I bought a Mr Gasket intake manifold bolt kit. I tried to torque them to specs but some of them just kept turning, like they were stripped. I compared the bolt to an old stock one and it's definitely shorter than the oem one.
My question is this: Most of the bolts are snugged down quite nicely but a few aren't. It has to sit through the weekend before I can get new bolts. Will there be any harm to the gasket sealer if it sits for a few days not torqued to specs?

 

Intake bolts are standard bolts - nothing special at all. Why not just pop down to the local hardware store and get the right size bolts and be done?

In my experience with intakes and sealing - I've always put gasket maker on the ends, and let sit for about 2 hours to start to get hard (gets thick, kinda spongy, but not firm yet), then I put more on, and place the intake on the motor - letting it sit with it's own weight for a few more hours - then I start to torque the bolts down. I use the gaskets on the sides, and gasket maker on the front/back. If I ever do it any other way, it never seals.

So - in my experience, yes - it can't sit all weekend or it will harden too much, and won't compress and seal properly. But other have luck using the supplied rubber gaskets with nothing on them at all (I've never seen it personally though, I haven't that much luck).

 

Well, I figured the kit would be easy since I was at the store anyway for some other stuff. I will go to Fastenal, but can't until Monday. Maybe I should just use the nasty oem ones and torque them down until I can get to the store...

 

The gasket sealer will be OK. Except....

Sounds to me like your heads are fornicated. The threads have pulled out. Unlikely that putting longer bolts in will fix that.

You need to Heli-Coil the heads. Pretty simple & cheeeep, standard procedure really. You can pick up a kit at AZ, Advance, O'Reilly's, etc. as well as a REAL parts store such as NAPA or other such.

Not much chance of success without repairing the threads.

You can clean up the stock ones and re-use them; a little lacquer thinner and a wire brush, they'll look like new.

 

The heads are brand new.

I was able to torque down most of the aftermarket bolts and the ones I couldn't, I reused the stock bolts. Some of the oem bolts are different lengths, so I used the shortest of them, and now they are torqued down nice and tight.