Ugh! I was replacing the water pump and thermostat on my '97 3.3L. The water pump change out was uneventful. Unfortunately, the thermostat didn't go as well.
I removed the old thermostat, cleaned up the mating faces, and applied gasket sealer to each. I set up my torque wrench and tightened the thermostat housing down to 250 in lb. Then I realized I forgot to install the gasket! D'oh!
I pulled the housing back off, cleaned it up a bit, re-coated with gasket sealer, and began to re-assemble. I don't know if my torque wrench failed or if it was set up wrong. But, on the second re-install I managed to strip out one of the bolt holes for the thermostat housing! Son of a b!^(#!
The bolt is fine. Unfortunately, the bolt hole in the block is stripped. I've never used a tap set. But, I think I'm going to need to learn. Can anyone give me a crash course on how to use a tap set? Also, where to buy one? Can I buy just the tap size I need? How do I know what size I need? Please assume I know nothing about bolt sizes and such. :-(
Get a set called a "heli-coil" this will put the same threads in the hole. As I am not fimiular (sp) with a 3.3. The holes for a 3.5 go straight thru and if need be a nut can be used on the end. This will require a longer bolt.
Ugh! I was replacing the water pump and thermostat on my '97 3.3L. The water pump change out was uneventful. Unfortunately, the thermostat didn't go as well.
I removed the old thermostat, cleaned up the mating faces, and applied gasket sealer to each. I set up my torque wrench and tightened the thermostat housing down to 250 in lb. Then I realized I forgot to install the gasket! D'oh!
I pulled the housing back off, cleaned it up a bit, re-coated with gasket sealer, and began to re-assemble. I don't know if my torque wrench failed or if it was set up wrong. But, on the second re-install I managed to strip out one of the bolt holes for the thermostat housing! Son of a b!^(#!
The bolt is fine. Unfortunately, the bolt hole in the block is stripped. I've never used a tap set. But, I think I'm going to need to learn. Can anyone give me a crash course on how to use a tap set? Also, where to buy one? Can I buy just the tap size I need? How do I know what size I need? Please assume I know nothing about bolt sizes and such. :-(
The threads you speak of are in the intake (aluminum) not the block (cast iron). If the hole is stripped out, then simply tapping it with a regular tap will not help, unless you can tap it deeper and use longer bolts. The holes go all the way through from the factory, but I don't know if the original bolts go the entire depth. For aluminum threads you need to have a length of good threads of at minimum 1-1/2 x the diameter of the bolt. There is such a thing as a roll tap which is worth a try. A roll tap forms a thread rather than cutting like a regular tap. Then there is always the good ol' heli-coil, which requires drilling and tapping a bigger hole then putting the heli-coil in. A heli-coil is a steel insert that has threads on the outside to secure it to your bigger tapped hole and threads on the inside to match your bolt. The problem with a heli-coil is that the bigger hole may weaken the casting or break into the coolant passage. It may be possible to use a longer bolt and a hex nut underneath if there is enough room for the nut.If you can fit a hex nut in there then use some thread locking compound on it. And now my DISCLAIMER . I've never had to repair these threads on mycar. It's up to you to decide what you want to try. If it becomes FUBAR then you'll be looking at replacing your intake manifold. Yikes!
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