Would you resurface your own cylinder head?

[nemo]

Originally Posted by Xist

Right-hand extractor? Wouldn't you want a lefty to unbolt it?

This is what Google showed when I searched for "Tap extractor:" https://www.harborfreight.com/screw-...-pc-61981.html

The drill bits are right-hand, but the extractors are lefties.

A tap in extractor has straight veins not spiral.

[Xist]

Google was not very helpful. It showed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCADI0YSt8M

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uwz7BhAWZE

and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnF9_LotHCU

I searched his channel for "alum" and did not see anything else.

He made a video like the first one?

I am trying to find someone else dissolving broken bits with alum and I keep finding broken bolts in aluminum blocks, etc.

I stumbled across this, but videos are not loading right now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3PdxUvhgTw

I watched a couple of videos by this guy. I like how he drills a hole down a middle of a bolt and uses that to drill a starter hole in the middle of a broken bolt without risking damaging the threads:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJfkCj3FWBs&t=623s

He used a left-handed drill bit in a hinge drill kit to also make sure he did not damage the bolt hole.

[Xist]

A friend suggested it would have been cheaper to buy another Civic. I responded that I did not know how much I had spent, but there was no way I could have bought a running Honda for what I paid.

$93.98 Fel-Pro HS9915PT1 Head Gasket Set
$27.99 24" machinist straightedge
$06.68 feeler gauges
$27.99 camshaft sprocket pulley holding tool
$12.99 valve adjustment tool
$30.00 tap and die kit (opened, but didn't use)
$--0.00file (and handle, didn't use)
$08.99 JB Weld ExtremeHeat
$68.59 various parts from Honda.
$268.22 Total

I do not know what other parts and tools I may have bought, but I do not think I have bought any non-Honda parts aside from the gasket kit. Some of the Honda parts may have been for the Accord, so maybe that balances out?

RepairPal says "The average cost for a Honda Civic head gasket replacement is between $1,001 and $1,238. [...] Estimate does not include taxes and fees."

I am saving $1,000?

[Shaneajanderson]

I tried looking for that video real quick and couldn't find it, I'll try to look again later, he sometimes takes down old videos. There are other ones out there explaining the process, but basically you have to immerse the bolt area in a Al solution and it will dissolve the iron, but not the aluminum

[Xist]

I do not know how that would work unless the bolt hole was straight down.



Now I order the fasteners and see how the engine runs when they arrive, right?

[Fat Charlie]

Originally Posted by Xist

I am saving $1,000?

That's like Rita Rudner balancing her checkbook. At the end of the month her husband asked her what the +$50 was in her checkbook log. "So I showed him the purse".

[Shaneajanderson]

Originally Posted by Xist

I do not know how that would work unless the bolt hole was straight down.



Now I order the fasteners and see how the engine runs when they arrive, right?

The video Ave did he made a little aluminum tray with the sides bent up and siliconed it to the engine block as a reservoir to hold the solution

[Xist]

How do you catch the liquid?

Since the bolt extractor worked, I will order the fasteners, and file this away under... I will probably forget it.

[Piotrsko]

This whole escapade is making my head hurt

[Shaneajanderson]

Originally Posted by Xist

How do you catch the liquid?

Since the bolt extractor worked, I will order the fasteners, and file this away under... I will probably forget it.

I'm not sure what you do with the solution when done, probably pull the tray off the engine, clean up the silicone and give everything a good rinse. The alum solution takes a week or so to dissolve a bolt, so it's not like you're going nto bore a hole in your block by letting it run down the side.

If the bolt extractor worked, bravo, the alum thing would be the last resort in my book.