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Can anybody recommend a tap and die set and advise what sizes I need to refurbish an engine block please? Don't wish to spend a fortune as I will only use it occassionally. Some are UNC some are NC some Tunsten some HSS. All leaves me in a complete pickle. Thanks. Mark

i buy a lot of taps & dies from this company.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RDGTOOLS-1-4- ... 56455bcd90

they are really cheap, and decent quality. you wouldnt want to use them thousands of times, but for occasional use they are fine.

it can get very very expensive if your buying proper branded ones, so i bought a full set of the rdg ones, then occasionally buy 'branded' ones from ebay for the more popular sizes (i.e 5/16 unf, 1/4 unf, 5/16 unc) that appear in the engine and box.

the holders that rdg sell are made from rubbish, so i bought some decent old ones of ebay.

I recently bought 1/4, 5/16 and 3/8 taps and dies in both UNF and UNC from Namrick. I think that should cover most engine block/gearbox fixings:

http://www.namrick.co.uk/acatalog/Home_ ... s_154.html

You can get the correct drills too although I presume you're mostly looking to clean threads rather than tap holes from scratch.

Thanks for the replies folks. Now how many TPI do I need? They vary from 18 to 40???

I get all my taps and dies from here

http://www.tapdie.com/

OK quality, haven't snapped one yet and the holders are ok as well

Pad

Here's the thread standards for UNF and UNC:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Thread_Standard

The general nuts and bolts that hold components to the block and the block to transmission/flywheel housing follow the standard and most are 1/4, 5/16 or 3/8 UNF or UNC (generally where the tapped hole is into alloy) but there are some specials like the flywheel bolt:

http://www.minispares.com/product/Class ... 0to%20shop

You could pay a specialist to build your engine by the time you buy them all!