billthe3

So yeah, I just guessed what to tighten the wp bolts to and apparently the 10lbs setting on my torque wrench is either very inacurate or threads in a 20yr old aluminum block strip out very easily. Or 10lbs is a lot more force than I thought it was, but then I know I have an issue with overtightening bolts. I think I stripped out a couple of bolts on the oilpan on my camry when I did that...

I think three bolt holes stripped (both the original and new bolts that came with the wp mount kit are fine) and one of the posts, but the rest of the bolts/posts were able to be torqued to 10lbs. Though some did feel like they were beginning to strip...

So, 1) whats the best way to fix this? and 2) is torquing to 10lbs just retarded on my part?





I was originally debating even bothering to do anything about it since its only 3 of the 9 bolts, but now I figure I probably should because I don't want to have to do it later. Guess I better get outside and pull all the belts and pulleys off again (damnit)...

Charlie

Bill,
You can always helicoil but there is an alternative before you do the helicoil.
When I was rebuilding my engine 3 or 4 of the balance shaft cover bolts were stripped. I don't remember if they are the same size as the wp bolts or not. Instead of helicoil, there was an SAE thread that that was just a tiny bit larger.
I bought a tap and did not even have to drill the hole, the tap fit the existing hole. Tapped out the hole and put the SAE fine threaded bolt in and it torqued just fine. Late on if I need to helicoil I could.
It seems the balance shaft bolts were 6mm and I used 1/4" bolt and tap. Just guessing but it was a cheap fix.
Charlie

Techno Duck

As Charlie said, helicoil or timesert is the way to go. I dont see any harm in trying to fit a SAE bolt in there first.

Dmitry S.

If you're in the South Bay, I have the helicoil kit to do the water pump threads. It's usally 50 bucks, but you can borrow it if you make the drive down.

billthe3

Cool, thanks Dmitry. I may take you up on that offer.

What exactly are helicoils/how do you use them anyway?


And I'll see if there are any sae sizes that could possibly fit the hole as well. I'm rather annoyed because I went and bought a tap and die set, and used it for a bunch of the roller bolts (so I can't return it) before I realized that it doesn't have the correct sized piece to do all these 6mm bolts for the belt covers and whatnot. The bolts are all 6x1.25 but the kit only has a 6x1. Stupid odd sizes...

Techno Duck

First you drill out the stripped threaded hole with the proper sized drill bit (the kit will tell you what bit you need) The big thing here is to make sure you do not drill to far in, so measure the depth of the hole and mark that on the bit. Next you tap the hole using the supplied tap in the kit. Now put the helicoil insert onto the supplied tool and thread it into the block. As you spin the tool back out, the insert will stay in the thread. Take a small diameter punch and knock the little 'tab' off. Thats it.