I wanted to share this information with anyone whom might need it. These forums have helped me and I want to pay back some of that help if I can. I'm sure there will be a few who run into this situation at some point in time. Good luck and God Bless.

Truck: 2000 F-350, 4x4, Super-Duty, V-10, Automatic, Crew Cab

Problem: While replacing the spark plugs I accidently cross threaded and twisted the head off of one of the COP bolts while reinstalling it. This happened to the third COP from the front on the driver's side. The bolt seized up in the aluminum intake manifold and I (of course) made the mistake of trying to power through. The bolt twisted off leaving about 5-7 mm of bolt sticking out of the top of the aluminum intake manifold. Not much left to work with. Tried vice-grips of various sizes, no use. The bolt body was seized up too tight for any kind of an "EZ-Out" tool.

Solution: Had to drill out the remaining bolt body and then enlarged the COP bolt hole (the hole in the aluminum intake) using a drill bit size of 13/64". Then tapped the hole using a 6mm x 1.00 tap. Finally, replaced the factory 5mm COP bolt with a new 6mm hex-head bolt.

-The new 6mm hex-head bolt did fit inside the hole in the coil without any modification to that hole.

-This procedure was done using a standard drill however, if this had happened to either of the two remaining COP bolts further to the rear one may be able to get at those bolts with a small Dremel angle attachment or a Dremel flex-shaft with the 13/64" drill bit attached. That is if you can find or fabricate a collet sized for a 13/64" drill bit.

-This procedure cost me roughly $18 for a 6mm tap, tap handle and hex-head bolt. I saved a minimum of $31 (new rethreading kit $49) and possibly as much as $220 (2 shop hours at the rate of $110 and hour).

-The procedure was not difficult and took less than 30 minutes to complete. Take your time, think it through real well and make sure you use a pilot hole when drilling out the old stuck COP bolt.

 

I just rounded off the bolt head on the #5 COP trying to replace the boot. Just my luck the hardest one to get to. LOL.

 

Haha! Funny thing... same exact thing happened to me this past weekend. I was going to do this same fix this comming weekend when I got another chance to work on the truck. Thanks for laying out all the sizes and stuff for me, takes all the guess work out of it.

Just curious, anyone know of any problems that could occur from running with one COP unsecured? I wonder, does that bolt have anything to do with the grounding of the COP or if its just for restraint.

 

Its just for restraint.

 

Thanks for the reassurance Chaos.

Me and my dad have been going back and forth over this since the bolt snapped and he was worried about running the truck without that bolt in place.

Thats 1 for me over the ol man!

 

Do you think it would be the Same size bolt on a 2003 5.4? (5mm)?