I say the more threads exposed to jbweld the better - more surface area for it to hold on to. Just make sure both bolt and head are sanitary eat off it clean - don't touch it with skin after final cleaning and give it 24+ hours to dry. Use the regular formula, not quick dry. Don't even look at it until the next day.

How much meat is left under it? Is it possible to drill deeper and tap with a plug tap? Even if only for a thread or two that would make the stud repair much stronger. But remeber this isn't gorilla torque here.

You can drill plenty deep it's no different than the intake and exhaust studs going into water jacket. Use sealer and walk away. Jb weld will just give the gasket a flat surface to seal against. My 2 cents. I'd weld it up and start over but I have the tools to do so. Best of luck.

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75 dart custom, 225, >10.5-1, hurricane, 500holley, erson cam, 904, 8.8 ford 3.55 or 3.91 aussielocked, 17" steelies, and much more.

This

also know as threaded inserts.

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Ed
64 Valiant 225 / 904 / 42:1 manual steering / 9" drum brakes

The hole or holes (they may have tried drilling another hole right next to the first a little smaller then had them ovalize together) are standard depth. Nix on helicoils or other types - I'd need a round hole so large that there's be no gasket left on either side of the hole. Hopefully the JB weld will do it. If not - then I'll try other options. Want to get the engine happy before it goes in for paint. Will try the JB weld repair on Friday, will report back with results on Sunday (will let it dry fully). Also will spend more time trying to get the valve cover as straight as possible. Have a new Offy one but that's for my solid lifter head - this head is hydraulic, so I can't even get a new cheapo one from ebay for $35. called aroudn local junkyards - no slant sixes to pull a valve cover from that's in good shape.

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Tom
'86 Alfa Romeo Spider, red "Dinsdale"
'10 Corvette, red "" (no name yet)
'95 Ferrari 348, red "Zoom"
'04 Maserati, black "Evil"
'05 Aston Martin DB9, green "Bond, Treasury bond."
'82 Dodge W150 Power Ram, yellow "E. Valdez"

the threaded insert will give you some flat area.

you can have it stick up a little, then file it down flat.

(might need some jb weld too, but not much)

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Ed
64 Valiant 225 / 904 / 42:1 manual steering / 9" drum brakes

Lot of work with no heat tricky method:

Do you have room to drill & tap a larger hole so that a fatter bolt can be screwed in with red Loctite top ground off even with surrounded casting, and than a new proper sized drilled and tapped hole made to accept the correct valve bolt?

Less work with heat easy method:

The other fix would be to clean the bad hole very well, fill with braze, then re-drill properly located hole & tap. Braze will be strong enough to hold a valve cover bolt.

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67' Dart GT Convertible; the old Chrysler Corp.
82' LeBaron Convertible; the new Chrysler Corp
07' 300 C AWD; Now by Fiat, the old new Chrysler LLC

The hole is 5/8" at the biggest point he said previously so a bolt to cover that would be huge.

Braze is do-able, but like you said, its a valve cover bolt... JBWeld would be plenty. Better to JBWeld the stud in place instead of filling with JBWeld and then drill/tap. There would be no thread slop that way.

Further inspection of the valve cover (hydraulic cam valve cover unfortunately) shows it to be pretty massively bent up. The side rail where the gasket attaches is fairly straight - but quite a bit offset from where the mounting washers dented the cover in pretty badly and the whole side lip is at a 10 degree angle from the flat surface. Does anybody have any experience with the Permatex Ultra Black gasket maker and how well it fills gaps? Other option - does anybody have a good valve cover for a hydraulic cam engine they are willing to sell?

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Tom
'86 Alfa Romeo Spider, red "Dinsdale"
'10 Corvette, red "" (no name yet)
'95 Ferrari 348, red "Zoom"
'04 Maserati, black "Evil"
'05 Aston Martin DB9, green "Bond, Treasury bond."
'82 Dodge W150 Power Ram, yellow "E. Valdez"

I wouldn't use that much silicone there, it will make a mess when it comes to tighten things down.

