Stripped out head bolts

[Xwifesse]

2000 Accord SE 177,000 mi. f23a1 engine. I was originally swapping my valve springs with the cylinder head still on when I dropped one of the valves into the cylinder (because in my haste I forgot to turn the engine so the 4 springs I was working on wouldn't be allowed to drop their valves.. silly me!!!). I decided to pull the cylinder head because fishing the dropped valve out was not working at all... Now I have even a worse problem. I turned all of the head bolts the wrong way tightening instead of loosening them on the head!!! As a result of my stupid mistake all of the head bolts are stripped and two of them actually snapped off. I have read that I can drill out the snapped off studs and re-tap the holes out to fit the next size up new head studs. I am hoping that someone out there has heard of this happening before with an aluminum block Honda or something similar because in my searches I have not found anyone with my exact problem so far tho I have found some situations where someone has stripped one or two head bolts but not all (I think there are 10!) of them. Can some one help please!? Idk what to do and I don't want to swap the engine block cause I don't have an engine stand to work on the engine off the car etc... Any advice would be appreciated!! (I have since Posting this added photos of the car with the cylinder head removed. You can see a snapped off bolt in the first pic and in the other stud holes there are no threads visable. I must've stripped all the threads on all the hole.)

 

[Robert Troncoso]

I'm thinking you might have to drill off the heads of all the bolts that are stripped then lift up the entire head.

 

[Xwifesse]

Thanks for the help Robert! I should have mentioned that I did get all of the bolts out of the cylinder head. (this comment has been edited I posted pics of the car without the cylinder head I managed to get the bolts out but did not get the broke off bolts out yet.)

 

[Xwifesse]

Here is an update on this issue. I have been able to extract the snapped off studs with a bolt extraction kit I puchased at O'reillys for 15 bucks on sale. I soaked the snapped headstuds with penetrating oil and used titanium coated lefthhanded drill bits to drill into the bolt far enough to get the 2nd to least largest bolt extractor in there and it came right out. The other one was the same. My plan right now is to get a head gasket and possibly some headstuds but just in case I grabbed two headbolts from the junkyard. I just may add some high temp locktight and bolt the head (which i cleaned installed new valve springs and did a mild port on) back on and pray for the best. If anyone is still listening. Is this a bad idea because I would like to time sert the head with the 450$ kit they offer and show on youtube but I dont have that kind of money and wold like to get my car up and running again asap. Would appreciate any comments/ response. Thanks.

 

[bavarianblessed]

Are the threads in the block okay? Don't use loctite on the headbolts! You actually need to lightly coat the threads of the bolts with motor oil before torqueing them down. If you torque the head back down in the proper sequence and to spec you will be fine as long as everything is level. What do you mean by "sert the head" and what kit?

 

[Nam1911a1]

Damn sounds like a catastrophe. I don’t have any advice besides always make sure of the way you are turning a wrench. I’m wondering how you tightened every single stud and didn’t realize after the first couple turns on the first stud that it wasn’t working right.

 

[Xwifesse]

First of all thank you for the reply back bavarianblessed. I am not sure how the threads in the block are. I know there are some still in therebut they have all been stripped to some degree. I am going to put the bolts on and see what kind off lbsof torque I can put on the bolts before I try to put the head backon. Time sert is threaded sleve inserts that come in a kit to drill out and tap new threads into a block that has stripped head bolts it costs $500. But rn it looks like my only other option short of buying an entire new engine block. I was glad to get the heads up to not use locktite. Thank u.

 

[Nam1911a1]

If the threads are stripped you may be screwed. Pun intended. And I guess your only option would be to get those inserts to fix the thread problem. Can’t put the metal back

 

[Robertl]

For the price of 500 for the kit, just get a used f23a1 for 500 or less on Craigslist, offer up or something local salvage yard and of ya wanna put your head amd a new timing belt and water pump do it. Be basically the same price as the kit and a faster fix