Valve cover bolt issue

[classic67]

So ive been looking for a suitable replacement for the valve cover bolts but no luck. Mine are heat stretched and im afraid to put a torque on them. ive went through two valve cover gaskets since i bought the car in 09 sounds like a bit much. Ive went to OBI witch is the german version of home depot nothing no local harware stores have the bolts i need kalos dont have the same engine we do so auto part stores dont have them either. OBI had similar bolts but were silver not black so can i use them to put a good torque? Its iffy but my old ford truck doesnt use hi heat bolts so it might work. I just dont want to snap a bolt in the head and have another issue but im tired of cleaning my engine bay every other week.


any imput would be a help im sure my aveo is noth the only one with this problem.

[Scanman]

I have a set in an old engine (185,000 mi). The engine never overheated, so they may work for you. It's about to go to the metal recycler. PM me if you want them & we'll work something out.

[Daox]

Heat stretched? Never heard of that before.

[classic67]

its when the bolt is stretchedin the middle from expanding with heat and cooling and being over torqued

[Daox]

If you can get normal bolts they will do just fine. Its a valve cover, not a head. It isn't really a critical structural component. To avoid leaks in the future make sure you degrease the gasket sealing surfaces on the head before you put the new valve cover on. I don't remember if the Aveo uses any RTV sealant on the valve cover gasket around the camshafts, but that never hurts either.

[Scanman]

It needs little dots of RTV at all the places where the gasket has corners. My original gasket had these. I believe the leakage was actually due to the gasket itself having hardened with age. It was stiff & brittle. It broke into several pieces when I removed it. Also, I've not seen a specific torque sequence for the valve cover, but I always tighten them from the center out, like you would on a cylinder head, intake, or exhaust.

[luv2uallday]

Hello, YOu can get the bolts from GM the GM Part # is 94500909. Rockauto.com has some for $.58 cents a bolt you can get them from online discount dealership gmpartsnow.com sales them very cheap for low shipping. Hope this helps

So ive been looking for a suitable replacement for the valve cover bolts but no luck. Mine are heat stretched and im afraid to put a torque on them. ive went through two valve cover gaskets since i bought the car in 09 sounds like a bit much. Ive went to OBI witch is the german version of home depot nothing no local harware stores have the bolts i need kalos dont have the same engine we do so auto part stores dont have them either. OBI had similar bolts but were silver not black so can i use them to put a good torque? Its iffy but my old ford truck doesnt use hi heat bolts so it might work. I just dont want to snap a bolt in the head and have another issue but im tired of cleaning my engine bay every other week.


any imput would be a help im sure my aveo is noth the only one with this problem.

[xintersecty]

I would just get a equivalent bolt. You had some good suggestion above. I think Home depot has a better selection on bolts than lowes. Ace would be my first choice but Ace HW are highly variable in the bolt department as they are a franchise store.

I just cleaned the gasket and quit bothering with the RTX sealant as it just held the gasket in place.

There is a torque on the valve cover, no sequence in the manual. 89 inch pounds or 10 N meter

[luv2uallday]

you can get an equivalent bolt. but make sure get the right length OR you can split the head literally. don't get too hard a strength cause you will pull out the threads. better the bolt snaps then the threads come out. But can't go wrong getting the OEM bolts and just wanted to throw the GM part # cause that Part # was super hard to find took me 5 hrs of searching. In the GM schematics it wasn't listed under valve cover it was listed under camshaft cover who would of thought?

[xintersecty]

you can get an equivalent bolt. but make sure get the right length OR you can split the head literally. don't get too hard a strength cause you will pull out the threads. better the bolt snaps then the threads come out.

Good advice and well worth repeating. I would assume if your replacing the bolt with equivalent you would get the length right too.