2001 Mazda Tribute V6 3.0 Liter (Duratec manuf. near Cleveland, Ohio) 165K. Bought 7/2015 as a backup vehicle. Previous owner treated it badly. Most of the kinks worked out at this point. Just one or two to resolve. This kink is about the valve body point of attachment to the upper intake manifold. The valve body is attached by 3 bolts (M6 x 30) and 1 stud with two nuts. The previous owner ripped two of the brass female thread inserts out from the plastic housing by over-torquing them, and threw them away, leaving only two bolts to hold the unit on. With the two remaining fasteners left and a new gasket in place, it is not creating a vacuum leak, but as the new gasket settles in, it will leak. My question is this: Where to find the brass female thread inserts and replacement stud and bolts? New upper intake unit for a Ford Escape (same thing as a Mazda Tribute engine) is about $250.00. Crazy. Checking with the junk yards, every manifold I found has the same problem, so far; and they also chunk the bolts and nuts, etc. Not a good fix. Anyone here have a good fix with photos and sources?

My take is "either do it right or do not do it at all."