Question for Ron
 

Hey Ron, remember when that bolt snapped off into the lower intake? I had a quick question on that. The thread got messed up after i changed out my injectors so it's too big for the standard size bolt. What do you think i should do for that? Thread a bigger bolt in? Also what's a temp fix maybe put some gasket maker so there isn't a big vacuum leak?

First, buy the tap for the stock size thread. See if you can clean it up and make use of it.

If not you can drill it for a helicoil if you don't need a lot of torque on it. And then lather the bolt up with silicone to prevent a vacuum leak. Let the silicone dry before you fire.

Otherwise drill and tap bigger, be careful if you're drilling into a head. Don't go too deep or too big or you'll make yourself another manifold vacuum port, or a sweet exhaust leak, or an even sweeter coolant jet.

Cool, thank you sir. I need to do it asap. Car isn't running right with a bolt missing in the middle of the intake.

The helicoil is the answer. What happened originally was that one of the long bolts that holds the upper and lower intakes together snapped because it was a cheap bolt. I drilled down into the center of the broken peice and used an easy out to remove it. We never touched the threads so something else must have happened. Mike, do you want to fess up what you did?

Anyways, most part stores sell helicoil kits. You'll need to pull the upper intake off and then drill the hole to the appropriate size for the heilcoil. The kit will also come with a tool to install it and I beleive it comes with loctite.

Fess up? Ha i didn't do anything! I changed out my injectors, then when i went to torque everything down the bolt just kept spinning. I guess I've just been lazy to take it off and see what's going on. I'll keep you posted, I'm planning on bypassing the heater core tomorrow, check to see what's up with that bolt, and then I'm going to sand down my car and primer it black. My Paint is messed up and i got scratches all over from people being careless.

If the cylinder head threads are stripped, you will be much better off drilling and installing a time-sert. It is a much cleaner and stronger alternative to a helicoil.

It's not the head. It's the threads in the lower intake to bolt the upper intake to. It's an aluminum intake and the torque spec is only 25ft/lbs.

As I recall one of the intercooler bolts for the Cobra is notorious for breaking with even the slightest bit of pressure too..

Mike had some cheap bolts he bought at Home Depot. The one we snapped in the lower intake broke at only 15ft/lbs.