I removed the air conditioner compressor mount on a 72 Cutlass 350. To get to the valve covers. When I went to reinstall the the Compressor mount by bolting it into the top of the intake manifold it appears to have stripped out the hole. Small pieces of spring type wire were on the end of the bolt.

Can this be repaired without taking of the intake manifold?

Would I drill out and put in an insert?

Do I have any issues of metal shavings getting in the intake?

Other suggestions?

Thank You

 

Apparently someone already repaired it with a helicoil. Did the helicoil unscrew or pull out?

 

As Eric stated, sounds like it was repaired in the past with a helicoil insert... You might be able to just clean up the threads and re-insert another helicoil...

 

It only pulled out top two three threads.


What about trying to grip the old helicoil with a longer bolt? Any problems if the old helicoil drops into the intake manifold?

 

That could work as long as its not too long and clamps down before bottoming out? The bolt hole doesn't go all the way through to inside of engine so small pieces that the bolt smashes on shouldn't be a problem as long as the bolt seats but the right way to do it is re-insert another helacoil after vacuuming out particles of metal.

 

Thanks everyone for responses.... I found the perfect bolt and got it to catch and tighten up. Wasn’t looking forward to replacing the insert��

 

Hopefully there was enough thread to hold it.

 

I hope so Eric. It certainly felt good tightening it down. Guess I’ll find out with some heat and vibration.

 

It is highly unlikely that the intake was previously repaired. The "spring like" material was almost certainly shards of the original aluminum threads that were sheared out. This IS an aluminum intake, correct? Was the material aluminum or stainless? Had this been a previously installed helicoil, you would not have damaged the stainless insert. You would have either backed the insert out with the bolt or you would have stripped the insert-to manifold threads. The latter would have been obvious, as you would have had both the residual shards of aluminum PLUS the damaged helicoil insert in your hands.

 

Isn't a 350 intake cast iron?

 

If it were original, yes. The O.P. didn't specify if it's an original intake or not, which is why I asked the question. It's a lot more difficult to shear out the threads in a iron intake, and equally less likely that they would have been repaired previously.

 

I think Joe's theory is probably closer to what happened. A cast iron intake and the remnants of the manifold threads still coiled in the bolt threads.

 

It's not like I'VE ever done that before...

 

Yes Joe it was the original intake manifold. It had the appearance of wire but certainly could have just been part of manifold. With just a slightly longer bolt it toured down and appears to fix my issue. Time will tell

 

Yeah, you just sheared the first few threads. Likely the previous bolt was on the short side. The longer bolt engaged virgin threads deeper in the hole. Should not be an issue.