Thanks GMCtrk.


lol...well, let's put it this way... after spending 2.5 three day weekends just to drill out a broken bolt man ...it affects you man... utter bull I NEVER want to go through that again. And the best way to ensure that is to get a good set of bolts, and torque them properly. Too tight won't allow the metal to expand properly when heated and too loose will cause too much motion and cause them to snap as well.

Ok... and also, I need one final tip of help with this...

This f***ing bolt is lying on my desk here... if it was alive I'd torcher the bitch!! I want revenge man... revenge, so someone tell me what is the worst way to gain it? Should I leave it sitting in a pile of battery acid until it's utter decay? Or should I just dump it in a pile of Napalm and watch it melt like ice cream on a stove and laugh sadistically?

 

Thanks for the specs but...

LOL...wow... is that really the torque spec?? My plan was to use the bolts the headers came with while waiting for stage 8's that i'll order...

So... I hand-tighten all the bolts onto the headers...then start tightening the center bolt first with a torque wrench... with a bad feeling about it... and then SNAP. the son of a bitch snapped after less than 10ft-lbs of torque!! I flipped. I took the header off, took me 5 min to take the broken bolt out with extractors.

So now what?... I used a small ratchet and tightened it only lightly, perhaps torqued a little lower than before the first snapped.

Shouldn't these headers of came with something inexpensive, but at least a little sturdier?

 

Your header install seriously makes me not even want to attempt mine this weekend. I guess if I have any trouble I can look over this thread for ideas .

 

don't forget the anti-sieze on the new bolts!!

 

Well people, I'm finally done. Other than the cheap bolts the headers came with, and the RTV paste pacage blowing in my hands, installation went smoothly enough. Applied tons of anti-seize to all bolts and electric grease to all new plugs and wires. The headers did fit in pretty well.

However, I do have one area of concern, and that's the connection from the Y-pipe to the rest of the old exhaust. The flange doesn't seem to be the greatest fit. I applied lots of RTV as you can see but as much as it's no prob now, I'm concerned this may be a problem later. Both bolts are tightened to the maximum and both tube are connected properly where the bolts connect, but on the top/bottom of the connection, the fit isn;t great.

What do you guys think? worrying for nothing?

 

Never seize is your friend, never tooo much LOL.. Hey just be glad you didn't have coolant running out of your header bolt holes like I did..

 

Glad you finally got it done, what a nightmare. As for the connection from the y-pipe to the cat back, if it isn't leaking, don't worry about it. If it starts to leak, fix it. You could always get some new flanges welded on if necessary.

I've always done the header bolts by feel...pretty much do all bolts that way except for the important ones like head bolts, rod bolts, main cap bolts, etc. The problem with using the torque specs and a torque wrench in a situation like a header install, is that those specs are intended for a new fastener going into a perfectly clean hole, and in reality that usually isn't the case. Sometimes one bolt will go in tighter than another, and could "fool" the torque wrench and make it stop before it is actually seated. There are different specs depending on what kind of lubricant was used on the bolts also (especially for head bolts), as that will change the torque of the fastener. Start from the middle and make em effin tight