Upper Timing Cover Leak - Can't stop now.

[larry_in_socal]

Hello all...

 

Back to wrenching on the 75, 2002, manual trans...

 

I had the car running several months ago, but had a major oil leak at the upper timing cover. needless to say I need to reseal that area really good.  While in the process of adding new gaskets and sealer I discovered that two of the threads were stripped, number "4" on the head and the horizontal one on the timing cover itself. I read on several of the postings that this is not uncommon as folks tend to over tighten the bolts, with disregard for torque settings, or attempting to "zip" on the bolts with an impact type drill.

 

So It leaves me no choice but to bust out the helicoil kit.

 

I was thinking how do I get a drill bit at a 90deg. straight angle, however I had the perfect tool. For whatever reason my wife bought me a few of these flexible drill attachments, I think she might have been surfing on Amazon late at night or something, but these flexible attachments have really come in handy. The attachments came in a two pack, so I have one to spare in the tool box.. lol. They really came in handy because I didn't have to remove the radiator, and allowed to continue the job.

 

 

Keeping the Drill as "90degree" as possible. Frog tape to keep the shavings away, and frog tape to mark the depth of the hole.

 

 

Better angle of the flexible drill attachment... of course a brand spanking drill bit too...

 

 

Time to cut the thread, again frog tape to mark the depth.

I took my time, made sure that the helicoil tap was at 90degree, and continued to cut the thread till it reached the proper depth.

 

 

 

Lastly there goes the helicoil going in.

 

Sorry I didn't take any pictures of the helicoil on the upper timing cover, but pretty much the same deal.

 

Oh and once all of this was done, I sealed up the upper timing cover, this time I took my time and used the proper torque sequence and this time I didn't over torque them. I torqued them down to 7 foot lbs. or roughly 12 nm. All bolts including the valve cover bolt to upper timing cover felt strong and tight. Before the bolts going into the stripped holes had nothing to hold on to and needless to say they were not tight.

 

That was two weeks ago, and the area has been setting up, so to speak.

 

This weekend I plan to do some more work on the car, as I'm replacing the heater hoses next.

 

so once I get all of this work done, I will be back to where I was about two months ago, with a running engine that needs the carburetor and timing to be fine tuned.

 

Hope this information was helpful.

 

Larry_in_socal

[halboyles]

Nicely done!

[jimk]

A little grease smeared on the tape would help keep the shavings from floating around.

[Son of Marty]

A lot of those bolts get stripped when people torque them down with the wrong torque wrench, if you use your normal 0-100 ft/lb wrench it is not accurate at that low a torque it really calls for a inch pound torque wrench.