need help from people that have used TIME-SERT head bolt inserts

[mellow65]

I have recently started building my 2.2/2.5 motor for my older legacy. i got the motor because it had a bad head gasket, well after striping the motor all the way down i found out why the head gasket went. the motor was poorly put back together after a rebuild and one of the head bolt threads was all sorts of F-ed up and was never able to give full touque down ability and hence the head gasket going.

 

so i was searching for some ideas about heli coils and ran across people saying good stuff about the TIME-SERTS being much stronger then the heli coils and after looking at the website I see that you can get different length inserts too, to better match your thread engagement area.

 

so i ask anyone that has used it to fix there head bolts, what did you think, how did it turn out, any tips, tricks, or anything to help someone out.

 

I was thinking of just redoing all of them, I know one other one is in pretty sad shape to, and would almost like to start fresh. this is going im my rally car so i'm not going to be the nicest person to it.

 

also i was planning on getting all new head bolts too, or even maybe some ARP head studs, just to keep everything in check.

 

thanks

[subaru360]

I have never used them on a subaru, but I used to work at a chevy dealer and I used them on GM's lsx motors. That's an aluminum block and head V8. They work great, much nicer than a helicoil. They were GM's fix for the threads pulling out of the block. I think they are expensive.

[mellow65]

yeah i don't think they are cheap but it's cheaper then getting a new block.