Just picked this ej22 from wrecking yard. It has a 30 day  warranty. Two of the six water pump bolt wholes are stripped. It looks like all six bolt holes have Heli-Coils. Whats the best option to repair or is it smarter to return engine. Its a nice low mile clean engine. 

 

Edited September 20, 201510 yr by steve56

Somebody probably wailed the bolts on with an air ratchet not knowing or not caring about the torque spec for those which is only like 8 ft lbs. I've noticed people used to working on Iron blocks tend to do that.

 

Helicoil would probably be the simplest/ fastest thing to do.

 

Another option is to drill out and tap threads for the next larger size, but then you also have to drill out the holes in the water pump larger.

remove heli coils and install new ones, woudn't recommend going larger (my opinion) if you are, becareful to not drill any deeper, you could hit something. and as its been previously stated, gotta make the waterpump holes bigger also, and to any future waterpump.

 

but before anything at all, if you have a tap and die kit, try recovering the threads and see if it grabs enough, if not then go to plan B (replace helicoils) or C (drill and tap a new thread).

If the Junkyard has another engine, go inspect it.  See if it has the same problems.  If it doesn't I would swap engines.  If they over torqued in one place the question is where else did they?

Other option would be converting to jump-size studs. Basically tap out the holes for next size up (could be metric or standard, which ever grabs first) and keep the exposed section section the same size as what is already there so you don't have to tap out every new water pump in the future (possibly creating a dilemma for future owners). It's a better fix than heli-coils and JB weld junk.

 

While you are at it, might want to inspect other bolts for same treatment, especially relating to the front of the engine like timing belt pulleys, timing cover, alternator, etc. The fact it's a lower mileage engine make it worth a little more in the long-run if taken care of, so might as well do the thing right.