NEED HELP,FUEL PUMP BOLT ISSUE,LEAKS OIL

KosmicKuda said
When I fix things, I like to do it once and permanently.
To me that means Heli-coil or Keensert. There may be enough room to do it on the car but if not, remove the cover first. The hole has to be drilled out to the proper size for the insert. Right angle drill?

And any fastener that that goes into a cavity must have sealant on the threads. That's the rear hole, the front one is blind and doesn't need sealant.

Reminds me of the time I took my car out of storage and while blowing the carbon out, the rear exhaust header bolt actually blew out. Steam everywhere. Small block heads have exhaust bolts on the end that go into a water passage and the wall is very thin. Previous iwner had stripped it. Took the heads off and heli-coiled them.

Sounds like a previous owner just grabbed whatever was on hand and threw it together. Typical.

BTW, if the bolt head has a 1/2" head it's 5/16-18 UNC. If it's 9/16" then it's 3/8-16 UNC. A general rule of thumb is aluminum should have 2X the bolt diameter thread engagement. One bolt diameter engagement for steel or cast iron.

Thanks KosmicKuda,it’s 9/16” so 3/8 so this kit for $30 would be the one. When you say use sealant,are you meaning I should put red loctite on the helicoil when it’s inserted? In one of the videos online they said helicoil recommends never stacking helicoils and never putting loctite on them. What would you recommend? Also in the videos I watched it shows the tang being broken off the helicoil after it’s driven on. I wouldn’t want that to fall into the engine.