Re: PS
For what it's worth, my "donor" was a brake stud (all I could find in the drawers in Pep Boys with the correct thread). We cut it down, slotted the top and tried different lenghts until it stopped going in with the "head" just below the block surface. The finished piece is 1/4, maybe 3/8 long, and with all the effort we can put on it with a screwdriver, it tightens down and sits just a bit below the surface.
From examining the hole, the threads go down further than this home-made plug is long, so obviously something is not straight or the plug would keep screwing in. I can see that at some point the threads stop, then start again. Very weird. I am kicking myself for not noticing before I started putting the engine back together, but as I say, I never noticed the hole until I saw the head partly covering it.
I am overthinking this, but as I see it I either pull the head again, clean the hole and my plug (it's in there with thread sealer now) and install with epoxy, or I try to tap the hole for the next size pipe thread. I really don't want to make the hole any bigger. A machine to remove the threads is beyond my garage - that would require a full tear down and a visit to the machine shop.
For what it's worth, my "donor" was a brake stud (all I could find in the drawers in Pep Boys with the correct thread). We cut it down, slotted the top and tried different lenghts until it stopped going in with the "head" just below the block surface. The finished piece is 1/4, maybe 3/8 long, and with all the effort we can put on it with a screwdriver, it tightens down and sits just a bit below the surface.
From examining the hole, the threads go down further than this home-made plug is long, so obviously something is not straight or the plug would keep screwing in. I can see that at some point the threads stop, then start again. Very weird. I am kicking myself for not noticing before I started putting the engine back together, but as I say, I never noticed the hole until I saw the head partly covering it.
I am overthinking this, but as I see it I either pull the head again, clean the hole and my plug (it's in there with thread sealer now) and install with epoxy, or I try to tap the hole for the next size pipe thread. I really don't want to make the hole any bigger. A machine to remove the threads is beyond my garage - that would require a full tear down and a visit to the machine shop.
Comment