So I got under the car with my trusty flashlight to see if I could find an exhaust leak that is driving me bananas. and turns out that the exhaust manifold bolt on the driver's side closest to the firewall was just loose, easy fix you say? NO!!!! I tried tightening the bolt and to my surprise it never got tight, not even a little bit.
I took out the bolt and it was fine so the threads in the head are f#@ked, the problem is that it wasn't leaking from there before??

What is the easiest was to fix it?

Bigger bolt?(what size?)
Heli-coil?(what size?)

thanks.

Oh, this is on a '95 Z28

 

before you always mess with exhaust manifold/header bolts you should always use PB Blaster or a similar product to motivate the bolts a little. Let the car sit without starting for a couple days, adding a little more PB blaster if needed, then tackle the bolts, because 90% of the time you're probably going to end up breaking a bolt in the head without a loosening agent.

If the threads are fubared, you're going to have to rethread it. Do a search for a (easy out tools & tap & die) Definetely get someone to help you if you are scared to do it...
It could have been avoided, but you're not the first to learn the hard way. Atleast you didn't break the bolt in the head though.

Good luck, might be a good time to throw some LT's on it and some arp bolts...

 

I think I just might do that lol,it lost a lot of ***** and my fuel economy sucks.