HELP! - Stripped block threads! - no daily driver!

[Guest tom sixbey]

i was retorquing the head bolts on my L24 to recrush the original head gasket, and one broke off in the block! The other bolts came out with tons of rust on them and i can only assume that the block threads are all screwed up.. Whats the best thing for a broke (literally) college student to do here? - can those threads be retapped for a coarse-threaded bolt, or will the block have to be heli-coiled?

how much money am i looking at here?

[fl327]

you could go to a junkyard and get all the bolts.

you could heli-coil the broken one and leave the rest alone til absolutely necessary,

if the bolt is neither bottomed out or seized, you can extract it out by drilling a small hole in whats left of the bolt, using and extractor and pulling it off, and bolt em all up and let it fly and see how it goes, ived had to do all of the above, im a college kid with no job too, no job but a full time hustler with the gift of fab...

[denny411]

The problem here is that you have the bolts removed .so you will need a new hesd gasket. This means if you haven`t already done so,the head will need to be removed.It may sound extreme,but if I were in your position I would just throw another engine in and be done with it.you`ll save the cost of the gasket set/the work of cleaning and reinstalling head,and the cost and hassle of the helicoil.Besides I think it`s easier to change the whole engine vs the head.their should be plenty of l6`s around since the body usually goes before the engine there should be some post swap surplus floating around on this site somewhere.

[fl327]

that is very true, very true. every yard i have ever been to has l28's out the kazoo.

i saw a lot of turbos last time i went, making my decision to own a turbo 240z real easy.....

[Guest Anonymous]

Ouch!!! thoroughly clean and chase the bolt holes with good junkyard bolts or your salavageable original bolts. Go slow and easy. Get an estimate on removing the busted bolt if you cannot get it out easily. I lost my "touch" on this heli coil proceedure a few years ago. I still attempted extraction and re-threading with disaatrous results.I tried to restore a spark plug hole and could have done a better job of cutting threads with a flame thrower. You are lucky, I busted 3 head bolts in a row removing a cylinder head that was being disturbed by a blown gasket. Head bolts are about the strongest and hardest bolts on an engine. You may have the "touch" to do this helicoil proceedure. I would not replace a head bolt with any thing but a helicoil because it is almost mandetory in about every situation to use a duplicte of the original bolt because of certain features or design. . Be cautious and careful in this proceedure because it can get expensive.

[Guest tom sixbey]

thanks for the posts guys.. - - it looks like i'm gonna replace the gasket. i've got fresh bolts, and hopefully i wont need to helicoil the block, but i guess i wont know until i start to torque down on them... i'm also considering having the head shaved to ensure a good seal.

[Guest RENN TURTON]

Had the same thing happened on L28 block, but to my amazement, I was able to remove the broken bolt by hand after removing P90 head. I hope you have the same kind of good luck I had! I'll cross my fingers for ya.

[Guest tom sixbey]

just in follow-up: that broken bolt did turn out with my fingers just like you said happened to yours!

[Guest Thurem]

I would like to share with you guys how I rigged mine after I pulled off a way warped cyl. head. One of the headboltholes had previously been stripped and helicoiled, this repair had failed bad. I could pull out the helicoil with my fingers, the hole did not look like it could be repaired. The first thing I did was to make a brace/guide out of a piece off flat steel, this was bolted to the block on each side of the bad hole(in two other headboltholes), and it had a hole to match over the bad hole. I used this guide so I could drill thru the hole with a handheld electric drill. I drilled thru the block into the waterjacket. I then tapped this new longer hole. At work, motorcycle shop, I had found a longer grade 10 bolt that fit the bill. Now I just reassembled motor with teflon tape on the threads of the new bolt and a copper sealing washer under the head of that new bolt. This fix has so far,held up for about 10000 miles. ohh yes, I paid 60 $ for a used head and radiator from a friend.