striped flathead head bolt hole.

Striped hole right between 3 and 4 cyl. on drivers side . Am I right thinking drilling and heli-coiling, that the shavings will go into the water jacket and not into the oil pan. I hope this does not require tearing down as this is a complete and runnable engine it is together except for fixing this bolt hole and putting head back on and running . 1953 8ba original engine in my 53 customline 2 dr.

 

Heli-coil is good fix; water jackets are probably already a swamp of crud and particles, and a few more flakes are unlikely to bother anything...I would grease both drill and tap in the hope of trapping some of the flakes.

 

Like Bruce said, glob some grease on the drill bit and onto the tap. It'll grab MOST of the shavings.

 

Surely you must mean "stripped"...??? Striped means it has marks across it...stripped means torn out...

And there is a difference between pinstriped and pinstripped...

Now back to your other problem...
R-

 

You should be ok with a helicoil repair kit. I like the grease idea, it should work out fine. Just use a block with the drill and tap so they go in as straight as possible. Any hard plastic like phenolic or aluminum is good to use. That can be made up on a drill press easily enough.

Bob

 

Don't forget to "magnetize" the drills bit.

 

yess put a magnet near the drill bit while drilling then after use a vacume cleaner with a peice of hose taped into the hose end to suck the hole out while removeing the magnet placed on the hole edge while drilling !!
also when considering options a bigger bolt size is most likely possible, that would get you away from the helli-coil (britle/seal)..but thar are studs with two size ends(dorman) so if you want the same head nut you could consider that ?

 

I had to do this on a old 400 Chevy block.By the time I blew that thing up I had Heli-coil almost every tread .I will never use that block again .Good luck it should work fine

 

if this were a subaru you would go to the dealer for an oversize 10mm stud (no heli)(no locktight)

 

If you decide to go the heli-coil route (which is probably your best bet), be sure to use some sort of jig to ensure you drill square to the face of the block, otherwise your bolt/stud will be at an angle.

 

When you get done you can flush out the water ports with a can of cheap shaving cream.It will push out the shavings and the cream will disolve in water.

 

that's a great idea . you could make one from a thick block of steel in a bridgeport to get it perfectly square. drill one end the size for the drill and the other end the size of the tap.

 

You have just explained a problem for me that a friend had two years ago. He bought a crate engine to replace a blown one. After putting it in found a serious headgasket leak - you guessed it the farthest rear corner under everything ever known to be fastened on to an engine. Had to pull the engine out.
Found the one head bolt was a larger size than standard put in a standard hole and whoever had torqued the bolts back at the factory didnt give a rats rosy or wasnt paying any attention. When it reached torque limit it was still almost 1/16" from even contacting the head!!

 

My dad & I simply made one out of a block of 1" aluminum that we drilled on a drill press. Don't think it needs to be bridgeport-square, but certainly better than eye-ball square!

We made it out of a rectangular block and cut a slot in the other end so it could be bolted down by one of the adjacent bolts. We had about four to do that wouldn't hold torque...

 

Run the helicoil tap down the studhole in the head [square] Then by bolting the head in place you have a guide to tap through that ensures the hole is centred and square. Tooratly

 

If it was a frickin rocketship maybe Flash Gordon could fix it....

Subaru...hahaha

 

Hey Ernie I had to drill/helicaoil one head bolt hole in the deck of my 8BA. I used an old 8RT head as a guide to drill the hole square to the deck.

Came out primo !!

Rat

 

try using a stong magnet when drilling. helicoil will work just fine, just make sure to silcone the bolt or stud well

 

Yeah, we could've used an old head, but used a block of aluminum instead. Old heads work well...can't remember why we did that, but there was a reason...