Really? Bloody awesome, thanks. I'd thought the only option would be a new cylinder head.

After a good motorway run the manifold is blowing a little again. I haven't tried to yet but I'm hoping it just needs snugging up again after the heating and cooling.

Is there an advantage to me doing this when its warm? Or should I do it when its cold? I'd be grateful for any opinions on how best to do it without pulling out my 50/50 helicoiling! (If i remember right, two of them are nice and solid, and two were so-so but did snug up ok just about. One hole was a disaster but it worked.)
I haven't got a torque wrench that will do something this small, so will be trying to get it just so without.

in that case tighten it up till it starts to strip and back off 1/4 of a turn


seriously nobody can tell you how tight to do it up with any degree of accuracy without a torque wrench coming in to the equasion somewhere, as im usually doing fixings up all day long i could strip a M7 bolt with a small set of plumbing pliers

Yeah my torque wrench is too big for this.

I don't mind doing it by feel, just wondered if it might be better when the engine is warm, I can't decide.

for a fastner to remain tight its got to be tightened to a point where it stretches - doing that without a torque wrench is pretty difficult - generally on the road cars ill do it up by feel i use a 3/8" socket and ratchet and do it up, erm, pretty tight. You arent supposed to do the fasteners when they are hot - your just going to have to suck it up buttercup and take a leap of faith

on a positive the helicoil should be stronger than the original taped holes and the stud will shear before it strips....if they are done right

Lol, suck it up buttercup

So not when hot then, ta.

I doubt my helicoils are strong enough to snap the studs, they are my first attempt at doing them. I'll nip them up tomorrow and hopefully they'll be fine.

Well I felt special. They were loose apart from one. One wasn't even hand right.
They've tightened up well enough, one isn't amazing but it'll do.

Boo hoo, I might need to take you up on that Russell, some time this year?

The left side is blowing plenty after a couple motorway trips and my crappy studs are turning. Well one is. Not surprised, the drill bit snapped off in the stump of the stud and I well and truly mullered it trying to sort that out.

At least I gave it a go, I learnt a lot on the process.

Yeah no problem, my 2cv has just developed a hole in its manifold so I'm going to have to swap it which (I'm pretty sure) will mean snapping most of the studs, so I'll have had plenty of practice.

Lol. Thanks much, it's the only option now apart from buying a whole new head.

Is it done with engine still in the car? And is it safe to weld the alloy? Someone said it might crack because it would have to get so hot. Not that I've got that much to lose though I guess