Factory pipe manifold hel- coil install gone bad

[kawishaul]

I finally got time to fix the bolt holes for the head pipe on my 750SX factory pipe manifold. I began with leveling the ski and manifold to ensure i could do a decent job drilling level holes. I began drilling, checking the depth compared to the other holes. Finally i was going to thread the first hole when i noticed a hole about 1/8 of an inch round going into the water jacket. What did i do wrong? I was using a 13/32 bit which is what heli-coil suggests. Should i just tap, insert, and bolt up hoping for the best or what?

 

[WFO Speedracer]

Looks like a thin casting to me,you have a couple of choices,you can install the helicoil and install the bolt with some kind of sealant or you can take that puppy somewhere and have the hold togged completely up and try again.

 

[Lays Low]

ouch thats ruff. on a good note, If you have to get it welded you can drill and tap the hole and it will be like factory. I dont see why you couldnt add some threadtape or liquid sealent in there and give it a try. worse comes to worse your back where you started.

 

[Waternut]

That should just be the water jacket that you drilled into. If it was my manifold, I'd drip some JB weld into the hole to prevent water from getting into the thread and just continue. Tap it, insert the helicoil, cut off any of the helicoil that might be above the flange, and pretend it never happened. You should be using thread locker anyway and that should seal up any water that might make it past the jb weld.

 

[kawishaul]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm going to install the heli-coil and use tread dope and tread lock to seal everything up. I just hope none of the other hole have thin wall also.

Has anyone else had this problem on any pipe?

 

[wsuwrhr]

That should just be the water jacket that you drilled into. If it was my manifold, I'd drip some JB weld into the hole to prevent water from getting into the thread and just continue. Tap it, insert the helicoil, cut off any of the helicoil that might be above the flange, and pretend it never happened. You should be using thread locker anyway and that should seal up any water that might make it past the jb weld.

Yea I would say that same at this point. Tap it with the STI tap, drip some JB or some kind of epoxy in there, install the insert and call it a day.

When you reinstall the headpipe, goop up the hole with some sealant real good as well.

Welding wouldn't be the answer because the prep work you would need to do to properly fill that hole wouldn't be worth the effort.

Brian