Projectz28

I was afraid of this when I put the motor together. It seams that the TFS casting is very thin where the holes are drilled for the steam pipe. I would guess there was probably only 3 threads into the head. Well today I was filling the new motor with coolant and I suddenly noticed a leak. Guess where it was comming from.. Yup the steam pipe. So I reached back there and the bolt was completely loose. It wont tighten up and the thread in the head is stripped

Well I am in a bit of a bind here now. I refuse to pull the head of for repair just yet. The motor has not even been fired for the first time yet.

Well I was looking at the front of the head and it seem that there are 2 bolt holes there also. 1 above and 1 below the hole for the tube.

Has anyone ever just made a plate to cover the steam pipe hole in the head and drill and tap the new plate?

I am thinking that I can make 2 plates, one for either side out of 1/4" steel and then put in some fittings to just run new rubber line for the whole thing. That way I can make a gasket to go under the plate and not have to take the head off. Anyone done this?

I have a few spare heads laying around I can use as a template.

Projectz28

Holy smokes I think I fixed it!

For anyone who is intrested here is what I did. I made a plate from a piece of 1/4" aluminum scrap I had as a template. I used aluminum first because its much easier to work with. I used a jig saw to cut out the rough shap. Looks a lot like a EGR block off plate but wider in the center.

I drilled 2 hole in it to mount to the holes above and below the center NPT hole. I then drilled and tapped a 1/4 x 18 NPT into the center to line up with the hole in the head. and test fit it. It was good. I then went to Home depot and bought a piece of 1/4" flat steel stock and made 2 coppies of the aluminum template. I made 2 gaskets from some pretty thick gasket paper. I mounted both plates. The I took the 2 banjo bolts and cut off 2 threads from them. Then filed the end back into shape and reinstalled the pipe. Filled the cooling system with new coolant and so far its not leaking!!!

I'm going to go out tomorrow when I get home from work to check on it and make sure it still isnt leaking but I think it worked and I just saved myself a major repair

mdacton

I have my heads off now....I may just put AN in the head and run a line to avoid that problem in the future.

Good thing you have some skills, sounds like you got it fixed