fastbackford351

NAPA will have the helicoils. They work well. Use CUTTING OIL when tapping out the old hole and make sure you tap it straight! Keep the tap nice andeven to the hole and don't let it drift out of square when you are tapping it.

Helicoils have saved my bacon more than once. Nothing to it but to do it.

67mustang302

Helicoil FTW!! Many race teams when they get new aluminum blocks, will drill out all the holes that are aluminum threads and install steel coil threaded inserts. A couple other things, is make sure that you install the coil so that the top of it is about a half turn below the top of the hole itself, otherwise when you go to screw in the bolt, if there's nothing to hold the top part of the coil in place it starts to pull out and cross threads the bolt, and those inserts are HARD so they'll cut into your bolt REAL quick and tear it up. The other is to make sure you bust the tab off after installation, and remove the tab from the hole, otherwise it can prevent the bolt from going all the way in, or get caught in the threads. Breaking the tab off is often overlooked

boogerschnot

Also, be sure to not over torque the bolt, if you do it will destroy the coil.. I have replaced hundreds of coils in my gun system in the navy.. They work great, but people allays over torque the bolts and pull out the coils..

109jb

FWIW, after reading your questions regarding this, it is obvious that you don't have any experience with this kind of repair. As a former machinist, I would highly recommend that you find someone that has the experience and have them do the helicoil. Even if you have to pay them. If you were close enough to me I would do it for you for nothing rather than see you risk your engine block. If you do decide to do it yourself, then make sure that you practice on a scrap chunk of steel before attempting it on the engine itself. A broken tap in a scrap chunk of steel is no big deal, but a broken tap in the engine block is definately a big deal and something to avoid at all costs. When you do the repair, I would personally remove the pan again and put another new gasket on after the repair is done. The hole that needs to be drilled and tapped for the helicoi is much larger than the original bolt. Yes you could put a washer on, but it is not appropriate or the right way to do it in my opinion.