Stripped water pump bolt hole in 86 3.8

[1986stangboy]

I'm replacing the water pump in my 1986 3.8 mustang and came across a long bolt that won't thread in and keeps spinning. I believe it may be too deep for a heli coil so that really isn't an option. Has anyone else experienced this dilemma?

[plumkrazy]

Maybe full of gunk. 5.0 water pumps go thru the timing chain cover also and can be very problematic. Not sure if 3.8 is the same.

[Haystack]

3.8 is the same.

The bolt was probably rusted and broke off would be my guess.

[KevinVarnes]

It sounds like you already have the bolt out and are in the process of installation? I once had to chisel a timing cover off of a 3.8 due to those bolts. How did it look when it came out?

[Walking-Tall]

There's a couple different length bolts/studs with 3.8's, so I wouldn't jump to conclusions too quick. Did you keep track of which bolts/studs came out of which holes? If you still see threads on the end of the bolt/stud in question, you might be trying to thread it in and it's simply not long enough to reach the block. If you're starting from ground zero, not knowing which came out of which... take the water pump back off and reinstall the fasteners through the water pump's holes until all of their threaded ends that enter the block all line up or are close to the same distance from the water pump's rear flange face, and then keep track of which goes where, and reinstall the pump. Some grease on all the fastener's lengths that pass through the water pump and timing cover, goes a long, long way to them never breaking in the future. Take note as well: the bottom left fastener requires sealant on it's threads because it's tapped hole goes into the block's coolant passage.

[1986stangboy]

I did keep track of where all the bolts went and then I removed the water pump again and tried threading the bolts through timing cover and there's a few that "catch" to a certain point and won't get tight. It looks like I may be pulling the timing cover to re tap and heli coil the block bolt holes

[Jerry peachuer]

If you have to "enlarge" the hole any look up (keenserts) McMaster Carr carries the them and a helicoil would be ok to but sometimes you have limited sizes in helicoils where keenserts are used for not only strength but for situations like oversized holes we use them offten with aluminum work that requires bolts that need to be torqued

Please do your research though I just wanted to throw l another option to look into

Good luck

[erratic50]

Depending upon what your accessory brackets look like and are setup you might be able to use the old stacked washers under the bracket and pressure with surrounding bolts trick if it's an emergency to get it up and running again fast.

ive had to do this to multiple cars.

Pro tip for avoiding busted bolts in the future is warm the car up then take these bolts out while it's still hot.

[kristen090]

I came across this dilemma. Still don' t know how to fix it.