Drilling steam holes in a 5.9 CR Head

Cflanery88

Cflanery88

New member
Joined
Feb 4, 2016
Messages
536
So I've searched and read many threads but can't seem to find exactly what I'm looking for. I'm getting ready to drill my 06 24v head for the steam holes(as it is going on a 6.7 block), and have everything marked and ready to go just wanted to know if someone had an exact measurement of the steam holes in a 6.7 head or size they should be drilled to. My initial plan was to just drill them large enough to where the gasket still sealed but I don't want to remove more material than I have too. And would also like to know about how deep The coolant jacket is from the surface of the head?

Any information or insight on the matter is greatly appreciated.
 
No real information, but I had Bruce block at b&b tooling do mine. I have the head on already so I can't measure anything for you. But he's in Michigan.
 
If you have the head gasket just place it on your head using a couple head bolts to keep it in place. The only question then would be the depth to drill.
 
Just drill slow, size really isn't that important, you are primarily just keeping water from getting trapped in that area. I forget what size hole mine were. Mine were drilled on a 24V VP head.
 
I would say for the size of the hole I would go with the small of the hole in the block or the hole in the head gasket.
 
SKYNYRD said:
I would say for the size of the hole I would go with the small of the hole in the block or the hole in the head gasket.
Click to expand...


LOL, yea I was meaning stay small, but as I reread my post I could see someone going in with a 1/2" drill and not be happy with the results.
 
SKYNYRD said:
If you have the head gasket just place it on your head using a couple head bolts to keep it in place. The only question then would be the depth to drill.
Click to expand...
2 old lifters in 2 holes line the gasket up PERFECTLY.

Since the steam hole in the block is bigger than the ones in the head, all that needs to be done is drill the holes the same size as the gasket.

There is no depth, per-se.
The steam holes are open to the interior of the head casting, which is how they do what they do
Just cautiously drill through the 1st one to find the depth, maybe add an 1/8" to the overall to cover casting inconsistency, then add a depth stop and drill the rest .

Mark.
 
Last edited:
Drilled my head tonight. I ended up having to free hand it cause it wouldn't clear my drill press, but it ended up turning out very well. I drilled them with a 3/16" drill bit using a smaller bit first. I didn't measure the depth to the coolant galley, but you don't really need to worry about that cause there is plenty of room after the bit makes it through on the intake side. The exhaust side on the other hand is a bit tricky cause I broke two bits due to the slope in the galley as soon as the bit makes it through. The bit would want to catch and beak the tip off the bit. I could see using a drill press and a marked bit for correct depth being way more accurate and save your drill bits.
 
Good info. You just used a gasket to mark the locations?

Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk
 
Yeah I used a factory 6.7 gasket, lined everything up, and then used a marker to mark the location of each hole on the head. Then followed up with a spring loaded punch to help with getting the drill bit started.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top