Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech Stripped Chrome Cam Cover Bolt -- HELP

Talk about bad luck. I was installing a chrome cam cover and I stripped the threads for one of the bolts and yes, I was torqing them to 10nm per the service manual. I get a Helicoil set and remove the cam bearing cap so I don't get shavings into the engine. Then, when I was reinstalling the fixed cam cap, I snapped one of those bolts but was able to get it out so now I need a cam bearing cap bolt. The service manual says the torque for cam bearing bolts are also 10 nm (like the cover bolts) but I didn't believe it as they were alot tighter than that when I removed them and I checked some of the other ones on the engine and they are much tighter also. What should the torque for the cam bearing bolts be? If it is 10nm, why are the others so tight?? Can taking one cam bearing cap off like I did cause problems with cam wear? Any advice would be appreciated.

I went through the same cover bolt-stripped out-helicoil process and, while I didn't snap off a cam cover bolt, they were much tighter than 10 NM's.. The manual says 10 NM in the chart and also in the R&I section, so that's what I tightened them to. Put a thin coating of engine oil on them first. (A "drop" the manual says...). I went thru this early on and although I don't remember the mileage at the time, I've probably put 5-7 thousand on it since, and had my valves adjusted since as well. No problems.
Taking the one cam cap off should not affect the wear..