GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

I have a 2003 Vibe GT it has the 2zzge engine in it. The tensioner broke and smashed the valves etc etc. Anyways i am having a hard time getting anyone to work on this because supposedly they are notorious for stripping the threads out of the block when you re-torque the head. Has anyone else had this problem or is it just here say. If this is a problem what was the fix? I Dont see how buying another block is going to be a fix, if the block i purchase has weak threads also!! I am at my witts end with this car. It has been a fantastic car since we bought it without any problems and putting a new/remanufactured engine in it would't make much sense i think because the engine is worth more than the car? Any help would be appreciated Thanks.

I can imagine that the bolts gall up the aluminum block quite nicely. The fix would be to drill the bolt holes and tap to the next size up... if there's space to do that and you'd have to drill the cylinder head bolt holes out a little bigger and possibly countersink. Or you can pony up the dough and buy another engine.... or a new car...

Have whatever machine shop you use Heli-coil the head. they drill, tap, and put steel inserts in the aluminum holes so they should never strip out again. It's not an expensive thing to have done for a large amount of insurance.