I just have a quick question. I have a 2001 gt with Ford Racing Headers. Will stock gaskets fit these headers? I already bought new gaskets from auto zone and I called ford for gaskets for the racing headers. It comes with two gaskets and the bolts and It cost 153$ +tax. Thought that was ridiculous.
Manifold Gaskets
- Thread starter ParatrooperDan
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Measure the exhaust port diameter in relation to the inside of the header. If you're not overlapping any, you're in business.
...and yes, $150 for header gaskets and bolts is retarded!
...and yes, $150 for header gaskets and bolts is retarded!
Recommend stage 8 locking bolts and Percy's dead soft aluminum gaskets. Never have one blowout and tick again and the stage 8 bolts will never back out. Just make damn sure you use a torque wrench on aluminum threads to evenly seat/compress the gaskets and not strip anything. Work from the inside out and set to minimum torque so that if you just need to go a smidge tighter to get the lock to line up, you can.
When have you ever been about to get a torque wrench on any aftermarket header? There isn't bloody room for a socket in there, let alone a big, bulky torque wrench.
1987stangman
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- Jul 12, 2006
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+1 on the Perceys gaskets. They are a must. I used to have issues with header gaskets blowing out on my old 87 GT and got a set of perceys and never had an issue. Getting headers on a fox Mustang is by far easier than our cars though.
The stage 8 bolts have an allen hole in the bolt to get an allen head socket in there. Use a baby 1/4" torque wrench and get it in there. Or... if you are going to do headers on a 4.6L you should be doing longtubes which means you should be dropping the K (and installing an aftermarket tubular setup if you are smart vs putting the stocker back in) which means you will have plenty of room to manuever. If you are putting shorties on you are wasting your time, the stock 4.6L manifolds are not restrictive like the headers on the pushrods were.
Call me crazy but there is no way in hell I am trying to use a calibrated wrist/elbow on a small fastener in an aluminum thread.
You certainly spend a lot of money on torquing a set of header gaskets. Hot rodders have been installing headers for decades with just the "good enough" turn of the wrist. Myself included.....no leaks. And I don't care how small your torque wrench is, you're not getting a socket on the rear bolts of the 3-4 and 7-8 hearder tubes on most off the shelf OHV headers. They just make too tight of a turn back there. The 4.6L engines offer a little more room, but it's still a whole lot of work for the same result.
....but hey, knock yourself out.
So basically you're saying, if a person pony's up $1,000+ for a complete tubular front end just to install a set of headers, then he's "smarter" than the guy that chooses to just loosen the mounts, jack the engine and tighten them by hand?
....makes perfect sense.
Like I said, guys have been doing it for decades using this method. If a person is tightening the headers so tight that they've stripping the threads out of their heads, then they should probably put the wrench down and call a professional. Torque them if you must, but I really think you're over-thinking this one. You can get pretty repeatable results with just your own wrist torque if you're not reckless. Like I said....it's your time and money to waste, but at the end of the day, your headers aren't sealing any better than mine are.
1987stangman
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LOL.... Using a tq wrench on header bolts has never once crossed my mind in all the 16 years I have been messing with Mustangs even if the engine was sitting on a stand in my garage.
Mattstang04
15 Year Member
You can get by using stock Ford manifold gaskets. I got Bassani's Mid Heades and that is what I used. They work just fine. I liked the idea of torquing the bolts to proper spec, but even with my tubular k member, I gave up on the notion rather quickly.
Everyone thinks they have a calibrated elbow/wrist until they strip a thread on an aluminum head. Oh well, not my car. And yes, if one is going to go through all the trouble to drop the K, IMO, one should probably swap it with something that isn't a giant heavy hunk of in the way metal. But again, that's just me.
I'm sorry, but anyone cranking down their header bolts hard enough to strip the threads out of an aluminum head is a retard, plain and simple. There's no way they need that much torque to seal the gasket. If you're stipping the threads in the head, then you've either cross threaded them, have a defective head, or are using header bolts that are too short. In which case you're just as likely to strip them out anyway, no matter what you use to tighten them down. Justify your "torque wrench" logic any way you wish, but you're dead wrong on this one if you think someone is doing it "incorrectly" because they aren't using one. There are far to many success cases that prove otherwise.
As far as the K-member goes.....well, you'll sure appreciate that "giant heavy hunk of in the way metal" in the event of a front end collision. They tend to hold up much better than the tinker toy like tubular K's. for street use. I'll choose safety and low cost over that little bit of additional room they give you to tighten your header bolts (generally a one time job) and weight savings that you would otherwise never notice any day of the week.
If someone has great luck using a calibrated wrist for years, more power to them, but I won't. And this would not be the first time I've been told I was wrong for always using one or even been asked if I kept my torque wrench in a purse because real men don't use them lol. I guess those manly guys have never used a 4 ft snap on unit for torquing aircraft wheels to 400+ but w/e.
I used to always have header leaks before I went to the Percy's gaskets/stage 8s and a uniform middle to outboard torque. Stage 8's don't back out and the Percys's are blowproof and I've had great luck with them. But if someone else has a way that works for them, it isn't like an overtorqued header bolt (or undertorqued) is going to cause any damage, just will sound like ass if it leaks.
I used to always have header leaks before I went to the Percy's gaskets/stage 8s and a uniform middle to outboard torque. Stage 8's don't back out and the Percys's are blowproof and I've had great luck with them. But if someone else has a way that works for them, it isn't like an overtorqued header bolt (or undertorqued) is going to cause any damage, just will sound like ass if it leaks.
I'm not faulting you at all for using the torque wrench. I and others may think it overkill, but it's not like you're doing anything wrong. It just seemed like you were faulting others for not using one....which is the stance I was defending.
I put my gaskets on the same way, with the same hardware and have always had equal success. The only set's I've ever had leak were on inferior headers (Yep....Mac) or inferior header gaskets (Yep....Mac again!!!). No amount of uniform torque was going to correct that issue.
I put my gaskets on the same way, with the same hardware and have always had equal success. The only set's I've ever had leak were on inferior headers (Yep....Mac) or inferior header gaskets (Yep....Mac again!!!). No amount of uniform torque was going to correct that issue.
