Recently changed the engine coolant myself for the first time. The first step was to take off the engine plate under the radiator drain plug. In taking off the plate I had to remove 8 very rusty bolts. Pre-treated bolts with PB-Blaster, but still had 4/8 bolts break off upon removal. One question I have - the bolt at each far side of the engine plate (near fender well) screws into a hole which looks like it is topped by a square nut (as seen by peering in through top of engine). Is this nut welded by Toyota to the metal with the bolt hole below it or is it possible to loosen this nut? If I can loosen it, it would save me from a nasty attempted extraction or helicoil procedure on these two bolts. Thanks.

 

Thought the nuts were spot welded on making it extremely difficult to remove.

 

Thanks. Will be drilling out all the stuck bolts and re-tapping the holes. When I started working on this car (last year), I didn't realize that the hardest part would be dealing with rusted and rounded off bolts.

 

Rust can be challenging.

The up side is I consider this year which is within Generation 3 for Camry, to be one of the best Camry made.