The useless allen head bolts on the cam pulleys are shot, one has rounded after a hour of wrenching and the second I cant budge but will probably round once its had the same amount of abuse.

Would a impact wrench with allen attachment work on these?

How have others got them out I cant weld so I can see the rounded one is really going to cause problems.

Also I am locking the cams using a spanner on the cams themselves as I had already taken off the cam belt... oops This method was fine for drivers side head but the other side is sooo much tighter

 

Drill them out - nice sharp 4mm drill bit and cutting oil to start with, drill to just below the depth of the head of the bolt and then go through with a 10mm drill bit.
This will release the tension on the bolt and will come out with a allen key.

Mick

 

I grind the blooming things off, I find it's quicker and time is money ;-) had 2 yesterday, even broke a head a few weeks back!

 

Cheers for the advice guys, my concern with drilling or cutting them off is whether I would get the rest of the bolt out after without damaging the thread in the head...

Haa I would however love to just grind the dam things off and replace with the 17mm version, hate wasting my time with annoying things like this.

 

Once the head of the bolt has been drilled through to release the clamping force of it on the pulley, you can undo it by hand.

Mick

 

Cheers Mick, I found this out this morning when I gave in and just drilled it. Will be buying 4 of the 17mm version I think.

For anyone else trying this, I also bought a allen attachment so I could use my impact gun.. This failed miserably

 

have always used our own fabricated version of the Subaru pulley locking tool an never had any issues since (touching wood )

allows a far better "grip" than any other method and is also invaluable for the later "hollow" cammed cars

 

Don't use them, they are alot shorter, you would only get a few threads in.

 

Don't suppose you want to mention what you made your special tool from haha?

Ohh really, I had better get some more allen ones then and hope I don't need to take them off again any time soon.