I'm looking to buy a Savage, and have found a pretty good deal on 2002 with low miles, but the current owner says the bolt holes in the cylinder head where the exhaust header mounts are stripped.  He's been riding it around with the header attached to the bike with a piece of wire to the frame.  I didn't notice if the header clamp was still present and just dangling or not.

Would it be possible to drill out the holes a few millimeters larger and then tap for the next metric size up (thread/length)?  What size are the stock bolts at that location?

Any problems I should be aware of on a bike that's been ridden like this for who knows how long? (aside from the likelihood of other stripped holes)

Thanks!

I would have a professional install "HeliCoils" into the holes instead of tapping to a larger size (larger size will create problems)

If the bolts have broken (leaving the holes filled) remove the head and have a professional extract the broken bolts

Sej wrote on 05/04/14 at 14:43:53:


With less then 4K miles you probably can't go too wrong unless he absolutely thrashed the engine. He's not too far out of range for even normal maintenance intervals.  A 1,000.00 is a pretty darn good price.