got a stripped out bolt on my intake manifold. its the one on far left, towards the right bank of engine. its one of the longer ones, as the manifold has two lengths of bolts. any way my question is this:

does this bolt screw into the block of the motor(meaning metal/alum.) or is it bolted to the lower intake manifold(plastic lower plenum)???

if it is in the motor would i be better off trying to drill out, re-tap bigger and use bigger bolt?
(i fear this might add TOO much torque and damage my manifold)
or should i drill out, re tap bigger, add a heli coil insert, then reuse the same size new bolt?
(this seems like it would be a better choice to me..)

need to come up with solution fast. when driving car hiccups at 16-1800 rpm instead of down shifting right away.

thanks in advance -stevis05

 

ok dis-regard first post. went out and took a good look with a flash light. the bolt that stripped out is a shorter one, the same one mentioned, and is clearly bolted to lower intake.

it looks like im gonna be able to drill out the plastic, put a longer bolt in and put a flat washer on the bottom side with a nut(under the plastic lower intake, to hold the two assemblys together)

my other option because the threads are in plastic are to use j.b.weld or similar putty that adheres to anything, fill the hole in on the plastic plenum and wait for it to dry, then drill and tap that back to original size...

only problem is i cant get the bolt out now!!!
its just spinning in there and wont go either way.

im going to take intake off from air box back to relieve alll the tension. leaving stripped bolt for last. hopefully i can get a claw in enough to pry bolt up and back it out. then drill it out slightly and reassemble

 

Steveis, to get the bolt out, take a really thin flat bladed screw driver and slide it between the bolt head and the washer. Then giving a slight twist as you are turning the bolt, it should back out on you. That will save you a lot of heartache.

Personally, I would minimize the amount of plastic that you are removing as you are leaving the plastic that much weaker and you are prone to breaking the plastic piece. So, I would simply install a longer bolt and nut on the backside like you are talking.

 

Thermo, i went and looked around for pics of the lower intake, and it looks to me from the photos ive seen that pressed in the plastic are metal sleeves, gold in color, with threads. these threads are what hold this bolt in. i think the bolt is stuck in the sleeve, causing the sleeve to rotate inside the plastic, thus giving me no up nor down. still not positive though.

any way, i went over to ebay and i purchased a used fuel delivery manifold, with all injectors and fuel rail attatched. the unit i bought is from a 03 2.5, and i have a 04 3.0

i dont know if all the injectors and the rail is the same for 2.5 and 3.0. if it is the same i can swap out easily, or i might have to swap feul injectors and assembly out first. ill compare them side by side, try to match numbers to each other and such. any one know off hand??

i was thinking that a drill fix would be easiest, but i got this manifold and fuel rail with injectors for $50.00 !!!(ill gladly pay the 25 for s/h)
i figure that it will end up better replacing lower intake then drilling/messing with it. it'll be a week or so untill it gets here, enough time to get lower intake o-rings and a new bolt. -stevis05

 

stevis, once you get the bolt out, I would try pulling the sleeve out and then reinsterting it using a bit of epoxy glue. That should do the fix for you. Just make sure to not have the bolt in the sleeve when you glue it in place or you may cement the bolt in place too. As for getting the old bolt out, do like you said with trying to lift up on the manifold to pull it out, but in this case, you can turn the bolt some (loosen direction) and then slide a screw driver between the two halves and attempt to pull the sleeve out that way. This will either jam the sleeve in place and allow the bolt to come out or the sleeve will pull out of the place it should be. From there, you can do the fix needed.

 

FINALLY!!!! i got that darn bolt out. man what a mission. turns out that little metal gold sleeve thats in the lower fuel rail manifold was my problem. i took everything off in order to get the upper manifold out except that one bolt. i had to lift the right side of the manifold up enough to make some pressure in there because the screwdriver/pry method didnt work. i tried like seven hundred or so combos of screwdrivers, claws, etc but nothing. but wile lifting opposite side up and unscrewing, the bolt came out, only the sleeve was still on it and came right out of the plastic. clamped down on the sleeve with adjustable channel locks and managed to get the sleeve off the bolt, saving the bolt, which wasnt stripped at all.

