88 V30 exhaust manifold bolt hole - no threads?

[mo]

Picked up a dually last weekend and went to fix the blown exhaust manifold gasket yesterday...

the manifold was missing the front 3 bolts on the driver side so i replaced the gasket and went to screw in some new bolts and the front hole in the head was too big for a 3/8 bolt. So i thought maybe it used to have some bracket on there and maybe it used a 7/16 bolt, but it wouldn't thread in. So i got to looking and crawled in there and tried to look inside the hole and I could see 1/2" or so into it and there were no threads in the head???

Was there suppossed to be a stud there or something and maybe it fell out?

oh yeah, 88 TBI 454.

thanks

 

[YZEATER]

so if you can't get anything to thread in there, sounds like it's stripped out. sure there's not a broken off bolt in there?

 

[mo]

i can stick a 1-1/4" 3/8th bolt all the way in the hole and the hole is almost big enough to stick a 7/16 bolt into, but not quite.

thx

 

[YZEATER]

well, i bet it's stripped out. all the other bolts were 3/8's correct that you put in. need to drill it out and tap it for the next size. i would wait and get another opinion to make sure there is enough material to do so.

 

[thatK30guy]

Or use Heli-coil.

 

[chulisohombre]

Or use Heli-coil.

i second that motion!!

 

[mo]

guess i'll give that a shot

thx