[Excaliber]

He's got perhaps an inch of original thread left, plus even the damaged thread area will help with the grip. The torque is only 85 lbs. There is some risk to a insert of any kind of repair, and you get a limited number of times to make such a repair. All things considered, I'd be tempted to give this repair method a shot before I risked getting into a more substantial repair of the block. You could always do an insert in the future if it just didn't hold over time. I'm betting it WILL hold though...

One possible caveat. I have to remove one or two head bolt studs to gain clearance to remove my head with the engine in the car. If thats the case, you have to go with an insert of some kind.