Oh, that E-Torx bolt on top of the bellhousing! It WILL! NOT! MOVE!
 

Trying to get my 97 engine out to put into my 98, and one of the E-Torx bolts at the top of the bell housing just will not budge! Its brother fought a bit, but then broke loose. This guy has laughed at my 1/2" impact. No, not some cheap Harbor Freight impact. This is an AirCat. It's got some serious power.

I'm looking for suggestions before I decide to grind it off. Any ideas? I have some room to work as it's partially dropped. Long story, but I need to get them separated to get the engine out, because it's got to come almost straight up.

I've had quite a few bolts over the years that just laughed at an impact . Any way to put the torx on an extension and peck on it with a hammer?

Crazy as it sounds, was taught this by a plumber, try and break it free by tightening it first. Might throw some heat on it first...

Note from DJ
Support the engine first. If the E-Torx Bolt is the last to be removed replace and snug up one on each side at the bottom. The give another shot at the E-Torx bolt; if it was the last one out; you have greatly increased the torque on its threads. Hope this helps.

Yeah, thought of that. I'm going to put the 3 and 9 o'clock bolts back in and maybe the other E-Torx bolt ((with some anti-seize on it) and see if that helps. I'll post back.

On the '98 I rebuilt, the engine had been pulled before and the fool rounded off the E torx.
Now, that was a *****.

totally agree with this..it cannot be the last one to undo..makes it twice as tight ...put as many bolts back (with the anti-seize) as possible..make them tight!

heat cant hurt, and some back & forth with the impact...my Milwauke 1/2" rattled them out

Can you try a 3/4" drive impact? I've had good luck with that.

ALWAYS remove the 2 top bolts first.

There is no way you are going to put them back in right? If bolting the trans back up doesnt work I'd move to cutting the tops off.

should be able to put the lower ones back in.

Lower bolts will go back in, I ment there is no way he is going to reuse the top 2 bolts so cutting them isn't a big loss.

Correct. But I'd sure tey taking the tension off before cutting.

I had to cut one of those myself (dealer mechanic torqued it tight when replacing the clutch) and it was not at all fun. It was on my old TJ, but having done clutches on both XJ and TJ, it's really not different.

Lower bolts tight and heat is what I'd do. There's no good reason to waste your time and extend your aggravation by putting the other top bolt in, the 3 and 9 are more than sufficient. A dremel with a metal cutting wheel might make cutting it off an efficient option. It's not too hard to find a replacement at the hardware store and you sure as heck aren't putting a buggered up bolt back on either way. Once the tranny is off, you'll have a good deal of threaded length left over and can get the penetrating oil on it really good.
In my experience, cutting was the hard part, getting the rest off the bolt out after separating the engine and tranny was absolute cake.

I agree with also tightening the bolt, then loosening, then tightening, then loosening. Spraying with a penetrating oil between rounds. I bought a small ratcheting box wrench from Amazon for the job, and a longer version as well for breaking it free.i lowered the engine and went at it from the top.