[omadab]

Hello, I was doing a valve cover gasket job and bought a new eccentric shaft sensor from FCP euro since the one in the car has oil in it. While removing the bottom bolt of the ESS (refer to diagram), there were metal shavings coming out of the hole. Right away I assumed the bolt itself was damaged which wasn't a big deal since it was being replaced. But I later realized that the threads in the engine block somehow stripped??? I placed a borescope down there to confirm my suspicion ... the threads are damaged. The bottom bolt pulls itself in but it would not even snug in, it sits there sort of loose. I would not trust for it to keep itself in there for long. Right now I am thinking either:
1) I only put in the top two bolts and forget about the third bottom bolt.
2) Drill into the head to fix it (really don't want to do that)
3) get a bolt thin enough to go all the way to the other end of the hole and to hold it down using a nut

Any opinions on what to do?

[E92William]

I would use the nut idea if it won't make contact with anything tbh. Putting a helicoil or something there would bring a lot of shavings in the engine

Probably last guy in there cross threaded it and just fucking sent it

[omadab]

Incase anyone was wondering I ended up simply installing it with the two top bolts and leaving nothing for the bottom. The sensor doesn't seat perfectly but the car drivers perfectly fine. Next time I go in there I'll figure out a solution, but for now it's working