Hey guys, long story short I ran a ghetto homemade alternator mount for about a year before I finally found the headplate to mount it properly. During that time I snapped the upper mounting bolt off in the block from the amount of vibration that was going on. Last fall I had to tear the front end down and use an EZout to remove the bolt head. I got all the right gear and mounted the alternator properly. Now, suddenly, my upper bolt was loose. I took the fan off and checked it, it pulled the threads out of the block. This is the upper bolt, right behind the fan pulley (can't remove it without removing the pulley) that goes through the alt mount, timing cover, and into the block. I guess the pathetic excuse for a mount I ran last year weakened the threads and they finally pulled out. So, I need a solution to fix this. Should I use a heli-coil or just tap it one size larger? I'm afraid I'm going to have to take it all the way down and remove the timing cover, which I really don't want to mess with.
Helicoil the bolt hole. I can be sure there is enough metal for that and if you install the helicoil with red locktite it will be at least as strong as the original threads.
I've been doing some reading. If I use a heli-coil then I need to drill out the block, re-tap it to the threaded insert's outer diameter, then install it?
thats right. you will need to take off the timing cover, water pump, and balancer to get to that whole. so you might want to plan on changing your timeing chain while your there if its old.
