So my head gasket job on my 1.6 na, which turned into a head replacement job as the old one was cracked to the water jacket, has just hit another bump.
I got the head on over the weekend, got the last valve shims I needed today, and was getting everything back together and was about to start timing it. Got the belt to the right tension and went to tighten down the tensioner, and the nut just kept turning. That's odd, oh wait...the studs coming out. S**t.
So now what to do? I'd like to avoid pulling the head off again, and was thinking of having a machinist friend of mine make up a new stud with an oversized end to thread into the head and tapping out the head to accommodate it. Does this seem feasible? My biggest concern is not getting the tap to track straight into the head with it in the car. Thoughts on this or other possible solutions appreciated. Thanks.
Helicoil outta fix it. If you have a right angled drill there will be no need to remove the head or engine.
Ah yes, hadn't even thought of that, thanks! Never used those, but seems pretty straight forward. I think I may have to jack the engine up on the passenger side to avoid the frame rail, but we'll see.
They are pretty straight forward to use. I would highly recommend purchasing genuine "heli-coils". There are other brands such as perma-coils, etc floating around. I have had little success with other brands. They never seem to set and stay in properly...
do not drill too deep... else you will get new antifreeze leak...
ive also seen studs where one side is a larger diameter too...
do not drill too deep... else you will get new antifreeze leak...
ive also seen studs where one side is a larger diameter too...
i would go for a stud with bigger threads on the end that screws in the head, or a TIME-SERT...
heli coils are JUNK.. almost every time i use one, it pulls out..
TIME-SERTS are threaded inserts, not a coil of threads.. when you use a time sert, it is TOUGHER than new..
they are a bit spendy tho, unfortunately!
I've never had any problem with heli-coils. Given the choice, I would use a time-sert however.
Well I had already heli-coiled it before ready R.O.R-2.0's admonition, but seems to be holding thus far, although i did put a little less torque on it than it called for so as not to push it. Got it running yesterday and the head gasket seems to be doing okay, running much better than it was with the cracked head (surprise surprise) and that lack of a crack and the porting I did seem to have definitely helped the power a bit, noticeably better pickup getting on the highway and keeps pulling higher in the revs. We'll see how everything holds up over the next little bit of driving. Is it better to retorque the head bolts the second time with the engine hot or cold, the Bentley says either.