docmirror

Yeah, cuz there's no such thing as degreaser spray in Scotland. And grease is of course - like glue. Once set, never get.


https://www.livingstonautoparts.co.u...-w54179/W54179

Otto Mechanic

Oh. I see you don't believe your own dogma? Or are you indulging in a bit of self-flatulence*?

So it's your opinion the OP should just screw in another plug and drive this engine to a shop?


*flagellation? Hard to keep those strait.

docmirror

WTF are you taking about? Who said put a plug in and drive it to a shop? Cuz, I sure didn't. Don't put words down and attribute it to me. READING is important. Learn.

As for flatulence - what have you contributed? The typical nothing-burger.

Otto Mechanic

You weren't at all clear on your recommendation.

I recommended towing the car to a shop, given the OP was unwilling to pull the head and attempt the work himself.

You didn't concur, and made noises about driving it to a shop. Where is the confusion? I disagree with you. In fact I consider you a misinformed person on this particular subject even though I have read your contributions with interest and respect in the past. On this subject you are wrong.

Sincerely,

dr bob

Keep it civil, friends.

Of course the perfect solution is to flatbed the car to a port, container ship it to Long Beach, and have it transported to Anaheim and Greg B for the work. Meanwhile, the OP asked for recommendations for things he could do short of that, as he doesn't have a local mechanic who can work on it.

Over the years I've observed piston tops and cylinder heads that had enjoyed some small metal bits passed through sometime in their history. Pieces were gone but the damage remained. In this particular case there are several removal methods discussed, and a recommendation to use an inspection camera to verify that all the debris is out. We didn't talk yet about how a simple magnet will grab the steel HeliCoil fragments from the aluminum block and piston. Regardless, so long as it's all removed by whatever method, then the OP is good to continue whatever repair method he chooses.

----

The existing Heli-Coil is a spiral-wound wire, so is easily removable if one can get a grip on one end or the other, then pull it up and out.

To the OP's question of different solid inserts to use -- TimeSert is a known good brand, so it gets the nod from me. There are others, but the others I have the toolbox require that the inside/bottom end be secured by staking and then dressing in the chamber. Or we get to use a threadlocker. More than a minimum percentage of these threadlocked inserts seem to come out with the plugs later if they aren't installed perfectly (read: clean good threads in the head). Read the instructions that come with several of the options and decide which is best for your situation.

Otto Mechanic

Sometimes I leave off the smiley faces , especially for "plays on words", in this example "self-flatulence" for "self-flagellation".

I'll remind you I was emphatically agreeing with a post you'd made right before you wandered into the rough with the assertion they had no grease removers in Scotland, which I took as a backhanded reference to lowland malt whisky...

I was just trying to be a little light hearted Doc, no offense intended. The comment was confusing. I'll use emoticons less sparingly in the future.

Otto Mechanic

See here Doc? No smiley face. A deeply sarcastic/absurd/ironic/humorous comment, who's impact would be destroyed by the presence of a smiley face. I rest my case.

But I must also say that since the OP was openly concerned over the cost of transporting the car 60 miles to his mechanic on a flatbed, vs. the cost of buying a new engine for the car if a bit of helicoil were missed during an attempt to vacuum out the combustion chamber through the spark plug hole, well, my recommendation to bite the bullet and tow the car, maybe even increase the towing distance on your road service insurance, stands.

M. Requin

There's my emoticon for the day...

GregBBRD

All depends on what you are going to do with the car.

Pulling the Helicoil and putting in another is a "used car lot" repair. There's not going to be very much of the oversize threads left for the insert to grab onto. The fact that the spark plug stripped on the way out tells you that these oversize threads are already messed up....otherwise the Helicoil would be perfect and the spark plug would be perfect, right?

The long term correct repair is going to be to pull the head and start over with another head.

All the bickering about doing work on the head with it installed is probably moot. The original repair was probably done with the head on the car....so whatever damage could be done is probably already done.

Johnny G Pipe

Thanks everyone. Of course this should be fixed correctly, with a new or correctly assessed and repaired head. It is a beautiful and unique car and I would not be able to afford a full engine rebuild if I killed it.

However, all being equal, if I do a repair with all possible diligence to protect the chamber, then the odds seem to point to the worst that can happen being that the repair fails and the head then must come off. If a turkey has done the previous repair without diligence, no amount of removing the head will fix any damage already done.

The other option from other internet discussions is use of a reverse tap thread chaser - this can be progressively expanded and starts from the bottom up and so does not put material into the chamber, and so may be a low risk way of realigning the misaligned helicoil.

One of these for example:
Foolproof diligence may not be 100% possible, but the odds are made greater by the use of a boroscope camera - so here is the first finding from my £7 investment (thanks for the tip). And so from the land that invented television and a range of fine tasting single malt degreasers, I bring you inarguable evidence of a thread of aluminium sitting against the cylinder wall, and some other damage that I wish I hadn't seen:

Otto Mechanic

Oh dear. That would definitely rank as an "oh dear" moment in my experience.

I advise the short term but copious use of highland malt whisky. It may not cure the illness, but it should kill the pain...

(for Doc).

polecat702

I have no idea what it would cost, for shipping, but Mark Anderson @ 928 Intl., will have a half price sale on used parts between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I'd buy one of his engines, he backs everything he sells, and do a swap.

You won't get screwed, and you'll be way ahead, in time and money!