[Cougar-67]

Used a tool from kooade to tap my W studs, and after screwing in the studs all the way, noticed some were slightly off perpendicular. Must have had some where the tapper wasn't properly aligned with the stud hole and raised up the tool slightly from where it should have been.

After I have the machinist take off some from the stud mounts, and install the guides and studs, can I "whack" lightly those studs so they're correctly aligned? Even after having a blast grinding the exhaust ports, I think a pair of aluminum heads are looking more and more essential. Eric

 

[quattrothedog]

I'm no expert, and would love to be proved wrong, but it's not a good sign !!

How did you tap them ?
I recently did the ones on my 302W using a piece of flat bar with a perpendicular hole tapped through.

It seems to have worked remarkably well !!

 

[Cougar-67]

The tool was a 1/2" in depth, and allowed for bolting down to one press-in stud at a time. I removed each other press-in stud, tapped, removed the remaining press-in studs, then used screw-in studs to keep the tool in place. kooade had to add a nut to the top, because the original thread in the tool was worn. Maybe I just didn't tighten down the tool enough. I tightened the tool down in both situations (with press-in stud used, and with screw-in stud used to keep the tool in place), where there wasn't any wiggle sideways or vertically, at least that's how it felt.

 

[kooade]

I should have explained the tool a little better. I'm am real careful at first to start the threads. I did the last ones on the car. The tool might have lifted on you If it were too lose when when cutting the threads. All mine turned out really good that I have used similar tools for. You can still have the crooked ones tapped for timeserts. Or look for studs that have 1/2 threads at the base. At that point it may take a larger tool or a machine shop. I'm not a fan of heli coil although they may be fine in this application. If you want to pay shipping I will give you some 1969? 351w heads already tapped.

 

[Bad69cat]

I would not heli-coil those - most likely the spring pressures will not result in a good outcome. If the machine shop can't straighten it out easy enough I'd just take koaade up on the shipping offer....should be cheap enough. Porting is a lot of work! AND trust me ----if you only screw up one set of heads you ain't trying hard enough!! LOL The aluminum are awefule tempting though!

 

[Cougar-67]

Kooade (Justin?), please let me know your zip code. Mine's 53086, just north of Milwaukee. Are the valve guides/seats in good shape? Would love to see some pics. Please end them to my [email protected] account. Thanks for helping. Eric.

 

[Art]

Should have been tapped on a vertical (Bridgeport) mill.
Some things are better left to the pros. Would have been a 10 minute job while the mill was set up to mill the stud bosses.

Threaded inserts or heli-coils (which are stronger than original threads Badcat) installed on a mill will straighten up the studs.
And no you can't straighten the studs with a hammer.

Sometimes trying to save a dollar jumps up and bites you in the a$$

 

[kooade]

My name is Adrian=kooade.
My zipp is 66086.
I have a bridgeport mill. To be honest its easier for me to do with the little tool. I have no power feeds or read outs on mine. If the bosses are parallel with the deck I can trim them down easy.
Tapping treads. its easy to mess them up if you haven't did hundreds of them. I forget that most people haven't cut their teeth in this realm of life. I was thinking about sending a detailed instruction sheet with the tool, but it made the process seem more complicated then it needed to be.

 

[Cedar Rapids Ia]

If it comes down to it, I have a set that I would part with.

 

[Bad69cat]

Very good info although a bit convoluted: http://www2.boellhoff.com/web/centres.nsf/Files/HELICOIL_plus_GB_0100/$FILE/HELICOIL_plus_GB_0100.pdf

 

[Cougar-67]

Thanks for the offers Adrian and IA, but at around $100 to ship via Greyhound, I'd be much better off forking out the dough on some good aluminum heads. Will have to save up over the summer, but may have my quarters and trunk all done by then.

 

[Art]

Actually the holes were already oversize for 7/16 x 14 threads by .007"

 

[cougarshaman]

Should have been tapped on a vertical (Bridgeport) mill.
Some things are better left to the pros. Would have been a 10 minute job while the mill was set up to mill the stud bosses.

Threaded inserts or heli-coils (which are stronger than original threads Badcat) installed on a mill will straighten up the studs.
And no you can't straighten the studs with a hammer.

Sometimes trying to save a dollar jumps up and bites you in the a$$

werd. (10 characters)

 

[kooade]

Its cool. Better way to go anyway. I am all for someone doing something there self if they can and it makes sense . In my opinion you would have been wasting money on the stock heads when compared to what's out there for aftermarket sbf heads. Twenty years ago this would have been more tragic. I spent all that money on heads that were half as good as the Chinese Junk Aluminum heads that the speed shop down the road sells. Looking back what a kind of turd polishing competition was I in ?
Sorry my tool didn't work for you. I truly feel bad. It worked fine for me.

 

[Cougar-67]

Adrian, totally my fault in not ensuring the tapper tool was flush with the to-be-tapped stud mount. You get my nod for the quote of the year "turd polishing competition". I'm too stubborn to give up on these heads. There are only two maybe three that have slight off-centeredness, and yes I was able to whack them fairly easily into close alignment - maybe shiite steel from China? I'll put everything back together after I finish porting and polishing, see if I can do some turd alignment on the studs to have the 1.7 ratio rockers play on the valve stems altogether. If that doesn't work, I'm going to throw in my Cleveland and take it to the drag strip, looking for 12 second runs. Maybe will do a polishing-only of those heads.

 

[Cougar-67]

I'm going to create a head-length template (3/8" holes for every stud) to ensure they're all perpendicular to the stud mounts - they are, right? Will see if everything is a wreck or not.

 

[kooade]

Pictures of heads

 

[Cougar-67]

Adrian, I'll keep searching for better shipping. Back to my threaded heads, I made sure I had the tapper all the way down in the studs - could not turn it any further. When I screwed in the stud all the way, there was still gap between the stud mount top and the bottom of the stud head. I now have ultrathin m-6566-a311 Ford guide plates that have the sides cupped upwards where they'd make contact with the pushrods. With the guideplate under the stud I maybe had a half-turn to tighten everything down nice and tight. I can't envision having to take the stud mounts to be shaved. Anyone else able to avoid shaving with these type guide plates?

 

[Cougar-67]

Maybe just one stud girdle would provide the gauge needed to ensure the studs are aligned correctly relative to each other and to the valves/pushrods. Maybe? I'll search for a junker 3/8" diameter girdle.

 

[kooade]

If the threads are bottoming out you may need to use a bottoming tap. Mine did not bottom out. I would imagine that the lower part of your stud is longer than the ones I used. I used the thicker guild plates with mine without trimming the bosses, but you are wanting to use 1.7 rockers. It might change things a bit. You could set the head on the block semi assembled with cam a couple solid lifters and some light hardware store springs on 2 of the valves and run it thru its motions.