1998 Civic Ex: BROKEN CRANKSHAFT PULLY BOLT HEAD???

[TyDelane]

So I have a 1998 civic EX with a d16y7 (I installed it as a temp replacement to a blown d16y8 so I can drive this civic while I build the K24 I have), and on my way to work the other night I noticed I didn't have power steering and the battery light came on. Then, I noticed all three belts were off. THEN, I removed the tire to get a better look and noticed the crankshaft pulley was not even attached. THEN I noticed there wasn't even a bolt head and it seems like it might have been welded previously, and the pully can be shifted back and forth (as shown in the video), but I can't just pull it off. My questions are: From the video, does it seem like that is the case to anyone else? If so, is it possible the bolt head might have snapped, then someone welded over it and the weld broke? Should I use heat to remove or can that cause problems like the crankshaft bending or the oil seal getting damaged? I refuse to replace the crankshaft, and I want to fix this with the least amount of risk of messing anything up, but I also want the fix to last. Any tips or recommendations from someone more experienced than me would be greatly appreciated!

Here is the link to the Youtube video where I show the pulley, and moving it around: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Ih1k4jpyLXE

 

[TyDelane]

UPDATE: I finally got the pulley off, and I made a video showing what was behind it:

The darker stuff looks like weld to me, and it looks like the weld is inside the bolt hole in front of the old bolt also.

 

[nd4sped]

Looks like they attempted to use a flux core welder to weld the pulley on.

The D series can still remove the crank from the engine. Get off as much of the flux as possible. You can get a entire engine from salvage for $300 and either swap out the crank or the entire engine.

You can get the crank pulley gear off with a puller or heat it up and it should slide off easily.

The oil seal is trashed already when the previous moron attempted to weld the crankshaft. That crank is pretty much trashed and is going to require a machine shop or a ton of your patience as well as a few expensive carbide bits that will be needed to drill through that bolt to remove it from the crankshaft which is going to be incredibly hard to do.

Good luck. Save yourself time and money and get a spare engine from salvage.

 

[TyDelane]

UPDATE/CONCLUSION: I used a grinder, dremel, and drill bits to get all the weld out, and then I drilled into the old bolt and used an extractor to remove it. It came out without too much hassle using "titanium" bits from Walmart, which surprised me because the bolt head was snapped off. Furthermore, I applied generous pressure, went slow and stopped to apply oil often. The metal shavings were coming out in spirals instead of dust. I did drill all the way through the bolt and out the other side (There is about a quarter of an inch between the end of the bolt and the crankshaft). I used the pulley, bolt, and key from the old motor I have, which was actually in better condition. The bolt tightened down well, and I was able to get all the belts on. I used a four way to tighten the bolt, and held the pulley using a Honda/Acura crankshaft pulley holding tool on a breaker bar. This tool worked while for both taking the pulley off and putting it back on.

@nd4sped Thank you for your reply. I haven't driven this again yet, but I will give an update once I do. I really think this is going to work well, because now the crankshaft is back to normal. I even used the dremel to reshape and flatten the parts that had weld where the bolt head seats, and I had to reshape the keyway a little also.

 

[TyDelane]

Here is an image of the extracted bolt

 

[TyDelane]

UPDATE: Started the car, runs just as good as it did!

 

[nd4sped]

Patience won, glad to see you went the hard route and was successful. Most would not even try.

I am quite surprised it came out so easily, Possible when the previous person welded on it, the heat most likely broke up the rust when they welded the pulley to the crankshaft.

Kudos

 

[Brak]

WOW!
That is all i have to say about this.

 

[nd4sped]

@TyDelane Looking at that again, you can see how much heat penetrated to the first journal area. You need to inspect that oil pump as its potentially damaged, no telling how much heat soak the pump received.