Am I a Dumbass or what

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MileHighDart

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So my 5.9 build is almost finished.

I was 5 minutes away from mounting the intake manifold. Then I decided to run a tap through all the holes to clean them out a bit. Well I'm on the last hole, drivers side, rear most hole. And I snapped the tap off in the hole.

OMG! I screamed bloody murder ! So pissed off right now, I was going to set the engine in the car this weekend, but now I don't know what the hell I'm going to do. Probably have to pull the head, take it to a machine shop, spend a bunch of money, and lose a lot of time. probably have to buy another set of head gaskets, unless its ok to torque them twice.
 
That's ok, i decided to put aftermarket springs on my magnum heads while they were off the truck and got rebuilt. I looked at pressures and cool bind, all good. Bolt them on, bolt intake on, all the rockers, rolling the motor over coild bind looks like it's happening. Go back and recheck spring specks....I was 1 line off, wrong springs!!!! Now instead of changing springs while it's on the bench and nice and easy I got to build an on head remover and get to do it bent over the fender of a truck!!!!
 
MileHighDart said:
So my 5.9 build is almost finished.

I was 5 minutes away from mounting the intake manifold. Then I decided to run a tap through all the holes to clean them out a bit. Well I'm on the last hole, drivers side, rear most hole. And I snapped the tap off in the hole.

OMG! I screamed bloody murder ! So pissed off right now, I was going to set the engine in the car this weekend, but now I don't know what the hell I'm going to do. Probably have to pull the head, take it to a machine shop, spend a bunch of money, and lose a lot of time. probably have to buy another set of head gaskets, unless its ok to torque them twice.
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you might be able to easy out it.. I hate to say this but a tap was the wrong tool for the job, you should have been using a rethreading kit (or as I like to call it, a thread clean up kit)
spin_prod_209728401?hei=333&wid=333&op_sharpen=1.jpg
 
anyway - all is not lost - there is a chance that you can get that bad boy outta there... can you toss a pic of it up?
 
MileHighDart said:
So my 5.9 build is almost finished.

I was 5 minutes away from mounting the intake manifold. Then I decided to run a tap through all the holes to clean them out a bit. Well I'm on the last hole, drivers side, rear most hole. And I snapped the tap off in the hole.

OMG! I screamed bloody murder ! So pissed off right now, I was going to set the engine in the car this weekend, but now I don't know what the hell I'm going to do. Probably have to pull the head, take it to a machine shop, spend a bunch of money, and lose a lot of time. probably have to buy another set of head gaskets, unless its ok to torque them twice.
Click to expand...
Hey, we have all done it or worse, just roll with the flow it's never as bad as it looks. (except for oil filter dude)
 
Set a nut over the hole. Use a welder to fill the hole...Unbolt the nut and tap.

Edit: I've done this with broken bolts. Never tried it with a tap.
 
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MileHighDart said:
So my 5.9 build is almost finished.

I was 5 minutes away from mounting the intake manifold. Then I decided to run a tap through all the holes to clean them out a bit. Well I'm on the last hole, drivers side, rear most hole. And I snapped the tap off in the hole.

OMG! I screamed bloody murder ! So pissed off right now, I was going to set the engine in the car this weekend, but now I don't know what the hell I'm going to do. Probably have to pull the head, take it to a machine shop, spend a bunch of money, and lose a lot of time. probably have to buy another set of head gaskets, unless its ok to torque them twice.
Click to expand...
there are a couple of things you can try. Be aware that taps are like HighSpeed steel. You cannot drill them out! First, maybe, if you're lucky, you can carefully back the tap out.
But as hard as they are, they are brittle, so POSSIBLY, if it "shattered" you can pick out the pieces with a dental pick. SOMETIMES, you can break the remaining tap into smaller pieces with a chisel, which can be picked out.
there is another alternative, there are EDM type machines that can dissolve the tap electrically, with little to no collateral damage.
 
MileHighDart said:
So my 5.9 build is almost finished.

I was 5 minutes away from mounting the intake manifold. Then I decided to run a tap through all the holes to clean them out a bit. Well I'm on the last hole, drivers side, rear most hole. And I snapped the tap off in the hole.

