Oil pan fun! Cross thread bolt

[SD-KC]

Hey everyone,
Everything was going as well as you'd expect from doing this fun job. 24 of 25 bolts are hand tight ready to be torqued to spec. #25 is giving me trouble. The bolt is located on the back of the pan and is the passenger side bolt next to the flywheel. If you recall there are two bolts back there on the straight section of pan. I used a paper gasket and The Right Stuff on both sides of the pan.
This bolt is wanting to cross thread. It goes in about halfway and then you can feel it start to veer.

I wanted to post this question with more knowledgeable people before proceeding.

1. Is there a way to press on the bolt to realign as you tighten so it corrects itself as it is fastened?
2. If the remaining 24 bolts are torqued to spec, would this missing one (assuming i can't get it to spin into the hole without cross threading) result in leaks with this gasket combo listed above?
3. Is there a method or tool, like thread in a #9 or #8 size bolt, to realign this bolt?
4. Should i remove everything and re-tap this hole?

thanks all, I'm really hoping the solution isn't number 4. Fingers crossed

Sd

[roguetoaster]

Add a few washers and call it a day, just so long as there is some clamping load it will be fine. You might also check that there is not an obstruction in the bore, or that you don't have a wrong sized bolt for the hole. A final dire solution might be to cut small slashes perpendicular to the bolt threads to make a sort of ersatz thread chaser, but with those bolts the chances of that working are slim.

[twright]

Is the bolt bad? If you use a new bolt, does the problem go away?

If a new bolt doesn't fix it, run a proper sized tap in that hole and see if that fixes it.

[SD-KC]

I did try swapping bolts and either one will want to cross thread. I like the idea of the washers. Considering that the proper torque for the pan is 10 ft/pounds.

[McGyver]

can you get a tap or thread chaser in there to try to correct the threads?

I wouldn't leave a bolt out, even if that means pulling the pan and having to put on another gasket.

[TobyB]

I did try swapping bolts and either one will want to cross thread. I like the idea of the washers. Considering that the proper torque for the pan is 10 ft/pounds.

uhhh, 10 ft-lbs makes my hand- mounted torque wrench go all squiffy. I wouldn't use a torque wrench on an M6 bolt unless it was calibrated in inch-lbs... and was a beam type.

t
would run a tap into it. Carefully.

[SD-KC]

I ended up using the washers. It's now got oil in the pan and the front wheels are off the ground, i don't see any seeps so i think that worked. Just one of those things where taking an extra minute or two would have solved a lot of headache.