legacycentral bbs

In the course of working on my new motor I've found several instances where a previous owner (I'm not calling you out here Matt) had over-torqued bolts. In fact I'm having to helicoil an exhaust manifold bolt and I was fortunate enough to be able to just get away with a longer intake manifold bolt where the first 1/2" of the threads where stripped.

So coming back to the point at hand, I was working on getting my timing belt installed today and when I went to put the tensioner on I found that the threads had been stripped. They aren't so much as completely stripped out as much as 'galled' where the bolt has the grip it need to properly torque up.

So, I'm assuming I'm going to have to heli-coil this one but I'm a bit concerned. What is the passageway behind that bolt? It appears to be a coolant passage way. I'm worried about shavings from the taping operation falling in behind.

Anybody have any thoughts on this? Been here before? I'll be hitting Napa up on Monday for a heli-coil kit as the threads are finer on this bolt than my exhaust - perfect huh.

*Grrrr* this last bit of the project is starting to just drag on due to these 'little' surprises.

Nevermind. I failed to realize that the tensioner is mounted to a bracket, that comes off the motor.

I'll look for a spare or do something with it off the motor.

My last T-Wagon had the same problem when I rebuilt the motor. Stripped the tensioner threads right out. Took it up to my machine shop buddy and had it helicoiled, which worked fine.

Sup Lee. See you on the weekend.