OMG! I screamed bloody murder ! So pissed off right now, I was going to set the engine in the car this weekend, but now I don't know what the hell I'm going to do. Probably have to pull the head, take it to a machine shop, spend a bunch of money, and lose a lot of time. probably have to buy another set of head gaskets, unless its ok to torque them twice.
Click to expand...
oh yeah, one more thing. You're no dumber than the rest of us. You're just human. Humans make mistakes. Like any self respecting human, you should be blaming someone else, like Murphy, as in Murphy' s Law: "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong, and at the worst possible time."
 
There are tap extractors on the market if the flutes are not too messed up. They have tangs that fit down inside the flutes and many times these will work .
 
Moparman1806 said:
There are tap extractors on the market if the flutes are not too messed up. They have tangs that fit down inside the flutes and many times these will work .
Click to expand...

This is what I would try first....If you still can't get it out , then as mentioned, you need to crack it and pick out the pieces.....They are hardened and brittle.....
 
1969reddart said:
Set a nut over the hole. Use a welder to fill the hole...Unbolt the nut and tap.

Edit: I've done this with broken bolts. Never tried it with a tap.
Click to expand...

Yes , this works on bolts but not taps....they are hardened....The weld won't stick to hardened material
 
MileHighDart I feel you pain. Been there, done that with exhaust bolts. Used an easy out and snapped that off. Ended up removing the head and taking it to a machine shop. Took the machinist about 30 minutes to extract it and to chase the other threads in the head.
 
I have never had success smashing them to pieces. First a little piece breaks off, then another little piece, and soon my tool is down in the hole, and all the pile-driving in the world isn't working.
I just heat 'em up fast and hot,red-hot,without heating the surrounding area. Then I let it air cool. As it cools it shrinks and pulls away from the surrounding material. Then if you can't pick it out, you can now weld to it.
That's my DA story.
It takes a lotta heat in a very fine point. So if you are unfamiliar with the torch, this might be best left to a pro.

I said you can now weld to it, but it's been my experience that the weld doesn't penetrate or stick very well. So it's brittle and looking for an excuse to break off. I use a T-handle and coax it out. If you haven't smashed the chit out of the exposed threads in the hole,lol, then it usually comes right out. Yeah, that's right; I said usually,lol. It's happened to me several times in 49 years of wrenching.
 
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I sweat bullets every time I pull my air cleaner on my Barracuda. I just know I will drop something in it and it's gone like car keys in a septic tank:)
I have taken to covering the carburetor with the new packaging cover it came with when I bought it.
Same with pulling valve covers-see myself dropping something that goes down a pushrod hole or some such drek---------------
 
bbrroowwnn said:
Yes , this works on bolts but not taps....they are hardened....The weld won't stick to hardened material
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I don't think that is exactly correct. Weld does not "stick" . The metal or pieces being joined together coalesce to form a joint, so if you use a high tensile strength bare wire rod there is no reason the pieces couldn't be joined.
 
Moparman1806 said:
There are tap extractors on the market if the flutes are not too messed up. They have tangs that fit down inside the flutes and many times these will work .
Click to expand...
I didn't know about tap extractors, there is a hardware store near by that carries lots of weird stuff, I'll try them first.
 
AJ/FormS said:
I have never had success smashing them to pieces. First a little piece breaks off, then another little piece, and soon my tool is down in the hole, and all the pile-driving in the world isn't working.

not to mention ur bitching those threads up pretty good beating on it trying to break a tap into pieces?
Click to expand...
 
MileHighDart said:
I didn't know about tap extractors, there is a hardware store near by that carries lots of weird stuff, I'll try them first.
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you may not find them at hardware store. A professional machine shop would have them.They come in two, three, or even four flute styles. Goodson might have them. A good machine tool supply company might have them.
For the size tap, you're talking about, you might be be better off taking some needles from a needle- scaler and try sliding them down between the flutes, and then put a crescent wrench on the top to try and back it out. It may take multiple tries and a lot of compressed air to blow out the pieces.
 
Are the heads aluminum? if they are you just need acid to desolve the tap and it wont touch the aluminum. If they are iron you got some work ahead of you, If it not to tight I have used a punch to turn out the tap so you can get a hold of it and if you hit it to hard it will break, and I have had good luck with breaking them up you have to remove each piece you break off don't let them pile up.
 
Industrial suppliers will have tap extractors such as McMaster-Carr . there are others but I can't think of them at the moment . You need to be a business and have an account to purchase anything . You can have someone purchase it for you , though . Worth the effort .
 
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