Harmonic balancer bolt and other sources of frustration

[Terry S]

So here's the deal.

I was moving my 72 swb around in the driveway several months ago when I started noticing white smoke coming from both sides of the dual exhaust. So I say to myself; "Self old pal, what you've got here is antifreeze from a loose intake manifold. Not a problem, we'll just fix that right up when it gets a little warmer." The truck is undergoing major body work so it's not like I have to have it fixed in time for work on Monday.

Anyway, after several weeks I dig into this thing and, by using my Columbo-like powers of observation, I quickly eliminate all of the easy to fix (cheap) potential causes. When I got the heads off, I found a huge vertical scratch in the number 4 cylinder bore where it ate God-only-knows-what. So I say to myself (slightly less optimistically) "Not a problem, you were planning to freshen up the motor some day anyway, this summer will be a good time to take it .030 over and maybe even go with a hotter cam...hey, what's this little .040 that's stamped in the top of each piston?#$!!!." Oh, by the way, the white smoke was coming from not one but two cracked heads

So anyway, I used this engine along with a virgin bore that needed to be sleeved (that one had 305 heads on it when I got it???) for a core on a rebuilt .030 over 350 with a nice cam.

That brings me to the reason for this this thread. I got my new engine back from the shop last week, so after my wife and kids went to bed last night I snuck out to the garage and spent until the wee hours painting it up pretty and hanging accessories. About 3:00 a.m. I was installing the harmonic balancer with a long bolt and managed to pull out a heli-coil insert right out of the end of the crank (suprize!)

I'm going to call the local shop that did the rebuild and see what they want to do, but I would like some input from you guys as well; What are the chances that they can put another heli-coil in it? Should I push to have the crank replaced. I really don't want to have to take everything apart again, but better now than later if it comes to that.

All input is appreciated