Given the amount of technical knowledge, backyard engineering, and as my friend calls it "Booty Fab" here, I'm hoping to for a bit of creative advice here.

In the current stable I have a 1999 Isuzu Vehicross that has the factory 3.5L engine and an aftermarket supercharger. That's where the problem begins. The shop that installed the supercharger (prior to my purchasing it) did a bad job and stripped several holes in the aluminum parts.

The area of concern right now is the EGR valve. The stock EGR valve is a solenoid that's mounted at the back of the intake on the passenger side near the firewall. The supercharger intake doesn't have any material in that area, so the company that created the kit (A non-us company, so parts can be hard to obtain) built a small (2"x3"x2") aluminum block. There are 3 mating surfaces on this block. The bottom has an approx 1" female threaded fitting that the egr pipe threads into. The top has the mount for the EGR valve, and the right side has a 2-bolt flanged fitting for the output, which connects to the vacuum side of the supercharger.

The EGR fitting on the bottom was threaded in at an angle, cross-threading the large female fitting in the aluminum. I'm having a hard time finding a place that has helicoils in any metric size larger than about 14mm (the popular spark plug size).

So, here is where the creative part comes in. I'm trying to figure out how to connect an approx 5/8" steel EGR pipe to the aluminum block. Using the threaded fitting is out for now. I'm thinking of purchasing a new EGR pipe, cutting it off short and using some kind of flexible tubing to connect to the aluminum block. If I can do that, I can relocate the EGR valve to somewhere other than it's current position at the firewall.

FAQ:
Q. Do I need the EGR.
A. Yes. I still have to pass emissions, I have an OBDII vehicle that can tell if the EGR flow is incorrect.

Q. Do you have a photo.
A. Yes. http://tad2.grosvenor.org/albums/NewVX/Engine2.sized.jpg The EGR valve is the black upright "canister" at the back, behind the passenger's side fuel rail.

There is some Mercedes content here. While the Vehicross is parked, I'm driving my wife's Mercedes. It makes me want a 300Dt engine in my truck, just for the smooth "500k mile" lifespan

-Tad

source for any helicoil made.
http://www.emhart.com/products/helicoil.html

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i second the beauty of a helicoil. I used one on my fuel injector mount on my VW TDI. Been working great for 10,000 plus miles now.

Stronger, tougher, and make a better looking job than heli-coils.

http://www.timesert.com/

I vote for the Timeserts also... these look like an updated version of Threadserts.... the standard fix on the head/jug stud hole in millions of aircooled aluminum VW bug blocks.

Note that these (Timeserts) might require a counter bore if you need them flush with the surface you are dealing with.....

So part of the question is whether you will have this item out of the vehicle so that you can use a drill press.

Why not take the whole piece out of the car, take it to a machine shop, and have them duplicate it? Minus the buggered threads, of course.

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