Spica Throttle body striped at injector

[new2alpha]

My #3 injector is leaking and I am certain that the throttle body is striped at the injector. Is there a simple fix for this short of a new throttle body or a trip to a machine shop? The leak is very slight but I am afraid to tighten down on the injector for fear of striping it entirely. Is there a comppond that would harden in place or might something like teflon tape help?

[sunsprit]

If there's still some amount of original good thread remaining, then you can generally repair these by using any of the high quality paste grade epoxy metal repair materials.

Products from Lock-Tite, Belzona (industrial/very expensive), JB Weld, or similar from a host of manufacturer's at your hardware store or auto supply will do.

To repair: clean all surfaces you want the epoxy to bond to thoroughly, and use a solvent degreaser to be certain the surfaces are free of any oil. On the good clean threads of the injector body, apply a mold release agent to keep them from bonding into the "new" epoxy threads you'll be making, and also onto the adjacent surfaces where you don't want the epoxy to bond. Mold release can be a very thin layer of dry silicone spray, beeswax, parafin, or even paste shoe wax/polish.

Mix the epoxy according to the directions, and apply a small amount to the entire surface of the injector threaded area and to the stripped threads. Don't use too much epoxy as it will later flow out into places you don't want a lot of surplus. Use a toothpick, or piece of welding rod to apply and be sure that the epoxy is uniformly spread and wetted out without trapping any air bubbles. Then, "thread" the injector body back into the throttle body and allow to cure overnight. You can accelerate the curing by warming the surface to around 120F for an hour.

After the epoxy cures, you can remove the injector body, verify that you have 100% thread contact in the bore, and then re-install the clean part with your normal seal/sealant. You should be able to torque it to normal tightness.

Most of these metal filled epoxies will withstand close to 200F before failure, so it's a good application for this thread repair on the manifold. I do this type of work professionally on industrial, HVAC, pumps/compressors, food process equipment, and so forth ... including mining, power generation, turbines, hydro plants, etc ... where durable performance with minimum downtime is essential. I've durably patched broken oil pans and timing covers on many cars and trucks out in the field with this stuff. Of course, I use an industrial grade repair material for the big commercial jobs, but this application is well within the scope of the over-the-counter materials. Questions? pmessage me directly.