pony head studs

when your cleaing up your studs use some lube anything really wd40 or light oil. i use rapid-tap but that is what it made for and i thinking what your real problum is you die is not high speed steel, just carbon steel. the head studs might have a better class of fit like a class A wich will make them tight too.

Most studs have oversize threads on one end, the end that goes into the block, so that the nut will come off rather than the stud unscrewing from the block. An NOS Cat stud is probably too hard for your thread chaser.

All of the above, studs may be oversize on block mounted end. Could also be taper-lock version, and also different class of fit. If they are Cat studs they will be Grade 8.

Don't go there if they are way to tight and stress the block. Can always use loc-tite to hold them in....oversize taps are available but I'd hate to give up the meat.

Your thread chaser is just that....meant to just clean up buggered threads, primarily on cap screws. If you need to fit the studs you will have to do it with the old type Greenfield "Little Giant" adjustable two piece dies and die head.

It's the little stuff that drives ya nuts!!!!!!!

Maybe the size problem is the reason they have never been used? Could you extract and use the old studs?

Thanks for the suggestions. I thought of removing the old studs but cat studs are hard to remove and I found that Florin parts has some new ones.
Thought I would make life a little easier and not take a chance of removing the old stud and damaging one (thinking I may repair the cracked block one day and reuse it) The new studs are most likely harder then the thread chaser then I am using. I thought of heating the block some and cooling/freezing the studs may help. I remember when I worked for "Red Power" I.H. We changed a swing shaft in a TD-24, froze shaft in gas and dry ice and heated the main case with several rose buds, worked slick. I think I will try one with a stud driver and thread lube. Not sure when I will decide to do it but will post the out come on this forum
Frank:confused2:
OM, I have a greenfield die but didn't want to "CUT the nice rolled threads and yes you are correct, it's the little things that drive one nuts

Is that crack in your pony block in the water jacket that runs behind the valve springs? My RD6 pilot motor has a crack there and I got all creative a year ago and made a nice stainless steel patch to cover the area where the crack was, right between the 2 cylinders, and scrubbed it all clean before glueing the triangular shaped patch in place with plenty of JB Weld. I thought I was pretty darn clever Frank, until the next time I ran the pilot motor and where I put the patch didn't leak, but just to the right of it did once the pilot motor cooled down, not a lot, but a drip every minute or so soon makes a mess of the pilot motor oil, so I got busy and put more JB Weld in the area that I know saw a drip, only for it to appear again further to the right,behind a valve spring.

It really has me annoyed, because the JB Weld is doing a good job, but it is almost impossible to work in behind those valve springs now, and the crack has me intruiged as to why it is seeming to move to the right along the water jacket to the #2 cylinder water jacket area the few times I run the pilot motor, because we don't get freezing conditions here.
regards
mike

Mike, that crack will continue to move unless you terminate it with a drill hole. You don't need it to actually freeze; you just need thermal cycling such as you get when you run it / stop it. It's still changing temp by a couple of hundred degrees and that's enough for the crack to move.
Cheers,
Neil.