Garion's Head

[Weelan]

Cool! I enjoyed seeing those pics. Do you do a lot of heads? I may have to hit you up in the future, looks like it went really quickly.

[BEEK]

i have literally rebuilt over 1000, i would like to say many thousands, but could not back that up with real numbers. but i did own a fiat repair shop and factory authortized parts center for 20 years. as well worked at a fiat specific salvage yard for 10 years when i was a kid. im sure ive built. i enjoy working on fiats better than any other brand, maybe its because im so comfortable with them. but i do rebuild anything. thought i was going to retire, but the economy had made me change my thoughts.

[lm48]

Hi Beek, a local Mashine shop resurface my cylinder head and did a valve job but .The valves appear to seat to deep into the head in close position. Is this a major issue? Possible due too many reworks. Can the valve seat be replace? I did a poor job on properly torque the head bolts and just blow the gasket just after 400 miles. So it will be removed from the car next week.

[BEEK]

yes valve seats can be replaced

[garion]

So I got my head back from BEEK yesterday.. All freshly cleaned and ready to go..

Now's the time to clean up the threads in the block.. I go to Autozone and buy a tap and die set, that has the 10x1.25 that I need... Well, Take a look at what i really got:



Note that the thread basically stop about 1/2 way. They are mostly cut, but never really finished...

Thats what I get for buying cheap tools..

[westy64]

So I got my head back from BEEK yesterday.. All freshly cleaned and ready to go..

Now's the time to clean up the threads in the block.. I go to Autozone and buy a tap and die set, that has the 10x1.25 that I need... Well, Take a look at what i really got:



Note that the thread basically stop about 1/2 way. They are mostly cut, but never really finished...

Thats what I get for buying cheap tools..

IMHO, I think your tool is correct.
Very smooth thread at the beginning to enter gently and sharper at the other end to finish the job.

[garion]

Not really.. The valleys on the upper part are 'filled'.. So as you go deeper, it would wreck the beginning threads..

The dies in this set were HORRID. Completely unusable. I couldn't even get them to go on a brand new bolt.. Just really cheap crap, which I'm returning.

For the record, this was the set, so that others can avoid it in the future:
http://www.autozone.com/autozone/access ... 64651_0_0_

[Fi8spider]

I wanted to post that it looked like a horrid quality tool but I didn't want to offend.

Unless a tap or dye is marked HSS or Tungsten it will never make it's way into my tool kit.
A single tap like a 10x1.25 will cost me about $40 but will do the job properly and will last a long time.

[westy64]

Sorry, I did not see the profile on the right side, more visible on the door side of the tool.
You're right,

[baltobernie]

Hey BEEK (and other machinists),

Aren't there two types of taps (three, if you count beer )? There's one style for cutting new threads, and another for cleaning up existing ones?

[lm48]

I got my set of tap and die from Sears yesterday for the same reason and they work perfect. I did spend $80 for. I was able to drive my head bolts by hand until the head of the bolt touched the washer. I hope I did a better job this time on installing the head back.

[131]

Aren't there two types of taps

Three. Taper, intermediate and plug.

[garion]

After getting the tap and die set at Sears last night, probably the same set that lm got.. Today went out, cleaned the threads and the bolts.. And.... The head is on!



I followed someone's advice of having the intake installed when I put the head on. The head itself went on surprisingly easy when I had a set of extra hands.. Now the wife is calling herself a mechanic...

Now the fun of hooking everything up..

[garion]

Got everything together, and she's running! I still need to verify the burping and such, but so far it looks good..

And you know, I should have bought myself a set of tap and dies years ago.. I ended up redoing a bunch of various threads just cause they were a pain.. Like my distributor hold down bolt.. For some reason it was tough the first few threads.. Then I said screw it, why fight, and used the die to clean the threads.. Much much easier..I can think of in my youth fight against cranky rusted bolts that have used this.

Anyways, I wish to thank everyone on the forums, BEEK for rebuilding the head.. Looks like I have a runner once again..

[BEEK]

you are very welcome, i enjoy seeing these cars go down the road.