Had a great big leak on the front cover...spewing a quart of oil in about 2-minutes at anything above idle. Just found another, though....

The pass. side motor mount, where it bolts to the motor, the bolts are stripped out and oil is seeping from them. There's also about a 1/4" gap between the mount and the block at the smallest bolt (the one on the end)...is there supposed to be something in between the blocka nd motor mount here?

Biggest question, though, is would it be safe to tap the holes one size bigger? They're 12mm bolts now...if I step it up to a 1/2" bolt would I encounter any issues? Going to go with a standard size because all of our taps are standard. Would there be enough material to cut threads to go from a stripped out 12mm bolt to a 1/2" bolt?

Other suggestions, except helicoil (too much $$$), will be greatly appreciated!

 

Have you pulled the oil pan off to take a look yet? Here's a pic of the bottom of my engine w/ the pan removed. The arrow points to the hole you're talking about, right?

From the look of it, as long as you didn't go deeper, expanding the threads would probably be ok. Are the threads messed up currently? A leak here can be fixed with some RTV or a new oil pan gasket.

As far as a gap between the pan and the mount, I'm not sure what you mean. It should be flush once the bolts are tightened down.

 

It's not flush so something is amiss...I'll have to get some pics tomorrow.

I haven't pulled the pan off...I don't think it can be done without pulling the engine out, can it? Even if it can be, it'll be a while before I have that kind of time and I have a week to make this car a driver.

Is there similar area around the two larger holes (they would be just below the edge of that pic)? The smaller is stripped, as well, but I have the equipment to handle that one. The bigger are so stripped that my 12mmX1.5 tap just slips right in and out with minimal resistance.

 

The pan can come off with the engine in the car. It'll be a little tight, but with the passenger-side mount off (engine hoist needed) & all the little pan bolts out, it'll come down. I think it will even clear the subframe. The Haynes manual has some undercar pics that can give you a better idea.

I'm not sure how much metal surrounds the other two holes on the edge of the pan. That's the only picture I have of the underside of my block. Maybe you can find some on engine builder's sites.

 

it can be done,loosen both motor mounts dont need to remove the drivers side all the way just enough to jack up the motor. Take off the passanger side mount entirely. jack up the motor from the oil pan until you can get to the fron 6 oil pan bolts about 1 inch.

then stick jackstands under the tranny towards the front,then remove jack,remove all the oil pan bolts and try and prey that bitch off. dont forget to remove the oil first . lolz

i did this and had it back together in about 2 hours,but my car has a bodykit etc so i have horrible angles to work with lol

 

I'll be pulling it off later to get a proper gasket in it and the front cover. For the time being the front leak has been sealed. I looked at fix-a-coil kits and helicoil kits and opted against them. They all require tapping out to 31/64~33/64 anyway...so I just borrowed a 9/16x18 tap and a 33/64 bit and bought four new bolts.

 

so much for that...my tap is a tapered piece. The bolt hole is only 9/16" deep. Need a bottom tap.

 

Does anyone else have pics of the bottom of the center iron? I want to see how much meat is around those holes.

 

Also, the holes are only about 9/16" deep. I know after you exceed the width you have nothign to gain, really, but if I could run the holes a little deeper it would be more forgiving with my tap. If I could run the holes half an inch deeper, I could actually use the stock size bolts...just a little longer.