Lock and Stitch Inserts

[Missy Good Wench]

Well, the other day, the local diesel shop brought me 3 blocks to do the Full Torque inserts on the center 6 main bolt holes.

I drill the holes out using a fixture and a mag drill. Tapping is done by hand and after tapping six holes out its a great feeling to send a good useable block back to the customer.

Wish I had a pile of them to do.

Missy

 

[Veg_Out]

I wish you'd jump into Dahoooley and head east for a few hours and install my motor!

 

[WarWagon]

Do we see an ATT in Missy's future?

 

[crash2win64]

So how hard are those things to install? Do you drill out the main bolt holes to a larger size and put the insert in or what? I looked at the website for lock and stitch but got confused by it somewhat(not hard to do in my case), because it seems like you have to buy a whole kit or something. I don't know for sure though cuz it's been a while since I looked at that site...

Thanks

 

[chevyCowboy]

ya you have to buy the whole kit they arent that hard to put in but it is kinda pricey i have a bunch of pics that i took when i did mine just havent had the time to upload them and write it all up

 

[Missy Good Wench]

No time right now to do much of a road trip, sorry.

The old hole is used as a pilot to align the drill press/mill ??

The hole is drilled out to a larger size and then tapped with the special tap that comes with the tooling.

Once the hole is drilled, the machine is kept in alignment, the drill removed and the tap is set in the hole. A tapered pilot is installed in the drill chuck and used to pilot into the tap to maintain alignment.

The tap is turned by had a few turns to get the threads started, then romoved.

Once all the holes are to this point, the tooling is removed and the tap is run down through all the holes to full depth.

At this point a countersink is used to chamfer the top of the hole slightly (1/8th" wide)

The threads are cleaned with BrakKleen and bown dry.
The insert is threaded onto the installer tool and tested in the hole to be sure it will seat properly.

Once this is done the hole and the insert are cleaned again and the locktite product applied to the threads.

The insert is threaded into the hole and tightened down so the installer tool pulls up flush with the block surface.

The installer tool is removed and then the insert is pinned in place with a 1/16" hardened pin (Hole drilled down between the threads and the pin installed with locktite and then the hole peened over.

Once this is all done, a spot facer is used to lightly touch the top of the insert to be sure that it is not sticking above the part line of the main cap and the block.

A large flat file is then gently passed over the main web parting line to assure that there are no burs.

Once this is done, the job is complete, except to completely clean the block.

The cam bearings must be removed and all the oil holes/passages flushed well.

This is due to the large amount of shavings that are present during the process.

Now if the block was cleaned real well and all the oil holes were tapped over including the cam bores, removing the cam bearings would not be needed.

Biggy though is that there is so much shavings from this operation that if any of it finds its way into the oil passages and then is not washed out, its game over at some point.


Hope this explains the process.


Missy

 

[Missy Good Wench]

A side note.

I wish I had purchased the 10MM kit and then all the blocks I am doing could be retrofitted with the smaller outer bolts.

These things dont need the 12MM bolts to keep the bottom end alive.

Drilling the outer holes out for the 12MM inserts really takes out a bunch of material.

Missy

 

[crash2win64]

Yea I bought a 599 block and was thinking of downsizing and using the 10mm on the outer holes of the center 3 mains. Or do you mean do the inserts in all of the holes and use 10mm bolts for the whole bottom end? How much is the kit to do this? Or could I just piece it together? I also wanted to use studs in the bottom end instead of bolts...

Thanks,
Joe