Breakdown in St. Louis. Help!?

[John Larson]

Kneale said, after a buncha other responses:  "I had a Mercyless Bends head 
with a couple bad plug holes that had been
cross-threaded.  The Helicoil fix was done with the head off from the
inside so that there was no way the new threads could come out with a
carbon-coated plug again.  It wasn't any $2k, but it was a long, long time 
ago."

Agreed!  Those unlucky lads would be outta my shop for a bit over a tenth of 
that quote, and it'd be as good a fix as they'd ever want or need. 
Helicoils, BTW, don't care which end is up, and timeserts are best installed 
from the outside.  Timeserts are better for plug holes, anyway.  I avoided 
getting hosed in StL once, and only because I had half a brain.  Alfa Romeo 
seemed to be an alternate spelling for "winning the lotto" to all the shops 
in the area.  They could have the car shipped home and fixed for less than 
they were quoted, and probably faster, too.  Of course, they could always 
give me the money, and my wife and I could fly back there and fix it, spend 
a few days, fly home, and enjoy the rest of the cash.    John