So after reading up on the Cardisc and reading all the extremely detailed threads on timing belt replacement and gotchas to watch out for (thank you Alfisto Steve, Black Alfa, Sean, Jason, and everyone else) I felt comfortable enough that I could tackle the timing belt change with the help of my Fiat guru father-in-law keeping me in check.
Everything was going extremely well, cams lined up with Rick's template at TDC, got the belt on, put the brand spanking new waterpump on with new gasket and gasket sealer on both sides of gasket, start to put back in the twelve bolts connecting the pump to the head, and on the last bolt......I think I stripped the threads or broke the bolt.
At this point it was late in the day, and rather than try to work any further on it I decided it would be better to come back to it after getting some rest, and didn't want to face what had happened and so didn't pull it out to see what had happened.
I found one other thread here where this has happened to someone (Sean) and he successfully continued on without fixing the bolt but as we know the engine didn't make it to the next TB change for other reasons (hope you have it back on the road soon Sean). I'm tempted to do this, but being that it is a pressurized system and the location of the bolt that broke/stripped has me worried about doing this.
This happened to the first top side bolt on the left side of the middle housing that goes upwards to hold the thermostat, the one at about the 11 o'clock position.
Should I:
1) Leave it - the location is ok and the gasket sealant on both sides should prevent it from leaking
2) Face the music, pull it out and correct it, whatever happened. If so,
a) do I need to replace the gasket as it has been tightened down
already?
b) what size are the ten larger of the twelve bolts.
I know I'm going to get flak for not determining if it was stripped or broke, but after many hours working carefully and worrying about the timing belt I just wasn't ready to face this at the end of the night.
Thanks in advance,
Spencer
Everything was going extremely well, cams lined up with Rick's template at TDC, got the belt on, put the brand spanking new waterpump on with new gasket and gasket sealer on both sides of gasket, start to put back in the twelve bolts connecting the pump to the head, and on the last bolt......I think I stripped the threads or broke the bolt.
At this point it was late in the day, and rather than try to work any further on it I decided it would be better to come back to it after getting some rest, and didn't want to face what had happened and so didn't pull it out to see what had happened.
I found one other thread here where this has happened to someone (Sean) and he successfully continued on without fixing the bolt but as we know the engine didn't make it to the next TB change for other reasons (hope you have it back on the road soon Sean). I'm tempted to do this, but being that it is a pressurized system and the location of the bolt that broke/stripped has me worried about doing this.
This happened to the first top side bolt on the left side of the middle housing that goes upwards to hold the thermostat, the one at about the 11 o'clock position.
Should I:
1) Leave it - the location is ok and the gasket sealant on both sides should prevent it from leaking
2) Face the music, pull it out and correct it, whatever happened. If so,
a) do I need to replace the gasket as it has been tightened down
already?
b) what size are the ten larger of the twelve bolts.
I know I'm going to get flak for not determining if it was stripped or broke, but after many hours working carefully and worrying about the timing belt I just wasn't ready to face this at the end of the night.
Thanks in advance,
Spencer