clamp is for . . . . . . ???

[Dave Neptune]

An opin

s, personally I would not touch it!! If the leak is minimal and manageable I'd use the boat and enjoy it for a while.

Now RE the twisted of bolt. From the "head piece" of the broken bolt you should be able to tell how much would be protruding. This protruding piece may be very easy to extract once apart with a channel lock or vice grip after a bit of peenng and soaking. If you try to drill it out and have an issue it will need to come apart anyway.

Is the oil leaking under the gasket or coming out of the bolt hole? If it is the bolt hole you may just bond a plug/cap over it and the leak will be gone for a while until you have time to disassemble and fix.

Dave Neptune

[seapadrik]

Alright,

Thanks for the responses as always. The leak is coming from the gasket and is can definitely be put off til winter.

At that point I can try to slightly elevate it and remove with vice grips, then on to other means if that fails.( left hand bit, etc..)

Neil, regarding that bracket. I had to replace the entire reverse gear assembly shortly after reinstalling my overhauled engine. This being done in my engine compartment. The short of it is, there was some travel ( about 2 or so inches ) from left to right on the cross shaft that moved the reversing band brace in a position that was just slipping off. I looked in my tool box for any bracket I could find and threw that on there to reduce that travel a bit. Now that things are all hooked up again its most likely not needed.

Cheers

[ndutton]

Necessity is the mother of invention. Pretty resourceful.

[Mo]

Buddy that's a welder??

If there is enough of a nob sticking up you could also try welding nut onto the end of the stub. I do that quiet often in those situations. I use my small mig welder (110V) and tack a nut on it welding inside the hole of the nut right to the stud. If you know someone who can weld and has such a small mig it's worth doing...once the end of the stud is torn up it's much harder to do.

Once the nut is tacked on you put a socket and rachet on it and it turns right out. Let it cool first and the heat created during the weld also helps free rust...I've never had an issue doing that.