Matt Marks

I'm trying to find a picture of the inside of the balance shaft cover - i.e. looking from the inside out through the bolt holes.

I stripped the threads in the oilpan at the base of bolt #8 in the picture below on the balance shaft cover (long story). The head of the bolt is fine and the bolt is out. I'm trying to determine the feasibility of installing a heli-coil into the oilpan without removing the balance shaft cover as there is some oil weeping out that will only get worse.`

What I'm trying to determine is how thick the bolt hole openings in the cover are. In order to get the bottoming tap into the hole, I would need to "open up" the hole where the bolt slides through the cover (it's not threaded) by about 2 mm. If the casting around the bolt hole is solid, it's no problem. However, if the opening is just a thin wall, then I'm out of luck.

The engine is in the car, and I don't want to have to pull all the belts and other crap off the front of the engine in order to remove the cover. So, any goof that fractures the cover will be $$$$.

Anyone know the answer to this or have a late balance shaft cover off the car that they could shoot a pic of for me?

Thanks!

Legoland951

The balance shaft covers are NOT interchangeable between cars as they are machined for the individual block. If you can't fix it with helicoil, you may be looking at the balance shaft delete option.

Cass944

dang i didnt know that they were not interchangable

MY83944

balance shaft delete option?

More HP?

Matt Marks

Understand that they're not interchangable. I'm just looking for a picture of the inside of one. There's nothing wrong with the cover. The stripped threads are in the oil pan.

L8 APEKS

Ehhh...my bet is, you wouldn't notice anything if you interchanged them. Heck, you can have mine when I delete 'em.

Granite 944

If ya can hang on a bit longer, I'll get my butt in the garage, and pull out those parts from my early parts cars, and take a pic or two for ya!

RedlineMan

Sean...

You'd lose that bet, my friend. It is shear luck if you put non-matching, non-line bored pieces together and it works. Trust me on this. I've been all through it, and it IS that critical.

Delete is dumb. 12hp at 6000rpm. Vibrates like a bastard. Not worth it!

Sorry about your problem, Matt. Those are VERY fragile threads. You really MUST use a small wrench for those, or even a torque wrench... just to be safe. Now you know, of course...

I can look tomorrow, but all I have loose are early covers. I think they are about the same, though.

Rich Sandor

can you tap new threads???

Granite 944

Matt, I got those pics for ya here. HOWEVER, I feel the need to stress that what you are about to try to do is, understandable, but very, very risky IMHO. If you really decide to try to do this, you should very much understand the fact that you may very well make life a WHOLE lot worse for yourself, than if ya just left it alone. Your gonna need some hand drilling equiptment, and experience that would still be a pretty good shot in the dark to get it all to come out good enough! Lots of depth to drill to, and you HAVE to drill straight, and true! Anymore than about 1.5 degrees off while drilling, you will be hating life when your done. I work for Boeing. I've done tons of hand drilling, using some of the best equiptment around, and even with that, I must say, your gonna be doing a pretty risky thing here. My suggestion, is to let it go, silicone seal the heck outta it for now, and helicoil that hole the next time you ever get in there to do a belt, WP, or any front end engine work. In other words, get that cover off completly before you even think of trying to helicoil it.

Anyway, heres a couple of pics with a steel measuring tape (at the 20" mark) for reference. I still think ya should let it ride. I'd use sealant, JB weld, look at other options, but I sure wouldn't try this while its still together and all.

First pic is of the inside of cover of that target bolt hole, and the 2nd is of the corrosponding block mount. Both are from an early 1985 car.

Zero10

I don't quite understand. The oil pan threads are stripped. What does the balance shaft cover have to do with it?....
Even heli-coiling the oil pan threads shouldn't involve anything related to the balance shafts.

RedlineMan

Yeh... I wondered that too. Whatever.

I'm kinda with Ken on this. You'd really hate to boink that cover... or the block. Try a longer bolt. You might catch some good threads. Put some Red threadlocker or even a little JB weld on the threads and snug it down. It should hold.

Granite 944

I know he said oil pan, but I know he must mean the engine block itself. Thats where these bolt thread into for these balance shaft covers. I just overlooked the mis-speak of oil pan. Still don't think its worth the risk of boring thru that cover into the block in an effort to get a helicoil in there. Again, maybe JB weld on a proper length stud, and a nut/washer.

Zero10

He said an oil pan bolt below the bolt numbered 8 on the diagram. Could he be talking about whether the bolt holes nearly intersect inside of the block?...
I'd just hate to give advice for one thing when he's looking at a different problem