to fix i bought a donor fuel rail assembly, complete with injectors, wiring harness, and lower manifolds(black plastic). since the donor was from an 03 2.5, the rail and injectors were different numbers. the plastic lower intake had the same exact numbers as the ones i took off my 04 3.0. so i removed the injectors out of the bad side of my lower intake, and swapped with one from the donor. (-side note: the lower plastic intakes are the exact same part on both sides, meaning they are interchangeable, front or rear. all the holes line up, but depending on where you put them, some may not be used.)

with lower intake and fuel rail assembly ready to go it was new gaskets for the lower, and i reused the uppers which have about 400 mi on them. got it in place, bolted it down, connect electrical, then i spent about an hour searching my engine bay and the floor right underneath...when i disconnected the quick release by the fire wall for the gas line, there is a tiny, golden little spring inside to keep tension on both lines. well when i removed everything, swapped intakes, flipped it around to see...it stayed right in place. wouldnt you know about a half inch before the two lines were clicked in it decided to fall out!!! ARRGGHH!!

found it, fitted it into the line, went to reconnect...dropped it again!!!

got it all back together (with the spring eventually) and now we are running smooth. im idling at about 750rpm nice and low running good not blowing through gas. smooth quick acceleration and no hiccups at 16-1800rpm. finally.......... -stevis05

 

Good to hear you finally got it fixed. Enjoy the ride.

 

when overtightened it half a turn or so, I was shocked at this stripped nut. the nut is a copper sleeve inserted in the plastic base which is a part of the lower intake manifold of my 03' jaugar x-type 2.5. The dealer told me they only sell the whole manifold assembly at a price of $1500 or so. Now I found a measure to fix it as seen on the picture. I bought a flat head bolt 2.5"/3.0" long, 1/4" thread, and a wing nut + a washer (sticked with glue on the nut so that easier to install). OK it works perfectly now or better then ever before.

note: the original copper sleeve nut is disregarded. manually drive the bolt into the nut and then tighten it without holding the nut. amazingly the nut does not spin at that position.

 

congrats u got the sleeve out of the plastic body but will advise to all not to pull manifold from one side to take the free sleeve out of its place because it can deshape the lower body or can break it.
the best way to take out such a slip sleeve is. take out all the bolts which are ok and now u have to only take out the bolt which is not opening due to sleeve slipped in plastic body. now put the socket with the extension to a drill machine and now put it to bolt and start moving it in closing direction( clock wise) gradually increasing the speed of the dill machine this will only heat up the plastic from the place where sleeve is fitted to plastic body and will not damage or deshape the plastic body as u feel a bit of smoke from the place where sleeve is fitted just pull up the manifold and sleeve will come out from its place without damage the lower plastic body and with no big effort. hope this will help all of u.

 

Has anybody tried the method of using a drill to heat up the plastic so the sleeve pulls out?

I have the same problem with the left bolt just spinning both directions without coming out.

 

I tried that but that one brass lock nut still spun on me. I had to get new lower intake for the stripped out side.

 

How did you end up getting the upper manifold off?

 

Howdy to all,
You guys have been describing what is commonly referred to as a "NutSert"
which are use to install a captive threaded sleeve into materials which is not strong enough or thick enough - to be threaded.

These are held in place by compression of two surfaces of the nutsert to thereby mechanically clamp the subject material between the Nutsert surfaces. (not unlike a Pop-rivet)

These can be replaced by drilling them out (like a pop-rivet) and replaced with a new NutSert. Of course drill size (ř) used here is critical. Nutserts come in many shapes and sizes - but technically, you should be able to source replacements to suit this application.

Just Google. Nutserts

Hope this helps.....

 

Yes I have tried it, as upper manifold was not coming off due to slip of copper sleeve fixed in lower manifold was slip I put the bolt size bit on extension and fit the other end to drill machine, fit the bit on bolt and move it fast with drill, this creat friction on the point where copper sleeve was slipping in plastic of lower manifold and it become hot due to friction and I pull the upper manifold out while it was hot, and sleeve come out of plastic with the bolt then I hold the sleeve with grip player and open the bolt make it saprate and put some metal epoxy and fix it back in the lower manifold, to tight the upper manifold again.

 

Thank you for your replies, i had to put everything back together as i had no epoxy to reattach the nutsert.
Picked up some epoxy just now and will try again at the weekend, great tips, thanks so much