Well my local garage just called me to give me the bad news... They were drilling out one of the broken studs on my V10 powered 08 F350, and said the drill bit must have gone off center... There is now coolant leaking out of one exhaust stud hole on the passenger side....

They are now going to take it all apart again, and remove the cylinder head...

My question is, can the head be repaired by welding in some new aluminum, and then drilled and tapped for the stud, or is the head now garbage? I got a quote from the local ford dealer for a new head, and I nearly passed out...

 

I don't see why it can't be welded them redrilled. I hope the shop is helping with this since the over drilled

 

Yeah who would be paying for the new head? Any pictures of the damage? I would ask a machine shop with parts in hand as well.

 

The shop has admitted they messed up. I also talked to a local automotive machine shop, and they are saying there are 2 ways to fix it. One is to drill out a larger hole, tap it, and put in a machined insert, that already has a center hole drilled and tapped for the stud. They claim they have never had one leak using this method. If that is not an option, then the head will have to be removed to have it welded.

The whole thing has me kind of ticked off... and I let the shop know it. I do not like band-aid solutions, but at the same time I do not want them taking the motor half apart to remove the head, if it can be avoided.

 

Sounds like they arw recommending a timesert. They are supposed to be of good quality and strength.

 

Timeserts are great! My son did something similar to the block of his turbo Saab. I got the panicked phone call asking what to do and told him to go buy a Timesert kit. He followed the instructions and the fix hasn't leaked at all in over three years since the repair.

 

Update:

I stopped by at the garage last week, and looked at the heads. The one stud hole was sure messed up...

After much discussion, I decided the best solution was to have the head removed, welded, and then drilled and tapped. After further discussions with the machine shop that would do the work, they suggested drilling and tapping all of the stud holes for 3/8 studs. They said they have done this many times before. Since removing the second head is not that much more work for the garage, I told the shop to have both heads done this way.

While this is going to cost me a bit more, I think it is worth it. This should never need doing again, no matter how long I own the truck.

 

3/8's studs?? You're gonna do it right?? Say it aint so. Why the heck FORD didn't do this from the get go is beyond me. Sorry it has to cost you so much.

 

My guess is that Ford saved about $5 per vehicle using 5/16 instead of 3/8. The engineers likely called for 3/8, but the bean counters insisted on 5/16!

 

Got the truck back today, and everything seems fine. There is no "tick tick tick" when you first start it, like there was before.

The shop elected to put 3/8 stainless bolts, instead of studs and nuts. I'm ok with that.

 

Bolts are the way to go my man

 

So I started to hear a bit of exhaust noise again... Turns out some the bolts had loosened up a bit, and have now been snugged back up again... The noise is gone for now.

Are they likely to loosen up again? What would a good fix be? Blue loctite? Stainless lock washers?

Thanks.

 

Blue loctite may be to low of a heat range to be effective. A lock washer is probably a better choice. I think stainless studs would have been the better option from the beginning though.

 

nord-lock.com

 

Most likely some gasket compression. Just check them every now and then to make sure they are tight.