I've got a couple intake bolt holes, that I need to fix, and i was wondering how to go about putting in a few Helicoil's, w/o pulling the heads off. Anybody have any suggestions?

 

personally, I wouldn't.

 

It can be done. They make a complete kit (I don't know where to get one other than a good tool distributer) that includes everything. Just make sure to cover EVRYTHING that can get metal shaving in it.

 

If I remember correctly the intake bolt holes are thru threads into the lifter valley. Cant you catch all the shavings that fall thru if you have the intake off?

Just dont let them fall down into the bottom end.

I dont see why you couldnt do it if your careful.

 

You can use grease in the drill bit to help catch the shavings. With the heads on the car, all you can do is to cover everything possible and use every trick possible to keep the metal bits out of the bottom end.

 

From my personal experiance, its next to impossible. I have tried just about everything to do it with the heads in the car. The kid that had the car before me put the bolts in crooked so they would still catch but not go in all the way and cause a header leak. I ended up putting washers in between the bolt and the header this way it could still go in crooked but still tighten at the same time. They have been holding up just fine ever since. Im waiting to hemi-coil mine when i get my heads ported.

My uncle said he was able to do it with these special angled airliner built drill bits that allow you to drill in really tight places. But god only knows where he got those. Other than that I have never heard of anyone being able to do them inside the car.

 

nevermind i miss read the post, I guess you could probably get away with doing the intake holes in the car. I'll leave the other stuff up there still just in case.

 

I used one in my crank shaft snout. Have not had any problems yet.

 

If you do it right , helicoils are a permanent repair. An intake manifold will be no problem. You could lock tite the helicoil in if it makes you feel better.