So bad luck has struck me again. I had to remove my intake to fish some injector caps out again. I went to put the bolts back in after finishing the job. I got to torquing the bolt in sequence and the head is stripped where bolt number 9 is. it seems to grab a bit but i have a dumb question since i am not in the mood to pull everything off again. Will this run if all other bolts are torqued to spec? I know it may give me a vacuum leak but il have to take the risk. If i were to take all the stuff off can i tap the tread? If so will any shavings fall in somewhere they shouldnt be?

 

use a stud and nut

 

I believe all the intake bolts are blind holes but I would double check me. I'd take it out and either A) Take a tap and tap the hole. A thread chaser is the correct way, but a tap will do the job and may straighten the threads just enough. Other option is to drill out, retap and install a Fix-a-thread

 

There is no way to tell how long a week thread will hold. It could leak the first time the car heats up. The issue is how it could leak. With a little bad luck you will leak coolant into the oil and ruin the entire engine.

Thread repair kit or replace the head. This is a very uncommon problem, heads should be cheap and plentiful at any you pull it lot.

 

Craby: The thread is stripped in the head, i cant get thread to lock in anything.

MK: My main concern if it is a blind hole, its hard to tell and i cant find any schematics. I dont want to remove the intake again if not necessary. I havent drilled before so i am hesitant to do that. Btw i have the 95 LT1


I am going to attempt to create a new thread. I just need a YES or NO if i should be concerned about shavings falling into the engine through the hole i am tapping. If its a blind whole im going for it. I was wrong its the number 7 bolt in the torque sequence

Thanks all

 

I will be very surprised of chasing the threads is going to fix anything. That is designed to help with cross threaded holes not stripped one. At this point the metal is already gone, nothing is going to put it back. If you use a thread repair kit you will need to remove the intake. The drill and tap process will not fit through the bolt clearance hole in the intake.


Edit: sorry I no longer have a spare set of heads to look at. Maybe remove the bolt and try a heavy wires to see if you poke thought anywhere.

 

stud with threads longer on the head side might give you enough bite to get it torqued down. depends on how many threads are left that were out of the reach of the bolt.

 

measure the depth of the hole. should give you an idea

 

crap i figured as much. The screw ripped all the thread out the head, its smooth as eggs in there. I guess ill have to yank the intake off again. I havent started the car up yet so i guess i may be lucky enough to leave the intake gaskets on there? One more question, some of the bolts require sealant to prevent leakage. I want to put anti seize on the bolts to prevent this from happening again. Should i just stick with the thread seal or put anti seize on the bolts?

Thanks again all

 

Yikes. Good thing i listened to you guys and pulled the intake back off. I ended up dropping some injector caps back into the intake again so it forced me to yank the intake off. So while im searching for my cap i see in the intake chamber #5 is filled with water due to that storm that hit us a few days ago. I didnt even catch it while putting the intake on, talk about a blessing in disguise. Back to the stripped hole, i bought a tap and die set and used the 3/8 and it seems to be giving me some thread again thankfully. That hole isnt blind like i thought it was but i can catch the shavings underneath. Im going to toss my stock injectors back on too since the caps keep falling off and giving me issues. Any tricks to clean these things? I called an engine shop and these fools wanted 30 per injector to clean.

Thanks again