Corrosion?

[MiniDave]

This is one of the bolts that holds flywheel cover on.....this is the only bolt that looks like this...odd looking corrosive growth and odd that its only on this one bolt. This is on the 73 Mini I'm working on.....

[MPlayle]

Is the heater valve directly above it?  If so, any sign the valve or gasket where it mounts to the head may have leaked at some point?

[MiniDave]

Good question, I'll check it out tomorrow.....

[John Gervais]

Wow, that's odd, scary even.  I would think a coolant leak would have a blue fuzzy growth, like you'd find on an old water pump.

I'd pull that screw out, thoroughly clean and examine the threaded bore and stick a new screw in there.

[MiniDave]

I would too.......if it were my car!   ;D

I'm going to document it and show it to him and he can do as he likes......but I didn't see any evidence of leakage from the heater valve or it's gasket, FWIW.

[John Gervais]

I know it's hard to tell things by looking at pictures, but does that washer look a bit funky to you?  To me it almost looks like stainless steel, perhaps even a helicoil insert.  Maybe there isn't much screw left inside.

[MiniGene]

Yellow cake!  The screw must be made from uranium.  I'm forgetting that I ever saw this post... :-X

[MPlayle]

Nuclear powered A-series?

Looked to me like either coolant leak or the type of corrosion you see on the battery terminals, but there was no ground strap to consider the second option.

[jeff10049]

Yellow cake!  The screw must be made from uranium.  I'm forgetting that I ever saw this post... :-X

Maybe the Mr. Fusion leaked.

[BruceK]

Is it possible the bolt is not your typical bolt?   Made outta something different?

[Merlin]

Yellow rust is typical of high water contact. Looking at the pipe above it, there appears to be a clean spot implying that coolant is dripping on the bolt, not leaking past it.

I would be interested in seeing what is above the bolt.

[MiniDave]

The heater valve is directly above the bolt but does not appear to be leaking or have leaked in the past, I'll take a couple of pics from a different angle.....

[Merlin]

Possibly when it is hot and sitting? Heat typically assists this amount of rust.