has anyone had trouble with the torx bolts on the intake, valve covers, ect.? i tried to take off my intake and valve covers and some of the bolts rounded off. now i cant take the bolts out!

 

ughh yeah that's a bad spot. A normal bolt and you can get a socket made for grabbing them.. Maybe you can chisel into the bolt and use the chisel to push it loose? I've done that a few times.

BTW, I see you're in Antioch, I'm in concord.

 

yea I saw u were from the bay area but didnt know where. I was gettin it ready to go to sac... but now i got to deal with this

 

Did you get them undone?

 

take an oversized torx and hammer it in there to get a grip and then shop for new hardware

 

i got them off today, used a chisel. took a while though.

 

I had the very front bolt on the drivers side of the engine I couldnt get out. It was siezed into the manifold. It rounded off and I couldnt get it. I ended up taking a cutting wheel to it and milling away the whole head of the bolt to get it out. took about 20 minutes, but I got it

 

That's what happens with a cheap, knock-off driver or bit. Genuine Torx licensed tools don't do that. Domestic and imported wanna-bee tools are not quite the right size and drive lobe configuration (since that would be a patent licensing violation) and can allow damage.

A proper Torx drive and fastener will sustain both higher continuous and peak moment drive force than a similarly sized hex recess (Allen head) fastener. The cheap tools are what give the system a bad name. If you use Apex drivers you won't have that problem.

 

Whenever I have a bolt like that strip out, I just grind in a slot with a dremel and a cut off disc, and get the bolt out with a flathead screwdriver. Give that a shot next time.

 

It's a VERY tight area to work in with a cutoff wheel. Some of those bolts you barely see, let alone get at with a dremel.