So four years ago I took my E30 for some serious repairs and basically was F'ed without even being kissed . So here I am four years later going through everything and getting it road ready again. I have fixed 80 percent of the messed up issues that the shop messed up and hit a roadblock. I noticed when I got it back from the shop it had a small oil leak so now after tracing the issue I have found it to be stripped threads for one of the bolt holes, and of course it is one of the two that are right next to the flywheel. Has anyone ever run into this issue? If so what did you do to fix? I have thought about a heli-coil, pulling the motor tig welding the hole and re-tapping, but honestly I don't want to pull the motor for one oil pan issue. The last idea I had was to make a plate that will use the two bolt holes on either side of the issue to put enough pressure on the gasket to make it seal. Thanks in advance for any ideas.
I Have Had Some Sucess Using Jb Weld To Fill The Old Hole, And After It Sets Up, Re-tap. If I Under Stood Correctly Is This One Of The Rear Oil Pan Bolt's? If It Is It Can Still Be Done. Through One Of The Access Hole's. When You Mix The Jb Weld It Is Still Very Loose So You Can Put It On The Tip Of A Thin Srew Driver , Or Extension, Or I Have Also Used A Reqular Clothes Hanger. Cut Off The End's To Make It Work. Heres The Tricky Part, Getting The Tap To Reach The New Hole To Tapit Out. I Have Fabricated All Types Of Make Shift Tools To Make This Work. Most Common Is In Home Depot Or Similair Store's They Sell Square Peice's Of Alumminum Stock In All Different Sizes. Drill Out The Middle Of One End And Then Shape It With A File So The Tap End Fit's Tight. And Then Round Off The Outside Edge's Of The Stock So That It Will Fit Through The Bolt Access Hole. Take's Some Patient's, But It Will Work. Good Luck And Let Me Know How You Make Out.
In all honesty,.. I've done this on big v8s in the past... if there's enough metal around it,.. drill it,. and retap to the next largest metric size... go find a good hardware store (mom and pop, not a chain... there's one in manassas I went to.. had just about every bolt you could imagine) and get a good grade8 bolt,.. tighten to spec and you're done. v/r Bill
