98 civic smells like fuel in the car

Go with the kit. That's actually a pretty good price. You will need all the parts anyway (you may have the drill but I bet you don't have the special tap). The last kit I bought was $59 US, but when you need it you need it.

Mike

The last time I needed just a helicoil, the parts man at the local VW dealership was willing to sell it to me. I found them to be a good source for odd tools and repair parts like this.

"disallow" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@localhost.talkaboutautos.com:

Boy, that's something I'd never have guessed. :-/

Can you not just get a self-tapping screw of sufficient size to fit the hole the stud used to go in? If it's big enough, you should be able to torque it down enough to prevent oil leakage. A #10 Robertson maybe?

On the 98 civic, the bolts for the valve cover have a special flange, as well as a seal that fits on it. I guess its concievable to go oversize with a different bolt, but I am unsure as to whether it would be a good idea due to the application, and probably a custom length.

I had the same problem with the longer ones on the valve cover as well, when they broke. Fortunately, Honda admitted that they probably over torqued them that time, and replaced those bolts for free...