I guess I need some help determining what to do next....

I'm trying to loosen the crank bolt so I can change the timing belt. I've tried everything - strap wrenches, chain vise grips, heat - I even bought a newer air compressor and just hammered that damn thing for over an hour - absolutely didn't budge at all.

How much torque is required to get this bolt loose?

I'm just about ready to torch the damn thing out, pull the engine and take it into a Honda shop and tell them to take the damn thing off.

I've worked on a lot of engines, but I have NEVER come across something this stubborn.

Please help someone before I have to sell this piece of crap and get a real car!!!!!

Get a bigger impact wrench. Seriously -- go to a farmer supply store where they sell 3/4 inch and 1 inch impact wrenches and pick one up, along with the correct size socket.

Or buy the special tool for holding the crankshaft still. But I prefer have a big honkin' impact wrench in my collection.

There's no finesse or special trick to this. You just have to brute force the damn thing. It seems like every job ultimately comes down to one stubborn bolt, so be glad you found it and you have lots of room to hammer away at it.

I don't know what the torque on a '92, but on my '98, the torque setting is 180 ft-lbs. Also, when you put the bolt back on, you are supposed to lubricate the threads and the flange on the bolt. Your question is a common one on this forum, and I suspect a lot of these bolts get impossible to crack because they were installed without lubrication, so moisture works its way in.

im having the same problem with my 87 integra, i had a 3 1/2 foot cheater bar on a breaker bar and i stil cant get it loose. i was about to get the larger impact wrench i think its a good idea.

The torque on this bolt is 181 ft-lb, same as the spindle nut. Yes, it is very very tight. You can try use a 5' long steel pipe with a breaker bar. But you need to hold the crankshaft still with a special tool -- 50 mm hex.

Well I tried absolutely everything I can think of, but it finally came loose. But the end result of getting the bolt loose included the following: broken cam gear with the valve cover gasket surface completely screwed up - need a new head as well. The bolt snapped loosed with such force I dented the fender with such a bad kink I will probably have to replace it. All the other wrenches I broke trying to get the bolt loose damaged the crank pulley belt grooves for the power steering, alternator, and a/c. From the looks of the bolt I think the threads are screwed up in the end of the crank. From trying to heat up the bolt with a torch, I melted the timing belt cover behind the crank pulley - I wondered where all the smoke was coming from. The only thing that looks normal, after everything came apart, was the balance shafts timing belt - but whoever changed the belts last time - they screwed up the timing setting for the balance shafts. I hope I can get this thing running again after spending a LOT of money on parts, (I'm thinking the savings for labour is possibly worth it now), I probably should have gone and bought one that was a driver on the car lots. (But again I'm not that crazy to buy a used car from a used car lot in our city.)

Well that was what could have happened.

In actuality I finally got the bolt loose with a very LARGE screwdriver wedged into the ring gear after taking the inspection plate off, and put a four-foot extension pipe on a 1/2 inch breaker bar.

I hope to have this car running this weekend, but will still need to get the mechanical inspection done and the car painted - slight accident that needs to be repaired as part of the re-certification to make the car a driver again. Here's hoping the remainder of the work doesn't go as bad as this one stinking crank bolt.

Stay tuned for the next episode of the:

As the Motor Turns.......

Sorry to hear about your problem getting the bolt loose. Does it look like the bolt was glued in? Fill us in on how the cam gear got broken. And you need a new head? Why? Belt pulley groves damaged? Is that from the chain vise grip? Please tell us.

Oh boy, what a nightmare! You should hold the pulley with a special tool (50 mm Hex), this way the force stays with the pulley. It's much better to damage a tool than damaging parts.

By holding a gear tooth, it's similar to use a 2" length arm to balance the moment generated by a 4' arm. Whatever the force you put on the bar will be magnified 24 times on the gear tooth. If the torque is 181 ft-lb, the force on the tooth is almost 2200 lb.

If you translate the force into pressure, since the contact is most likely a point or a line, the pressure on the local area is magnified tremendously!

assume the contact area is .01 in^2 (should be much less than this), you are looking at 220,000 lb/in^2 pressure at the contact point.

And since the torque on your bolt apparently seems much higher than 181 ft-lb, you can imagine what the gear tooth undergone. Apparently it's way beyond the design spec for that part.

And using torch in that area, I would never do that. Engine is a precision mechanism, not a good place to torch it. Metal parts could deform due to extreme heat and out of spec, material property could change and will not hold load it was supposed to. Non-metal parts could get burnt or melted, etc. It could damage a lot of stuff and you may not even know until maybe months later.

Well, anyway, you still have a long way to go. Hope you have a better luck.

I like the old put a wrench on it, brace it against something and bump the starter.

Works every time. Sorry I didn't see this earlier.

I like the old put a wrench on it, brace it against something and bump the starter.

Works every time. Sorry I didn't see this earlier.


:1:

I like the old put a wrench on it, brace it against something and bump the starter.

Works every time. Sorry I didn't see this earlier.

That method won't work on his car -- the crankshaft turns in the wrong direction.

Just a quick update....

The car passed certification today - frame and mechanical. After a lot of work I'm finally closer to actually being able to get this salvage car back on the road to terrorize again. (At least that's probably what the kid will be using it for.)

Again - needed very big screwdriver to hold the flywheel to re-torque the crank bolt to 160 ft.lbs. I even got the timing belt on right the first time.

Now - just a paint job and put a few panels in the trunk, running board trim and front air dam on the bottom of the bumper.

I think it won't last a month and the kid will have it wrecked.