dietcokefiend
Master of Disaster
- Location
- Ohio
That little bolt is more to prevent warping is my guess. As soon as the cover warms up, its going to have stresses that want to pull and flex the cover around. Its one of the longest spans between bolts with the most amount of "meat" off on its own. If you don't address it you are begging for a nice leak not to mention possibly warping the cover to the point where it might not sit flush in the future.
Was the bolt broken as it was screwed in? Did it bind or was the bolt itself giving up the ghost? I'd probably reach out to some machine shops in the area once that area is buttoned up, and see if they are able to work on it without removing the cover. With the correct jigs, it shouldn't be too hard to get a hole tapped in the center of the broken bolt and then work on removing it.
EDIT: Where those screws replaced? You mention popping off the cover again for this project. How many cycles have they been through? You may want to buy the whole lot and swap them out one by one. If you look at the stalling thread for example, where a few members have had cams replaced, those are all viewed as one time screws by VW.
Was the bolt broken as it was screwed in? Did it bind or was the bolt itself giving up the ghost? I'd probably reach out to some machine shops in the area once that area is buttoned up, and see if they are able to work on it without removing the cover. With the correct jigs, it shouldn't be too hard to get a hole tapped in the center of the broken bolt and then work on removing it.
EDIT: Where those screws replaced? You mention popping off the cover again for this project. How many cycles have they been through? You may want to buy the whole lot and swap them out one by one. If you look at the stalling thread for example, where a few members have had cams replaced, those are all viewed as one time screws by VW.