The cover rail - if you put a larger socket on the top you can use a ball peen hammer on the bottom to push the divot out the other way. Bend it into place first though to take care of the gap.

Put a request in the parts wanted section to get more attention. Anyone you buy used is likely to need some kind of manipulation though.

Thanks for the info! Looks like it's time to make some wood forms and start pounding on it with a mallet. I'll use the socket method you describe, I like that!

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Tom
'86 Alfa Romeo Spider, red "Dinsdale"
'10 Corvette, red "" (no name yet)
'95 Ferrari 348, red "Zoom"
'04 Maserati, black "Evil"
'05 Aston Martin DB9, green "Bond, Treasury bond."
'82 Dodge W150 Power Ram, yellow "E. Valdez"

the permatex ultra black/grey don't really fill gaps very well anyway.....

_________________
Ed
64 Valiant 225 / 904 / 42:1 manual steering / 9" drum brakes

Well it's on - pounded out and checked with a straight edge - relatively straight - much better than before. Black permatex on both sides of gasket. It sets up for an hour then gets torqued. The big question - will the helicoil hold or will all this junk be ripped out and a stud installed with JB weld? This will not be a permanent head/valve cover job as a mechanical lifter head that has been ported and will have an oversize intake valve will be installed along with a mechanical camshaft designed for torque.

So, in 1 hour maybe the thing will torque up, then tomorrow at this time will be the "how much oil will pour out?" - hopefully none - test. If there's no oil here but buckets of oil on the underside of the bell housing - it's the rear main seal. Yeechh.

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Tom
'86 Alfa Romeo Spider, red "Dinsdale"
'10 Corvette, red "" (no name yet)
'95 Ferrari 348, red "Zoom"
'04 Maserati, black "Evil"
'05 Aston Martin DB9, green "Bond, Treasury bond."
'82 Dodge W150 Power Ram, yellow "E. Valdez"

Failure. I waited exactly 1 hour and torqued it up to about 75 inch pounds. The helicoil one must not have engaged enough threads as it came loose around 2-3 foot pounds and went "click" as it popped something with the helicoil - must have pulled a few threads out. Will wait the required 24 hours and start the truck and go for a drive - maybe, just maybe there's enough sealant to prevent massive oil leakage. If it leaks - it's time to yank it all off again and do the JB weld stud. At least if it seals pretty well I can clean the engine and see where all the other leaks are coming from.

_________________
Tom
'86 Alfa Romeo Spider, red "Dinsdale"
'10 Corvette, red "" (no name yet)
'95 Ferrari 348, red "Zoom"
'04 Maserati, black "Evil"
'05 Aston Martin DB9, green "Bond, Treasury bond."
'82 Dodge W150 Power Ram, yellow "E. Valdez"

I'm not following... you took the old dysfunctional helicoil out and found an oversized hole, 5/8" at one point. You put another helicoil in as is with no jbweld, and expected it to hold??

I just wanted to snug down enough to work on determining where the leaks are. I did not expect a permanent fix - assumed as much as I bought another head gasket today before attempting this stopgap fix. Thought I might get about 5 foot pounds of torque on it for a little bit before it popped out. Nope. Nothing to lose but $7.48 for a gasket. The original helicoil was all messed up - This solidly engaged about 4 turn of the helicoil tool. Thought I might get it up to a few foot pounds of torque. Guess I should have mentioned I wanted a day or two fix with this "hope and pray" method. There's a chance I got my result - it may not leak or may just dribble tomorrow, then I can see what the rear main seal is actually doing. Before it just poured out and ran down rail on the side of the block. So, tomorrow - if it still leaks - the JB Weld repair gets done. I was just taking a quick and dirty risk.

_________________
Tom
'86 Alfa Romeo Spider, red "Dinsdale"
'10 Corvette, red "" (no name yet)
'95 Ferrari 348, red "Zoom"
'04 Maserati, black "Evil"
'05 Aston Martin DB9, green "Bond, Treasury bond."
'82 Dodge W150 Power Ram, yellow "E. Valdez"