Stripped bolt on thump rrr tensioner, any ideas for the fix?

[MADRUSSIAN]

Replaced my stock tensioner with RRR tensioner and when I was tightening it, it felt like it stripped. Back it out and re tighten it. Seem to hold. Drove car for couple of weeks, made few wot pulls and it seemed to be all fine. Tonight did some data logging and went through 3rd, 4th and 5th.... heard something hitting inside of the hood lightly, stopped, opened the hood and blue belt shredded one rib off and was beating the inside of the hood with remaining chunk. My guess is that bolt gave a little , tensioner got a bit crooked and belt got shredded.
So my question is: anyone re threaded hole in the block? I know there are steel inserts that work pretty good and I was thinking about drilling it and tapping in a steel insert....any thoughts?

 

[HillbillyHotRod]

Did you torque it down? The aluminum casting cannot take a whole lot of torque.

 

[railroad]

Helicoil will fix it. Some brand are solid and some coiled. I would make sure I used the entire depth of the hole. They come in different lengths. Make sure you use the longest bolt possible without bottoming out, let the locktite set good before installing the bolt. Good luck,

 

[einehund]

It is in the aluminum engine cover, not the block. I cross-threaded mine when i replaced the tensioner. I tapped it back out, but used a vaccuum and only tapped 1/2 turn at a time and then backed out to vaccuum the shavings so they wouldnt fill the cover with shavings, which i imagine are bad for the engine.

 

[RBB]

It might be worth tapping the hole first before you go trying to get a helicoil in down there. The first time I removed my stock tensioner to replace the belt, the bolt was very hard to remove the whole way out. I figured I was in trouble and, sure enough, the threads were jacked up when trying to re-insert it. I ran a tap through there and it cleaned the threads up nicely, bolt went back in smooth as butter.

 

[54First]

Mine got screwed up several years ago either going in or out. I tapped it carefully. It's been OK ever since. I'm not sure there's enough metal on the timing cover to use a Helicoil. As an extra caution, you can get the bolt in without having the alignment pins in their holes, so be extra careful. I mentioned this several years ago. Another member didn't believe me and tried it out himself. He then agreed.

Steve

 

[MADRUSSIAN]

Thanks every one for input. I do tend to overtorque things from time to time. I ordered time sert and going to install it this weekend. I did same thing with supercharger elbow, stripped 2 out 4 throttle body bolts and end up installing 4 time serts. Actually easier than I thought it would be and they work great! With tensioner bolt whole it will be a bit more challenging due to limited space but I think I'll be ok

 

[54First]

I'd like to thank MADRUSSIAN for turning me on to Time-Serts. I never heard of them, but they look like a great solution to difficult threading problems. They even have oversized inserts to replace Heli-coils.

Steve