[Steve V]

I had a brand new front cover,I was deburring it and drilled out the main oil passage to 1/2 inch. Well right before my eyes i saw the aluminum wave and the poof,out comes the drill bit. Turns out this cover didn't have quite as much meat it that area as others I have done this to before.

my question is can I get this whole welded up and redrill it and still be ok or did i just waste a lot of $$$. Did I say that I've done this to at least 5 other covers and never had this happen. :dunno: It's a clevite cover.

 

[87bigcut]

same thing happened to me, have somebody TIG it up with some extra meat, redrill, and smooth it out with cartridge rolls. No big deal.
:yup:

Joe

 

[earlbrown]

Yikes!!! Sounds like a warning to stay clear of the Clevite cover!

Since my car got stolen/destroyed and my oil pump got seized and sheared, I've got to do another cover.

I'll have all the usual earlbrown mods and some I didn't print I think I've got a line on a good deal for a Silver Seal and an Elgin cover. Do you have any experience with those? I was going to do a comparison and see how they were as opposed to the GM cover I used to write my article.

Definatly sounds like I can cross the Clevite of the list of potentials!

Earl

 

[Steve V]

Yes,those are okay. i thought most of the covers where made by 1 or 2 different companies.

 

[corsair231]

I had a silver seal that I purchased off of an e- bay member. When I tried to enlarge the main oil passage I hit a pit in the casting that opened all the way to a bolt hole. Thankfully the guy made it good. The second cover was okay in that area but the main cavity was not drilled all the way thru. (#2 or 3 in your mods). I opened it up and used the cover. This guy may have been selling seconds and one purchased from a parts store may not have the same issues. His was a good deal but sometimes you get what you pay for.

 

[buickv6]

earl, you can scratch silver seal #6571 aswell. after wrecking my first cover trying for a 1/2" hole i settled for a 7/16" on my second. this left about 1/8" of cover the first one was cast slightly different then the second cover.

 

[87bigcut]

the front cover I effed up was a GM cover, but my drill wasnt perfectly straight. Should have known better, there was plenty of meat, I just made an error. Easy fix by anyone decent with a TIG and youre good to go.

Joe

 

[earlbrown]

earl, you can scratch silver seal #6571 aswell.

Looks like I might try an Elgin then. I'm hoping for 9/16 on my new engine.

 

[87bigcut]

Earl I dont think it would take much for a good welder to just pile up a little weld in that area and make 9/16 no problem, just a thought

joe