I'd be grateful of any more tips from anyone who has sleeved an Edelbrock head on an engine. This thing is kicking my arse.
I pulled the head bolt associated with #7 because that is my biggest oiler. The ARP sealant made it very clear (since the ARP thread lube on the threads is black and the bolt is black and the ARP thread sealant is white). The bolt I pulled out was white down its whole length. Clearly had been pulling past the head and washer. I remembered I had a cheap crummy bore scope. Yup. Scope showed me a hole a lot bigger than the one I made. I assume the vacuum acting on the thin metal made it bigger. So at least I'm not guessing now where the oil comes from.
Pulled all the plugs and it's clear this is the case for #7, #6, #2.
Cleaned out the hole again. Took one of my sleeves and cut a slit up it like Steve was saying. I figured if nothing else it might be easier to get back out that way.
Slitted sleeve
My sealant choice is the Loctite 243 again. I applied to the sleeve and with some difficulty managed to get it driven in to about a centimeter under the lip (so it would clear the "washer bulge" on the bolt under the head without catching). I waited through the fifteen minute "setting" time for the sealant and then started carefully threading the bolt through. Sure enough, even though the threads have lube and the outside of the sleeve has partially set sealant it started turning and ultimately I had to pull it and the bolt out. I reasoned that it hadn't sat nice and flat against the wall because of the distortion around the hole. I figured I'd need a solid sleeve.
Cleaned up the hole again and applied sealant to a sleeve that I hadn't slitted. Tried to drive it down to the same "about one centimeter" depth as the other but I found that the hole seems tightest at the top end and so it's easy to drive the sleeve too far. I ended up about 3/4 of an inch below. No biggie. Still well above the hole and still with the bottom of sleeve above where the bolt threads will be when torquing. Let it set about twenty minutes. Again, carefully turning the bolt in it seemed to go well for some time and then I started to realise I was spinning the sleeve. But the bolt was a good way in and I figured maybe it had some threads showing out the bottom of the sleeve by now. I figured maybe I could get the threads to start. I mean at this point I'm racing against setting sealant on a tight sleeve wrapping a head bolt. I gently tapped it down with my brass hammer and a socket but it wouldn't start. Now I had a bolt and sleeve covered in setting sealant jammed at the bottom of the hole. At lease I could keep turning it to stop the sealant grabbing but taking the bolt and sleeve back out took the whole night, a broken rope, breaking my stud mounted valve spring compressor and a whole bunch of creativity. I could see when it was out that the bolt had gotten to the end of the sleeve but not poked out so the end of the sleeve pinched inward on contact with the block threads. Well, it was a relief to get it out. It was another releif to get the sleeve off the bolt without damage. And it was a big relief to see the bolt undamaged and the block threads undamaged (wasn't surprised -- I'd never use any real force against something like that). The bolt still looks like new and easily gently hand tightens in the block until the washer contacts just like before. But I clearly need to know some tricks.
I've got a few things in mind:
• I could wait 24 hours for a full set. Would take me five days to do them all but if it works then worth it
• I could try to ream the sleeve thinner. Of course it would be so much more difficult then to drive it in place without damage. Also, difficult to hold it to ream it without damaging it. And I only really have a 33\64" drill bit for doing that (which is a looser fit than the ARP bolt threads)
Unless someone has some good advice I'm probably going to wait for the Right Stuff sealant and just forget the sleeve idea. But it seems like a cleaner result if I could do it so I still kinda would prefer to do that...
Sam