when replacing my LMAs I ran into a few speed bumps (well i hope they are just speed bumps) anyhow, as shown in the following picture I drilled into my rocker shaft a little bit (also the metal under it once I took it out to finish drilling the hole), im wondering if this could cause any problems. This goes in between the rocker arms where the hole is drilled in the bottom pic....

http://i56.photobucket.com/alb...1.jpg
Also as show in the next picture I have a tapp stuck in the hole I drilled out, have a few ideas on how to get it out (tap remover/easy out) but that could take a while to get from the states as Im in europe right now. I was wondering if the hole was in tolorance though as I really dont want to replace my head, unless its f*cked. Thanks

http://i56.photobucket.com/alb...6.jpg

sorry this is kinda a repost but I felt I needed to add these pics and get facts al together because I seperated this into two post and it was a bit confusing. thanks


Modified by nexgen91 at 9:59 PM 1/25/2007


Modified by nexgen91 at 10:30 PM 1/25/2007


Modified by nexgen91 at 10:31 PM 1/25/2007

 

Personally I'd just take it to a machine shop and let them get the tap out. You COULD do it yourself, but why risk it?

 

i dont know of a machine shop here in germany, thats the only thing

 

would this cost more than $200 to fix?? thanks

 

i want to know about this too just in case it happens to me in the future

 

please help me out people

 

They make "easy-outs" specifically for taps.

Using a regular easy out is difficult cause taps are so hard.

 

on my d16y8 some idiont over tightend the valve cover bolt in the coner and striped it out i fixed it with a 25 dollar tap and diy kit.

 

You won't have to worry about the rocker shaft because the spot you hit with the drill won't effect anything.

The tool you need is called a broken tap extractor. I have some and they work great. But like you said you probly can't find any in germany. If you can't find the tool or a machine shop I would take a punch just a little smaller than the tap and punch the broken part of the tap out the bottom. Than you would have to redrill the hole a bit bigger and retap new threads in the bigger hole. Than you would also have to get a bigger bolt obviously but of the same length.

 

so is the width of the hole ok?? should I worry with how much it is drilled out?? it doesnt look like it would be a problem but I want to make sure. thanks

oh BTW, I ordered some tap extractors and easy outs, Ill just wait on them to get here (2 weeks), I got other projects to do in the mean time. Im just trying to get the car ready before summer.

 

come on. you can't tell me germany doesn't have machine shops. they make porsche, mercedes-benz, audi, vw, bmw, and whatever other german cars i am forgetting over there. and germans modify said automobiles, amongst others. there has to be a few machine shops in the entire country!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by nexgen91 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i dont know of a machine shop here in germany, thats the only thing</TD></TR></TABLE>

Look one up then! There will be tons of them, so long as you live in a reasonbly populated area. I would go ahead and bring it to someone to pull that busted tap out because, as was mentioned, taps are VERY hard (especially if it is a good tap).

That's a pretty large diameter tap to have broken in Aluminum. You should be more careful. When tapping use these guidlines:

-Make sure you're always applying just a torque to the tap, and not bending it
-Use PLENTY of cutting fluid. WD40 is OK, but RapidTap is much better
-Start the tap as straight as possible, not entering crooked into the hole. On something like a cylinder head, you'de ideally want to start the tap on a Milling Machine or Drill Press to make sure it's perfectly straight.

And the most important!:

-Do around 1/4 of a turn clockwise, then turn backwards until you feel the tap cut a chip, repeat this process. Don't just drive the tap in there!