I think I wrecked my block. 8BA frozen rusted distributor bolt. I was drilling, I thought carefully, and went through and water is now leaking out of the distributor bolt hole. Am I in trouble?
Not if you saved the threads in the hole. Teflon liquid sealer is for fixing the water leak. No big deal. The Wizzard
Now you need to build a drill guide fixture and install a Heli Coil. Standard work at most machine shops and can also be done at home. It's not junk,,, yet. Be very careful. The Wizzard
This can be done in the car. Just remove the Rad. You can make a drill guide using the Dist. as a transfer guide. I'd make it out of 3/8" plate. If it is a 3 bolt Dist. you transfer the bolt pattern through the existing bolt holes and drill the good 2 holes to exact bolt size. The 3rd hole is drilled over size to install a hardened drill guide. It must be for a Heli Coil drill bit size. Then you drill the block damaged hole oversize per Heli Coli repair size then install the thread repair insert. Job done. The Wizzard
I was thinking if somehow I can plug the hole maybe 1/2 inch down and the tap it and put in a stud. That sounds to easy though. 3 bolt distributor? what do you mean?
Isn't your distributor bolt in the head, not the block? Or did you go through both? Drill. Tap. Plug. Done
Make it easy on yourself if you can't install a helicoil ( I have no idea why you couldn't) tap the hole and run a bolt in it then cut the bold off flush and drill and tap the plug you made from the bolt. I am not close to semi valley or I would just drop in and show you its about a half hour job so plan on making an afternoon of it and enjoy yourself instead of stressing over it. If you have broken into a water jacket it is no different than an SBC that the head bolts go into the water jacket just put some sealer on the bolt permatex works well for that.
wbrw32 is correct, I missed 8BA. Was thinking front mount dist, early motor. Don't worry about the water part. Lots of motors have bolts that go into the water jacket.
Running a longer bolt through both holes is asking for trouble. You should remove the head and tap the hole with pipe thread (probably 1/8" NPT) and get a flush allen-head pipe plug. The pipe threads are tapered and self-sealing.
Tapping isn't hard at all. To start, there is a hole size for each tap size, easy to find online. Drill block to right size, get tap and handle at hardware. Screw it in a small bit at a time, removing it frequently to brush away the cutting debris so it does not jam the tap and cause it to brake...taps are HARD and BRITTLE, so proceed slowly. A tap broken in a hole is way more fun that you can handle... On the head, is hole pretty much guided by the original threads and perpendicular to the head? If so, send off to Amazon or use a GOOD auto/hardware store and get a helicoil kit...measure shank of the deceased bolt or I can probably look it up here, I'm thinking it is 5/16. Get a 5/16 coarse helicoil kit, use the drill and tap it contains to fit the hole for the new threads in the package, and install the new threads! All simple, Helicoil gives you the right drill and the special tap to take their insert. Now it will take an original type bolt or a stud and nut. All done, and a significant learning experience... Heli kit: http://www.amazon.com/Helicoil-5521...&qid=1429714014&sr=1-1&keywords=5/16+helicoil Once you have the kit, it's a lifetime setup because you can buy more of the inserts in the future. The insert is just threads...it looks about like a little coil spring. A Helicoiled hole is usually stronger than the original threads. So, we just need to figgerout size of bolt, see if hole you have will take the Heli insert needed for that, and proceed. If hole is wallowed out too big for original size heli insert, there are a number of courses possible, none of them terribly hard or expensive. Note here on perpendicularity of holes...in your case this is a lightly stressed bolt, and a SLIGHTLY off kilter hole won't matter much. On real stressed bolts all must be very close or bad things would happen.
To solve your problem, drill and tap the existing hole for a small pipe plug. Apply sealant to the threads and screw in the plug flush with your block surface. Then drill and tap your head for a stud to hold down your distributor using a nut. Tools needed to do this are: pipe plug, pipe tap and Allen wrench.
Thanks all you guys for your input. I will get it handled, my only other concern was metal shavings that went into block. I guess I'll find out when the time comes.
Don't worry about the shavings in water jacket. You can minimize them bt putting grease on the tap to capture most, but they don't really matter. They will join the happy rust club down at the bottom of the water jacket.
Thanks Bruce, good to know, and thanks to you other guys, feeling better now, might have a question or two along the way, so bear with me.
Another solution might be a bull head stud. This is a stud that is bigger on one end than the other. Get one where the small end is the same size as the bolt. Drill and tap the hole to the larger size and install with some sealant to prevent leaks. In future you will be able to remove the distributor without draining the coolant, as long as there is room to pull the distributor with the stud in place.
I'm not familiar with the 8ba motor but if you have space to run a stud they do make them with different sizes on both ends if you need to tap the block to the next size like was already mentioned. Good man. Bet you guys will have it figured out in no time.
The only reason I mention "vw exhaust stud repair" is that they make these 2 different sized threaded studs in metric versions as well. Sometimes a metric fastener provides a solution with minimal oversizing of the damaged hole. Plus, I'm half German.
Hey deto, That's really nice of you to offer. I want to do it this weekend, but may have to work. I will PM you when ready and when it's convenient for you. Thanks alot.
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