lurtch-k20-(78-90)
Registered Member
The other day a friend of mine came by the house with a friend of his that just got back from Iraq. What started out as a simple gesture (for dues paid across the water), at first what sounded like a blown header gasket. This truck is a ’95 dodge with a 6 – 3 lift, 5.9 ltr engine, not really what I prefer to work on (Bowtie by heart) but I can make an exception for the condition. The guy has new gaskets, and bolts to fix it with but doesn’t have the money to pay a mechanic. So, my alligator mouth overrode Jaybird A$$, I agreed to do it, but CMA and told him it could take 2 – 24 hrs depending on what happened. While removing the exhaust manifold I noticed three bolts were missing (broke off prior to me), and I broke one which has a grand total of 4 (5/16-18) bolts broken off in the heads, and it never fails two on each side in the back. I center drilled then core drilled the bolts (w/left handed bits), injected used brake fluid, and messaged gently with a small hammer. The first three bolts came out with no problem at all, but never fails the last one was a female dog. Did I mention the bolts were on the back exhaust ports (7 & 8); the easiest way to get to them drilling and extraction was between the finders and the block from the bottom. A contortionist with double jointed elbows would have had trouble. So needles to say #8 port back bolt now has a really hard piece of E-Z out in it (Still have that crunching sound ringing in my ears). After a small rage of eating cigarettes, and washing them down with *beverage* (cool water sandwich), I decided to pull of the project for the day (about 6 hrs of muscle cramping agony), Also got a game plan for the next day after work. I decided to get some small dremel grinding bits, 3/16 and 1/8 inch cobalt drill bits, cone shaped carbide burs, more left handed drill bits and center drills. I first tried center drilling and drilling, but all I got was dull bits, knowing it wouldn’t work, but defining insanity. The next day is now here, talking to guys at work about the Fore mentioned problem, All the help I could get was “GOOOOD LUCK”. I first tried grinding with the dremel, no good, I no sooner touched the E-Z out and the rock was gone, next was the carbide burs, I can say those evil little metal chips never looked so good!!!!!! It chewed threw it like crazy, (one thing to remember is bolt hard, E-Z out hard, Head Soft (cast iron), be careful, the bur will walk off the side. So needles to say during grinding, as easy as it broke, this Small little piece hell fell out, I felt REALLLLY REALLLY good at this point. I was very careful not to veer off course, so now time to drill the hole (the bur hole was about the same size and the original bolt hole), at this point I used an “F” drill bit (predrill for 5/16-18 tap) to clean the hole out. The piece of broken bolt was about an inch long, so I drilled to a mark (duct tape on the bit), to hopefully insure not piercing the water jacket, and cleanout he hole, almost to the tape and “feeling” how the hole is dilling, a small stream of greenish, coolant is now landing on my shop floor. The earlier rant of frustration is now exponentially multiplied. About fifteen minutes later, the ultimatum was to be decided (keep in mind I feel like large steaming pile of fesses, because this friendly gesture just got really expensive), buy new heads, and headers, or try and patch this one. We talked about getting heads, he said he was looking for an excuse to get a new set of heads any way, but for right now see what I could do. We drained all of the antifreeze to reuse, I used contact cleaner to clean and dry the hole, also retapped it (contact cleaner is one of the very best tap lubes for cast iron), used high temp sensor safe silicon, and filled the hole inserted the bolt to push out the hole, unscrewed the bolt then installed the manifolds, gaskets and torqued to spec. With both sides installed, waited about 2 hrs for the silicon to cure, filled coolant and started the engine, brought it up to temp and pressure checking for leaks the whole time. We drove the truck hard for about 3 hrs to check out. All as for now looks good, no leaks or level drop in a week.
--but it still is better than telling someone to "bring it somewhere else",when you know you probably could do the job,and make yourself a few bucks,and save them money too...things unfortunately can backfire though,and I'm always quick to explain this to them,and how I cant be held responsible if it turns to poop as soon as I touch it!...most people understand...
