Stripped one of the cam tower threads

[dan476]

Hey guys, I screwed up royally today. I overtorqued one of the bolts on cam tower while putting a coolant tube that runs along the engine head. When i overtorqued it, it started spin fairly easy and I took the bolt out, it came out with aluminum threads from the head. Then I put some teflon tape on the bolt and put it back on. It holds the bolt and tube in, but its not torqued. One of the guys i talked to said it shouldn't affect it, and gasket will not leak as there are many other bolts around, but I am not too sure about that. What should i do?

[Techno Duck]

Leave it alone for now and if it dosent leak consider yourself lucky. If it does leak, your going to need to pull the cam tower off again.

Purchase a heli-coil kit for the proper size thread, using the specified drill bit, drill the hole out (remember to keep note of the depth as your drilling into the cylinder head). Also remember to catch the metal filings. Use the supplied tap and thread the hole, thread the heli-coil insert onto the tool and thread that into the cylinder head. Problem solved.

You can also use a TimeSert also which is basically the same concept of a heli-coil, but stronger. It uses a solid insert instead of a coiled insert. I think for this application a heli-coil will be fine as they are relatively low torque (14 ft-lbs).

Dont sweat it, four of the bolts holding the oil pump stripped when i was redoing the oil pan (and resealing the oil pump) on my friends car, it was nerve racking drilling into the block and threading the holes with the tap. It was my first time using heli-coils and i was a pro by the time i had that pump back on. Its really not hard, just work slow and double check what your doing.