had a bad day on the oil change, broke bolt on dddrain screen coming out of car do i need to rebuild the whole engine ??? Options

[Kahi]

help we brought the car home 1 week ago not running , a project for my son !!!
He got it running , did the valves put new spark plugs in and we were changing the oil before we deal with the carb or vaccum leak ??? as my son was tightening down the bolt he broke the internal bolt !!!!! trying to torque it 9 lbs are we screwed and have to rebuild the whole engine or is there some macgic fix ??? Im hoping (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cheer.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif) his so bummed we just about narrowed in on our problems !!! I feel for him but we wanted a project now we might really have a big one !!! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smash.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/headbang.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif)

[mlindner]

Kahi, is this one of the small bolts holding the drain screen on? If so, you should be able to drill out and retap.

[iankarr]

So sorry to hear this. I sympathize with your son. He must feel terrible.

Two questions...How are you sure you cracked it? Did you hear a pop or feel the torque give way? Is it now impossible to get the strainer bolt to 9 ft-lbs? If so, your guess is probably correct. Either the boss in the case is cracked, or where the oil pickup tube is brazed to the eye that the case bolt passes through. Either way, sorry to say that the case needs to come apart for inspection.

Possible, but less likely, that you stripped the strainer retaining bolt/nut thing (I don’t know why they call it a bolt)...in which case you just need another. Keep us posted and good luck!

[Mark Henry]

I've had to do this repair a few times for customers, if you can't get 9lbs of torque on the sump plate you're SOL and need a new case. You can't replace or tap the sump bolt, you've broken the boss inside the case.

In one job I took a good running engine, stripped it and swapped into a good case. The engine should have had a new cam, but the guy only had $1K so I didn't go looking for trouble. I didn't like to do this, but it has been running for 10 years last time I talked to him.
But he got lucky, this could have easily gone badly for him...50/50 at best.

[Mark Henry]

This is the single center bolt sump plate right?

The other two small M6 bolt "taco" plate can be helicoil repaired.

[horizontally-opposed]

Your son isn't alone.

When I was 16 or so, after doing my first valve adjust on my own, I was putting the heat exchangers back on and heard a "snap" while tightening one of the nuts down...and the socket wrench just spun. I'll never forget my dad's reaction when I went into the house to ask about it while he was watching a game. I felt pretty dumb, but as a dad now I know his frustration was with himself and/or the huge consequences for a simple mistake. I was pretty handy in a carpentry shop by then, but new to torque values and had little to no "feel" for them let alone that mental stop that makes you stop and get out a torque wrench. Just wanted to make sure it was tight.

Shop in Berkeley fixed it with a helicoil (wasn't cheap...or a quiet drive over there), and I learned a couple of valuable lessons. Also: That engine and that exhaust stud went another 20+ years without removal before I finally pulled the engine not because I needed to but because I wanted to. In a worst case, there are plenty of running Type IV engines that can get you down the road while you rebuild a nice 2.0 together over time as a side project. No one wanted my 1.7 (probably a 1911) complete with dead reliable and sorted fuel injection, to the point I finally let it go for $300.

Hope there's a relatively painless fix for you guys, but you've got options—and a great community here.

[infraredcalvin]

Old cars are both rewarding and extremely frustrating. He shouldn’t be hard on himself, it’s the first of many....

[JamesM]

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=645213

That bolt?

If so, sorry to hear. I do my best to avoid messing with that bolt for that exact reason. I have never found anything of note when pulling the strainer plate on any of my 914s and given the risk of a simple thing like that forcing you to split the engine case to repair, i dont feel its worth it to pull during regular oil changes anymore.

If the type 4 has an Achilles heel, that is it. Dumbest thing ever.

On the plus side though, you are lucky if it was the bolt itself that broke as the case also likes to crack in that area for the same reason. But to answer your question, while the motor doesn't necessarily need to be "rebuilt" it will need to come out of the car and be completely dissembled to fix it.

Sounds like you are on your way to quickly becoming experts.

Swapping a motor in a 914 is pretty easy, splitting an engine case is a bit more involved. Normally i would recommend just picking up a spare motor. It sounds like you have carbs so all your parts should swap over to any size motor you can get... but then I realized you are in Hawaii so finding a motor at a reasonable price may be easier said than done.

Not at all your sons fault though. When i was younger and inexperienced I attempted to get my oil changed at a jiffy lube one time and the guy nearly nearly did the same thing. If I had not have been watching him like a hawk he would have broke it right off.

[iankarr]

Old cars are both rewarding and extremely frustrating. He shouldn’t be hard on himself, it’s the first of many....

Agreed. When I do something like that, I think of it as "tuition"

[brcacti]

I changed my oil and strainer and filter all at once, bought a torque wrence and when putting it all back I was TOO AFRAID to tighten it to specs put just used what common sense I hoped I had to tighten it to what I thought was as tight as I needed it to be. Scared the hell out of me to use the full torque specs so did not do that. It was up on stands and had room to work under the car, actually took a few days to tighten it, come back hours later check it again and then the next 1-2 days kept checking how tight it was. FINALLY after days decided it was tight enough and to leave it alone. When I was all done I realized that since the strainer was so clean it was a not needed thing to do anyway.

[Superhawk996]

This isn’t a recommended fix but was an interesting jury rigged solution I found on an engine I’m working on. I think it could be done more elegantly and with less obstruction of the pickup tube. The problem is that it still involves fabrication and potential for tapping debris to get in the case. Better fix is to split the case and fix properly. But it is an insight to a potential in situ fix.

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=348901