im pulling the heads off a motor i have, there is no timing belt so what recommendations do you guys have to break the cam bolts? any good suggestions on how to keep them from rotating?

use an old timing belt or find one to use... and like 5 vice grip clamps, and lock the timing belt around the came sprocket and the crank over another pulley if possible and get those clamps f-in tight... and that should work out for you

if you have a good strap wrench and a friend you can put enough pressure on it to hold it still for an impact gun. i just did that with mine. it did take about 700 ft/lbs to get em off though...

if it's a wrx take off the valve cover and hold the cams with an 1 1/4 (<-- or something like that) open end.

thanks for the replies guys....got them off in the end

Someone once said a impact wrench could possibly fracture the pulley.
Charliew

FYI: I used a impact wrench and had no problems..

Impact wrench usually strips the bolt before it breaks the pulley...

I`ve striped the bolt and broken 2 teeth off the plastic cam gear, using an IR 1000ft/lb impact gun... Some times the gun will zap them off... and other times it can go wrong, i wouldnt recommend using an impact gun.

If you leave the timing belt on, and get a nice long breaker bar, and explode from the knees lol and pull up it breaks them loose pretty good, if it skips on the belt, I`d take the belt off and strap it down and try again,

Cobb makes cheap cam gear wrenches- or did until recently.

As a last resort, drill the head off. Quite easy with no destruction of pulley, cam, covers, etc. Once the head is off, the rest of the bolt is finger tight. Then buy a new one. Far cheaper than munging around with a stuck bolt.

I ended up cracking the plastic back timing belt cover before I just used the drill.

Kelford STi cams have a hex area where you can hold the cam gear while wrenching, much like the WRX cam.