Heli-coils

65 SD L79 · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

Heli-coils

DonSSDD · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

I've used a half dozen over the last 15 years in different places, very pleased with the performance.

ARCADIAN · Poncho Master!

Worked good on the side cover bolt on my muncie 4 speed!

4SPEED427 · A Poncho Legend!

I've heard guys say many times over the years that a helicoil is stronger than the original thread. Not sure if it's true or not but we've used lots of them in the shop over the years and they always work great.

long stroke · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

They have always been a miracle fix, i love them.

Glenn Musgrave · Addicted!

Yep, love them , too always had good luck with them.

unruhjonny · Guru

I too love them... installed many - especially in my Quad4's - those engines (aluminum top end) have cam housings which bolt to the heads - if you ever so slightly over torque the cam housing bolts, it just pulls the threads out of the head.

cdnpont · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

When you do an old Muncie, I've read the case will always need at least one or two. Mine needed one. They are available on Amazon.ca. Work great, so much so it was tempting to redo all the iffy threads.

68 Grande · Guru

I have been informed that heli coils in big block rebuilds are very common regarding head bolts.

My 396 has one. When my builder told me he had to put in a heli coil, I didn't like the sound of that and he said, don't sweat it, this is very common in BBC's and don't give it another thought.

4SPEED427 · A Poncho Legend!

68 Grande wrote:
I have been informed that heli coils in big block rebuilds are very common regarding head bolts.

My 396 has one. When my builder told me he had to put in a heli coil, I didn't like the sound of that and he said, don't sweat it, this is very common in BBC's and don't give it another thought.

Especially the left front head bolt, there's a very small threaded area in the casting.

On a 427 I rebuilt in the 80's, torquing head bolts with a beam type torque wrench, got within about 10 pounds of the spec and the feeling went to mush on the bar. Pulled it out, cleaned the threads and noticed I was able to put a nut on the backside of the threads if I went in through the water pump hole. Put on a nut, torqued it down, worked perfect, lasted as long as I owned it, many years.