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So I had ordered an Edge Insight CTS2 and EGT probe for it. While waiting for it to arrive I figured I would go ahead and use some spare time to get the exhaust manifold drilled and tapped. Then I'd simply plug it with a brass plug for a couple days until the Edge system arrived.
So my regular drill bits are good bits, and there's a bunch of them of pretty much every size short of the letters. But they have the anti-walk tips where its a short peak in the middle of the bit with the rest of the front of the bit flat. Works great for drilling but when trying to drill incremental sizes it doesn't work since if the anti-walk tips are set inside a hole they will wobble with the squared off shoulder. So I went down to Ace Hardware store to pickup a couple of regular conical tipped bits. Figure I would start with a 1/8", go to 1/4", then the 11/32" that the tap calls for. Dude at the hardware store pointed out his fancy carbide $10 drill bit, but passed since this was going to be one-and-done and didn't care if the bits were dulled out after one use. So I went for the regular "heavy duty" wood/metal bits.
Drill the 1/8" hole, no problem. Went to drill the 1/4" hole and as soon as I touched the trigger on drill (cordless, not my 1/2" torque monster Milwaukee corded job) the tip of the drill bit breaks off in the hole. #&&&&&&&&.... Tried to grab it with a magnet, pick at it, nope it was jammed up in there. Tried to match up the bit with the plastic shrink wrap from the package to see how much broke off. Not much, but enough to make for a problem. Unfreakingbelievable. I've broken drill bits before, but it was from really romping them, not from barely touching them to metal. Good grief.
So I figure I didn't have anything to lose by trying to drill it out with my good bits. I sure wasn't about to try the 11/32 I picked up as it was the same brand as the 1/4". Chucked up my good 11/32 and it drilled right into and through it like a champ, no problem. Fortunately the 1/8" hole I made was small enough for anti-walk the tip to set in without wobbling.
Now the elephant in the engine bay: The remnants of the drill bit and where they got off too. Well, during a quick break I ran my hand in my hair to clean out some shavings and a large piece came out that looked like most of the drill bit tip. Still, there was likely another small piece from the way the tip broke. Vacuumed the #*)) out of that hole I drilled, poor shop vac was whining when I had it restricted all the way down to a small piece of tubing I had snaked inside the manifold. Smacked the bottom of the up pipe a few times with a mallet listening for anything rattling around. Nothing. Tried running a magnet from the bottom and up the side of the up pipe then released it to see if I could hear anything. Again, nothing. I think I got off lucky. Hit it with the shop vac again for good measure. Even clamped a ceramic magnet to the bottom of the up-pipe for a little extra measure as I'll be replacing soon after my order from RiffRaff gets in.
So for anybody else, spend the money on decent drill bits. Those cheap one-and-done bits in some cases aren't even good for one.
But the rest of it went ok. Tapped the hole just fine, cleaned it up again and set my brass plug in. While not steel, brass has a 1700 degree melting pointing and I was just doing a couple days of simple in town driving. When my Edge CTS2 came in this afternoon I had the EGT sending unit installed and everything mounted, wires routed, and done in half an hour.
So my regular drill bits are good bits, and there's a bunch of them of pretty much every size short of the letters. But they have the anti-walk tips where its a short peak in the middle of the bit with the rest of the front of the bit flat. Works great for drilling but when trying to drill incremental sizes it doesn't work since if the anti-walk tips are set inside a hole they will wobble with the squared off shoulder. So I went down to Ace Hardware store to pickup a couple of regular conical tipped bits. Figure I would start with a 1/8", go to 1/4", then the 11/32" that the tap calls for. Dude at the hardware store pointed out his fancy carbide $10 drill bit, but passed since this was going to be one-and-done and didn't care if the bits were dulled out after one use. So I went for the regular "heavy duty" wood/metal bits.
Drill the 1/8" hole, no problem. Went to drill the 1/4" hole and as soon as I touched the trigger on drill (cordless, not my 1/2" torque monster Milwaukee corded job) the tip of the drill bit breaks off in the hole. #&&&&&&&&.... Tried to grab it with a magnet, pick at it, nope it was jammed up in there. Tried to match up the bit with the plastic shrink wrap from the package to see how much broke off. Not much, but enough to make for a problem. Unfreakingbelievable. I've broken drill bits before, but it was from really romping them, not from barely touching them to metal. Good grief.
So I figure I didn't have anything to lose by trying to drill it out with my good bits. I sure wasn't about to try the 11/32 I picked up as it was the same brand as the 1/4". Chucked up my good 11/32 and it drilled right into and through it like a champ, no problem. Fortunately the 1/8" hole I made was small enough for anti-walk the tip to set in without wobbling.
Now the elephant in the engine bay: The remnants of the drill bit and where they got off too. Well, during a quick break I ran my hand in my hair to clean out some shavings and a large piece came out that looked like most of the drill bit tip. Still, there was likely another small piece from the way the tip broke. Vacuumed the #*)) out of that hole I drilled, poor shop vac was whining when I had it restricted all the way down to a small piece of tubing I had snaked inside the manifold. Smacked the bottom of the up pipe a few times with a mallet listening for anything rattling around. Nothing. Tried running a magnet from the bottom and up the side of the up pipe then released it to see if I could hear anything. Again, nothing. I think I got off lucky. Hit it with the shop vac again for good measure. Even clamped a ceramic magnet to the bottom of the up-pipe for a little extra measure as I'll be replacing soon after my order from RiffRaff gets in.
So for anybody else, spend the money on decent drill bits. Those cheap one-and-done bits in some cases aren't even good for one.
But the rest of it went ok. Tapped the hole just fine, cleaned it up again and set my brass plug in. While not steel, brass has a 1700 degree melting pointing and I was just doing a couple days of simple in town driving. When my Edge CTS2 came in this afternoon I had the EGT sending unit installed and everything mounted, wires routed, and done in half an hour.
