Engine Repair

It has been a little over two weeks since my last post. I have results to report, but not necessarily the kind we were looking for. When I ended my last post we had the pushrods and a plan as to when we could install the rocker shafts. My engine builder was kind enough to come to my shop to install the rocker arms on Thursday the 12th with high hopes of maybe going to the track on Sunday as scheduled. Unfortunately for me and of course Scott he wasn’t there for more than 10 minutes and I heard “well that’s not good.”
The first two bolts he attempted to torque would not tighten up. Upon investigation he discovered the threads were pulling out of the aluminum head bosses, and would need to be “helicoiled”. Basically that is a simple process “so they say” in that you replace the existing worn out threads with a steel insert that is threaded on the outside and the inside. The threads on the inside of the coil are the same as the original thread that stripped,and the outside threads are larger size to accommodate the new tap size that you place in the hole. The unfortunate aspect is that the existing threaded holes needed to be drilled out and were directly into the intake runners which means if I drill out the threads the shavings will fall directly into the motor and ruin lots of pieces. Resolve: Pull out the distributor, take off the intake manifold, cover internal area of motor, place a shop vacuum next to area to be drilled so when the shavings fall the vacuum will suck them up instead of letting them fall into the motor. Scott returned around 8:30 with the needed supplies and we thrashed until approximately 11:30. We were finally close to being completed and back together.
He returned on Saturday morning, and we finished up, We started the car, set the timing, phased the rotor and I thought maybe I had a chance to go on Sunday. Needless to say through all this it was “very hot.” As luck would have it by the time I got around to see if anyone could go on Sunday, the well was dry. At least the car was back together and ready to go.