James92SE

iTrader: (31)

Well my small refresher project on the black VE has, keeping with my luck, turned into much more. I started just doing the PS pump and the crank seal, as both were leaking badly. Once I fixed those I noticed the oil pan was leaking, so I then decided to go ahead and do the axle seals and knock out the crank seal while in the process, and doing that I noticed both tranny mounts were completely shot.

Dropping the crossmember to do the oil pan, I noticed the rear engine mount bracket was NOT EVEN ATTACHED TO THE BLOCK!

Anyway, I found some spare bolts to bolt the mount bracket back to the block and one of the bolts wouldn't go in. After much frustration I realized a bolt was broken off in the block thus blocking me from screwing a new bolt into it. I'm guessing at some point somebody attached the bracket with just one bolt and it snapped off. Of course, the mount is completely shot/broken up, so I fixed it up with urethane along with the tranny mounts.

At this point today I just decided to pull the engine and screw with this all outside of the car where it'd be much easier to work on/get to. I pulled the engine, put it on an engine stand for easy working (makes it real easy for the oil pan), and got the broken off bolt out of the block real quick and easy with a bolt extractor set.

Well I then notice the exhaust manifold is missing a nut. Upon further inspection not only is it missing a nut, it's missing a stud and looks to have had a futile attempt at repair in the past.

Here's what it looks like:



It's a pretty big hole and seems to be tapped. I played around with some bolts and was able to screw in a 1/2" coarse thread bolt pretty easily. Problem is, it's not very deep and only threaded in a couple of turns. Maybe this is why this was threaded but nothing in there, because it's not really deep enough to do any good.

Now, I'm not real sure what to try to do here. If I attempt to helicoil this, can I "double" the helicoil (i.e., helicoil WITHIN a helicoil) to get down to a smaller diameter?

How deep do the studs go into the head? This hole is only about 1/2" deep it seems. I tried to get another of the studs out to determine depth but I couldn't for the life of me get any of the other studs out.

If I CAN drill this deeper and able to tap the 1/2" threading deeper, is there any problem in me just putting a 1/2" bolt through the exhaust manifold flange and screwing it into the head as opposed to putting a stud into the head first?

Chris Gregg

iTrader: (59)

James, unless someone beats me to the punch, I'll run out tomorrow (er, later Sunday) to verify the length of each stud end.

I can't tell from the images but, are you sure the original stud was completely removed?

I do NOT recommend doing a heli over a heli.

CMax03

iTrader: (3)

The hole to the left isn't threaded, where on the head are these located? 2 helicoils could work or find some longer helicoil kits and loctite them in!

elusivemax93

Doubt drilling deeper is an option. Maybe have a shop or friend weld in with aluminium weld. I know there is that type of material out there as my brother is an aluminium welder at a horse trailer company. Then place the manifold on to give you an exact place to drill to redrill the hole in the correct size also would then after tapping it to specs also threadlock it. I've had and once again have the same problem with rear motor mount not being attached to the engine. Got it and found the three rear bolts snapped. With car on jack stands and cross member off. Upside down on my back drilled a hole in the three broken bolts and extracted them without causing damage to the threads. Well seems torque snapped those bolts again now have to do it all over again.

Chris Gregg

iTrader: (59)

Took a picture of two studs. Clearly the portion which threads into the head is shorter and right at 1/2". So, if that is what you are measuring, the depth is correct.



Helicoils (as I recall) are right at 1/2" long and may have to even shave some excess off if any sticks out. If you have deeperholes, you can "stack" helicoils, but again, I do not recommend you installing one atop another. It may hold, but IMO - personally, it's not worth the risk. I would enlarge the stud opening on the exhaust manifold before I'd put a heli ontop a heli. I don't recall the precise sizes you can buy for heli's, but they should have one that gets you right at or close to stock stud size/diameter.

James92SE

iTrader: (31)

Thanks! I haven't precisely measured the depth just guesstimated it at 1/2" or so. I'll measure precisely later on today. I realized the problem with the threading not going all the way down is that the tap CAN'T thread all the way down because it bottomed out at the bottom before being able to do the threads all the way down. Hmm. I'll have to go check out today what kinda helicoil sizes I can get. I guess worst case like you said I could just enlarge the hole on the manifold flange. So there should be no problem just screwing in a bolt through the flange into the head as opposed to a stud with a nut (assuming I can get it threaded nicely with a helicoil)?