Just watched The English Garage on TV and saw them working on a BMW block.
The block threads seemed to have gone and they re-tapped all of the the block threads to a larger diameter, screwed in brass inserts and then re-threaded the brass inserts so that the original diameter bolts could be used.
Never heard of doing this before, but how would you get the torque with head bolts screwing into brass? And what do you Engineers/Techs think of this sort of procedure?
Regards
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Are you sure it was brass? Did they actually say that?
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For sure, brass ! Jock did it.
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Sounds like madness to me - and a lot of time-consuming unnecessary work.
When you get a stripped thread; it's out with the Wurth Time-Sert kit, wind the stepped tool down the hole, fit the insert to the installer and fix it into position.
All sorted in under five minutes with a steel insert and back to full strength. Why mess around - time costs money.
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I wondered if it was a `show` for TV, but it was reportedly a customers car. There was a big point showing the effort it took and Jock laying down at one point.
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It was brass and it seemed to work.
How many garages would go to that trouble over here ?
(You are all going to tell me that you know loads that would now).
The threads must have really shot it though cos I thought helicoiling would have done just as well - in fact that would probably have been a better solution.
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Well, it sounds a very 'unusual' repair to me!!
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I'm glad Aprilia said that cos it was going through my mind as I was posting.
With Aprilia's technical knowledge now I know I was correct in thinking it was odd.
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I could believe a steel insert, plated might look a bit like brass. Tappex inserts, for example look like this. Brass, however, is a peverse material choice for this work. As said above, why make the job such hard work - unless parts like the Wurth kit, helicoils or tappex inserts aren't readily available wherever the english garage is.
I can't imagine that brass will allow the cylinder head bolts to develop their required pre-tension. Not a good repair IMO.
Number_Cruncher
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the garage is in marbella, spain, having watched most of the 3 series of it they have alot of trouble getting parts quickly as alot of it is shipped from the uk. so maybe kit such as the wurth etc. aren't readily come by over there, in other episodes ive seen them repair a starter motor by fitting a new solenoid as opposed to a complete new unit which would of happened in the uk.
as a whole i wouldn't want them touching my car as they can be cowboys, (took a week to fit a clutch on a 944 and sent the right clutch back 3 times saying it was wrong, they'd assembled it wrong) but jock seems to know what he's on about. as for the tv aspect most of the staff are provided by endemol who were behind big brother and they applied through various max power etc. magazine. from what i know only glynn and possibly ricky are actually employed by jock aswell as euan in the 1st series
chris
Edited by thomp1983 on 20/12/2007 at 17:12
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Never seen it; but they all sound like a right posse to me.
Edited by Screwloose on 20/12/2007 at 17:26
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honestly it makes good viewing as all the problems are shown with cad designed technical animations showing you the workings of various components etc. and at times some tips can be picked up from the way they diagnose things but on the whole wouldn't fancy letting them near my ferrari or various other top end motors they regularly do
chris
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Yellow zinc passivation on steel looks a bit like brass to those with a limited knowledge of materials. Any brass thread on a cylinder head bolt would strip at the torques involved - otherwise why bother with high-tensile bolts?
659.
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Yeh look how bad the old brass trunnions on heralds & moogy minors were for the steel thread was always pulling out the trunnion. Oh the good old days!
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They stated they were working with brass though.
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seen the programme a few times while i was up in scotland on some modern equipement called sky or something anyway it was funny to watch but they have a bigger range of hammers than even me,i remember the porsch clutch job as well,only one man new how to do it and he struggled big time (apparently the propshaft sticks in the torque tube)
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Agreed, they said brass. Any garage of their size should have a full set of Helicoil or similar inserts. I can't remember if the block was steel or alloy, it was a long time since I saw the prog.
I suspect most of the botches they do are similar to most garages.
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I can recall seeing brass thread block inserts ages ago. (40yrs or so).
I.D. mentioned trunnions, the brass bit never deteriorated, but the steel parts rusted and caused failure.
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