Tie Bolt Installation

I will show and exlain how this is done over a period of time with a series of pictures and text

The first picture showes the cracks between the cylinders. With a tie bolt it is not nessary to pin or weld to keep this from being a problem later.

After removing the freeze plug in the center you will see a square boss in the center. To remove the freeze plug, pound with a hammer in the center of the plug enough for it to cave in and this will cause it to release its grip at the out side. As the picture shows there is a great enough distance between the outside and the water jacket to allow this to happen without striking the water jacket

This picture shows where I center punched the center of the square boss. Make you are on the center as I am installing a 1/2" grade 5 bolt 5" long. If your off center it will be hard to seal the water from passing by the bolt head into the oil.

This picture shows where I drilled a 1/4" hole into the water jacket. Make sure you drill streight. If you have the hole on an angle it will cause problems on the next step.

This pictures shows the drilling through water jacket and out the other side of the block using a square to make sure that the through hole is not on an angle, with a long 1/4" drill bit.

This picture shows where I have drilled the 1/4" hole out to 1/2". Notice why I said before to make sure you were on center. I lost the next picture some how, but it showed where I took a 5/8" drill and drilled in 1/16" to hold gasket maker to seal this side.

This picture showes where I have drilled the 1/4" hole on the other side of the block out 27/64".
This is the tap drill size for taping threads for a 1/2" - 13 bolt with a 1/2"-13 tap.

This picture shows the hole being taped. The tap needs to have lube applied to it. Cast taps harder than steel and when you look on the inside you will see the there is a ledge the comes out at the bottom of the hole which makes taping even harder. After you have started the tap in only make 1/4 turns before backing up the tap. After you have taped all the way through you should run the tap back in several more times holding up on the tap to help clear the threads on the bottom of the ledge. I save and use bacon grease for tap lube.

This picture showes the tie bolt installed. I lost two more pictures that I wanted to show before this one. The first was of the gasket maker(brand of your choice) placed in the 1/2" hole and in the grove made with the 5/8" drill. The second one was of gasket maker under the head of the bolt and on the bolt threads. This is to insure that the gasket maker is forced around the bolt under the head and the threads get sealed. I also apply the gasket maker directly to the threaded hole.

This picture shows where the bolt was ground off flush with the block after it was torqued to 25 ft lbs. After the block is primed and painted it will hardly show.

This picture shows the tie bolt and the ledge you will have to deal with. It also shows that the crack was drawn closed.

This picture shows that when the crack was drawn closed that it did not meet flush. The bolck will need to be decked.(surface ground smooth and flush) This will hold as well as any other fix you would have done and takes only a couple of hours or less if you have a few simple tools. If you take it out to be welded or pinned you would most likely be told it needed to be decked after that work was done.

If any one has any questions or needs to see a different picture than I have shown let me know and I will take those pictures when I do the next one. Not sure that it would be soon though.