Benzor

So I'm thinking I may have stripped or damaged the threads in the head, used to tighten down the cam housing. They came off no problem. The offending hole is the second hole from the front on the exhaust side, which carries the heater pipe bracket as well.

I got engagement, but then the bolt became difficult to turn (harder than turning by hand). I'll admit I tried several times with the bolt in and out, never getting the bolt very far down.

I pulled the cam carrier off to take a closer look, and then thought to run a tap - seemed to be a M8x1.25 (hope I didn't get that wrong). I turned the tap gently by hand, and it gets maybe 5-6 threads in the encounters resistance.

So possibilities:

1. There is something blocking the threads at 5-6 down, but above and below threads are fine.
2. I somehow mis-aligned the bolt at the start, breaking / cutting the correct threads, and now 5-6 threads down is the conversion from mis-aligned threads to correct threads.

Big question is - should I run the tap further down?

divil

You could always get a thread chaser instead of a tap - much less likely to cause any damage. They are normally sold as part of a complete kit, but to be honest the whole kit is well worth having anyway.

I have this one and I love it.

Tedro951

Timesert time!

RajDatta

If you are removing the head, have it welded and then tapped. As good as new.

Benzor

Good news story. Rookie mistake.

I'm actually quite embarassed to say, but I had put the bracket for the coolant pipe between the head and cam carrier, rather than on top of the stack. So it was getting progressively wedged, hence the feeling in the bolt.

Thankfully, there appears to be no damage to the sealing surface of the cam carrier.

Shouldn't be wrenching at 1030 at night.

Mikes-951

Timeserts are awesome! my brother had purchased a 2000~ bmw 325 i with a blown head gasket, When we went back to assemble, the block would only hold roughly 45Ft pounds of torque, long story short, got a timesert kit, installed it, Every head bolt ended up torquing to spec! Good luck! just my 5 cents on the timeserts! Dont do heli-coil.