What did you use to get the broken studs out?

 

Lifesaver!! I also rounded one of the intake manifold bolts so this extracted 2 valve cover bolts and 1 intake manifold bolt.

 

I thought you had broken off studs with no bolt heads?

 

I did, thankfully this was still able to grab onto the exposed stud after I remove the valve cover. Though none of my valve cover bolts were on much tighter than hand tight.

 

Great! Congratulations. It always feels good to successfully tackle a job above your previous skill level.

 

Did you change the gaskets because of a leak? Did you try to nip up the loose bolts as a fix before deciding on the swap?

I have a slight leak at the back of the passenger side valve cover. Was considering nipping the bolts, and as you say yours were loose......

It's that funny looking star bolt as I recall. Is it anything special or just a reverse torx? Anyone know the size, off hand?

 

Yea I had a noticable buildup of oil leaking down from the around the gaskets. I did try to tighten it, during which I accidentally snapped 2 of the bolt heads off which forced my hand to replace the gaskets. Mine were pretty loose, even the inside ones which you can't get to without removing the intake manifold.

It's an 8mm 12 point head. You'll need a small socket though to fit in that groove.

The one I used looked like this:

 

Great, thanks. Think I'm going to show my bolts one of those sockets, see what happens..

I don't have a big leak, at all. But it's annoying me enough to have a look.

 

How many total hours to get the job done?

 

It took ME about 7 hours. I started after work and finished at about 1am. Now I also wasted a lot of time with a rounded bolt head on the intake manifold (I cracked three 10mm sockets!). Also about an hour of that was cleaning the valve covers once I got them off. This was also my first project beyond changing the oil. So it's doable, nothing too difficult, and depending on your comfort level you could do it faster.