The jap motor I bought seems to have a problem with the oil pan bolts. Since the pan it came with it was trashed I decided to swap it out and proceded to brake not one but 7 bolts! They broke along the drivers side front corner of the engine, for the most part they are evenly distributed along that corner meaning for every busted bolt there are a few healthy ones after it. I put on a fresh gasket and managed to remove 2 of the old bolts and put in bolts from the other motor so I'm down to 5 gaps. My question is even with carful torqing and RTV on both sides of the gasket am I still doomed to a bad oil leak.

 

cant u just drill out the other bolts?

 

that didn't work out too well

 

You need to drill and retap if you want any hope of sealing the pan. Trick is to start with a small bit to get your center, the work up in size. Fresh sharp bits, sharp center punch and a steady hand or drill press are the keys.

 

trochoid, is that your ride, can u post me some pics?

 

That's his ride. To see pics, either find a thread he has posted with his sig, or view his profile. In his sig, there is a link to a thread with lots of pics, and lots of info, on the progress of his build.
Very sweet ride, indeed.

 

What works best for me is to put a nut over the place where the broken stud is and using a welder build up material - welding the broken stud to the nut.

A TIG welder works best - but I've done it with even a flux core MIG welder.

If you break off the head while trying to remove the stud - reweld it and try again.

This beats the **** out of trying to drill and tap.

 

+1 but you don't necessiarily have to retap. If you can get an Easy-out bolt extractor to work then it saves you the trouble of buying oversize bolts and tapping new threads. Some times (in my experience) once you work your way up to the correct size drill bit to use your ez-out the bond holding the bolt in is weakened (from heat, vibration, and the lack of mass in the center of the bolt), and the bolt comes out easier. Sometimes its easy, and sometimes its a royal pain in the nuts.
Another thing I just thought of, get a drift and a hammer and tap on the bolts with some reasonable force before you drill them out, this helps to break loose whatever is holding them in so tightly. Good Luck!

*edit* another thing lol, if you can find it around where you live, get a can of AeroKroil penetrating oil, its in an orange can with a black top and use that too, I have not found anything as effective as aerokroil in these situations. Its almost as awsome as seafoam lol.