crooked helicoiled EM stud :-(

[auditude at cox.net]

Jim Green <jeg1976 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> --- auditude at cox.net wrote:
> > Putting EM studs into my MC-1 donor motor with blue
> > loctite, I discovered that one of my helicoiled
> > holes in the head is a little crooked.  Crap.
>
> Damn I hate stuff like this!  I wouldn't even
> consider the JBweld option, just not a permanent
> solution.  I'd suck it up and just have a machine shop
> repair the hole for you.  It really is the only
> permanent fix.  Hopefully you just have a standard HG
> on there, and not a metal one, although I have heard
> you can re-use them once, especially if on a new
> install like yours.

Yeah, I hate this type of crap too.  Those are my sentiments exactly!  It's a standard HG, and the motor is not even rebuilt, so it's not that bad I suppose.  I thought you could reuse those metal HG's over and over again, no?

Actually, since my '88 5kcstq is down for broken/missing manifold studs right now too, I think I'll take this as a sign of the right path to take.  I had stripped off the manifolds on that car to get to the studs, but when I found like three broken, I started considering pulling the head off and at least redoing the studs off-car.  The whole time I was trying to get that stupid EM off that car, I was thinking I should have done it Phil Payne's way by pulling the whole head as an assembly.

Maybe this is a sign that I should have the donor MC-1 head done at a machine shop, then swap out the 5kcstq head.  Then I can try doing that head myself or have a machine shop do it.

> One other option, if it's not to far off, I guess you
> could enlarge the hole on the EM enough to get it on.
> You still will probably battle loose nuts since it
> will not seat properly.  God knows they need all the
> help they can get.  I just had one work it's way loose
> on my car, what a PITA!

Yeah, I would do that but the stupid EM is a masterpiece now.  It's a brand new two-piece that has been cryo treated and Jet-Hot ceramic coated in blue.  The last thing I want to do is grind away on it now.

It's bad enough I found a brand new urq downpipe at TAP and had it drop shipped to Jet-Hot for the same ceramic coating, only to re-discover/remember that the thing needs to be modified to work with the two-piece EM.

I'm told I should be able to carefully put a little dent in it without damaging the coating, but I'll have to see about it.  Also, looking at the hole for the wastegate output to merge into the main pipe, I'm wishing I would have cleaned it up a bit somehow before coating.  But it is sort of a drop-in solution, except for the two-piece EM interference.  I was just shocked to find a drop-in-able new urq downpipe for $145 from them so I jumped on it.  Then I jumped on the drop ship idea to try to save on double shipping.

For that, I may change plans and use the urq downpipe in my Coupe GT which may get a leftover single-piece EM, and modify the 5kt fwd downpipe (length) I have for the 4kstq project.

> HTH,

Thanks Jim.  I think I am going to suck it up and take it to a machine shop.  Since they charge by the stud hole, I will still have saved some bucks having done the other ones myself, plus gaining some experience.

It just seems a shame to take a head to a machine shop and not get 40mm intake valves put in while it's there, but  I'm spread a bit thin with the car collection right now, time and moneywise.  As I thin the herd, I can focus on the ones I want to keep.

Thanks,

Ken
'86 Coupe GT driver
'85 4kstq work in progress
'91 200q20v new arrival
'88 5kcstq need to sell
'87 5kt,'86 5ktq parts cars
'94 SL2 need to sell
'91 200q10v Rob's project in my backyard
9 units @ ASU
40 hours/week @ work