I have a 92' Ford Ranger Supercab with 2.9 V6. One of the three mounting bolt heads on the water outlet (thermostat housing) was sheared off. So water outlet is only attached with two bolts.

I have a stud remover to back out the sheared off bolt. Ford no longer stocks the bolts. But I believe a hardware guy at Copperstate found me the right replacement thread pitch with M6-1.0 X 16MM or 20MM.

But just in case, I should have a backup plan and standby part(s) in case other bolts break or in case replacement bolts don't fit.

If I am unable to reattach housing to upper intake manifold for some reason, I got problems. It's my only vehicle. As a worse case scenario, can that water outlet be temporarily soldered or bonded somehow to the aluminum upper intake manifold without any bolts?

Or should I consider having a couple helicoils on hand? And if so, what size? Thanks