Thanks Jim, I quite understand the perspective you are coming from. Taking shortcuts on aircraft repair is rather frowned upon! Haha!
A little update as to where I’m at. I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off all morning trying to find a bottoming tap. No joy, it’s too specialized. I did pick up some new button head 6mm screws that are 10 mm longer than the existing screws.
The existing screws have threads that have a rather rounded edge to them.
The new screws have nice sharp threads, and when I ran one down in the hole it felt more snug with no wiggle to it.
Now here’s the part I’m exited about, with the cover on the oil pump I used my digital caliper to measure the depth and came up with 24mm. My old screw was 20mm long so if I cut these screws to 23mm I will pick up an additional 3mm of previously unused threads and with these new screws fitting better to boot, I think I’m going to be ok.
I also really scrutinized the threads in the case
I really can see no evidence of them being stripped, no cross threads, they still look sharp. There is some gunk that looks like burnt
oil residue, and some accumulated stuff in the bottom of the holes. I will clean all that up.
I may not even need the bottoming tap. I might just clean everything up and give it a go with my new screws.
But now I’m out of time until the weekend. I’ll keep you posted.
Bob