Repairing a stripped manifold bolt hole

[lukecp]

One of the exhaust manifold bolt holes is stripped on my truck. Because of that, i keep blowing exhaust gaskets right there (i have headers and have been using manifold gaskets).
The bolt will get fairly tight, then slip if i try to tighten it anymore.

Not only is it annoying to lisetn to the exhaust leak, but i think i may be getting a small amount of exhuast leaking into the cab...defenitly not a good thing.

So, what would be the easiest way to repair this? I'm thinking Heli-Coil maybe?

It looks like that if i drop out the inner fender i can get a straight shot at the hole with a drill.....or is this something i will have to use a drill press for? I really don't want to yank the head......right now i don't have the time to do it, and a shop to work in, and a head removal in the middle of January would defenitly be a huge PITA.

It also looks like i might be able to get away with running a larger sized bolt in the hole, if i use a small spacer (about 1") to place the bolt head farther away from the header tube so it would be able to thread in without hitting.

Any help is greatly appreciated