I have a 2002 toyota corolla and I'm replacing the head gasket and the cylinder head bolts call for a hex bit,and now two of the head bolts are rounded out and there's noway of getting a socket that removes rounded bolts on it so I'm stuck.so if anyone can give me any tips on how to remove these two rounded out hex head torqued down head bolts help


Thank you

I know what you did wrong:

You probably used a 12 point socket instead of a 6 point socket.

I'm not sure what kind of clearances you have to work with.

There is a socket available which has a bunch of what I would call pins. They can sometimes remove a stubborn bolt.

Some ideas:

GRIP-TITE Super Socket Set for removing rounded off nuts and bolts! By Better Tools & Fasteners (http://www.bt-andf.com/index.php)

How to Remove a Bolt With a Rounded Head | eHow.com (http://www.ehow.com/how_4516975_remove-bolt-rounded-head.html)

How to remove rounded nut or bolt heads. (http://www.thestuccocompany.com/maintenance/How-to-remove-rounded-nut-or-bolt-heads-134971-.htm)

Honda JDM CBR Forums - remove rounded bolt? (http://www.cbr250.com/cbr250/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=59666)

Removing Rounded Bolts - Just Commodores (http://forums.justcommodores.com.au/general/44995-removing-rounded-bolts.html)

Those sockets with the pins don't work very well for automotive applications. I have ruined several of them.

What you described requires a hex "bit" right? Like an Allen head? I would use the next larger "Torx" bit and hammer it into the socket on the bolt. Then you need to heat up the bolt with a torch until it glows. If you don't have access to acytlene, this will take some time with propane.

A small MAPP torch is easy to come by at Home Depot for about, $80 I guess. Good idea.

Ok guys. Here's the deal. We at the Toyota shop recently went through the same deal on a '02 Camry.
The metal in these bolts are soft so they strip out easy. We tried every tool and idea we could come up with.
Finally, we just said screw it and I grabbed my best cobalt drill bit set, found the closest size to the rounded out hex, and went to drilling the bolt out.
Like I said, the metal is soft on these because they're stretch bolts.
To my surprise, it drilled out like butter. The head popped loose, and we just ordered new bolts. The rest came out by hand once the head was off.
Good luck and try it.