Let me apologize in advance for my poor picture quality. I'm tired, sweaty and not holding the Blackberry too steady either...
After splitting 2 sockets, to include an impact socket, getting all the existing head bolts out I ran into this last bolt. the head got rounded just enough where I couldn't get it out. I fired up the Mig welder and viola!, it came out after I welded the socket to the head ... in place no less.
As you can see that head gasket where the stripped hole was leaked terribly. You can see the witness marks on the gasket too. The other head gasket looked perfecto!! It's plain to see where all my leakage was coming from. The Head gasket's compression ring still looked like it was sealing but probably wasn't.
The 2x4 jig worked perfectly. It did a great job keeping things perpendicular. I test fit the head back on afterwords and ran the stud home. It was a tight fit but it went to the bottom of the hole. I anti-seized the threads, like I will do on all the studs on their bottom end. Operation success!!
A little "McGuiver" action does it every time
Next came tapping the hole for the helicoil. It was one of the few things today that ended up being a piece of cake.
Here I was using the helicoil insertion tool. It went down with no problem. I used a drift punch to knock the tang off the bottom.
Last, but not least... I went around and chased the threads on all the remaining holes. There was no drag at all on the tap when It went by the point where the head bolt stopped. That tells me there was no/minimal thread deformation from the short bolts. The new studs now have smooth seamless holes to thread into. BTW... there were no other stripped holes, or even holes close to stripping.
Whew... The is ENOUGH for today. I've still have to go back to the garage and clean things up, blow out the least head's bolt holes and vacuum all the chips out, then put the short block up for the evening.
The heads will go to the machine shop tomorrow for checking and a skim cut (only if required). Next weekend starts the reassembly
Barry R, none of the cylinder liners have settled. The all are exactly even with the deck ... so ... no problems there. Thanks for all the help and tech advice. You are a stand-up guy and a credit to the FE world!! My hat's off to ya sir.
The saga continues... more to follow.
Dave