Some of you might remember on my last trip to the track I got a cracked windshield and sprung an exhaust leak. Well I did one of those $12 home repair kits on the glass and it came out pretty good. Not perfect, but pretty dang good for $12. Finally had time to pull my exhaust tonight. I had tried to loosen and re torque it a few times but couldn't get it to quiet down, so I figured I blew a gasket. Turns out I was right, the #8 port was blown out the bottom so that's why it sounded like the collector was the source. Bolts were loose on the driver's side as well. So much for stage 8's I guess. Passenger side was sealed up nice and tight, so I guess the slight tick I always heard was coming from the collector. Figure I'm going to order a set of BBK LT's for it. I am kinda antsy about installing them though since I have one of those huge Mcleod scatter shields, but I don't DD the car anymore so I can take it easy.
Did Some Exploratory Surgery.
- Thread starter LarsD
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I cant remember the brand name, but I ran those gasket that have a 50% crush to them, and never had another leak or backed out bolt again on two different sets of heads. I would swear by them.
One of my buddies had BBK LT's on his '93 notch. Absolute pain in the ass when we pulled his transmission. Almost no clearance between the C4 bellhousing and the BBK LT's. We literally had to rotate the transmission counter-clockwise 45 degrees to gain enough clearance to drop the trans, and that was with one of the headers completely unbolted from the head! If someone were to give them to me, I would literally throw them in the dumpster.
You talking about the copper gaskets that crush when you tighten them? I had these on my MAC 1-3/4" Ceramic Long Tubes and never leaked ever. I retightened them a few months later, all was well. Long tubes are great.
copper gaskets ftw! I used these and never leaked. switched to conventional gaskets on my rebuild and they leaked after a few thousand miles.
In the day of my youth I was an aircraft mechanic, so I still do some things that way. The bolt heads were drilled with a #52 drill bit (about .040) using a drill press and lots of WD40 to cool the bit. The head is drilled with the holes in a cross pattern at 90 degree angles to each other.
The bolts are 3/8 -16 thread stainless steel Allen head, 7/8" or 3/4" long depending on the thickness of the header flange that is on your headers.
I bought a 5/16" Bondhus Balldriver Allen wrench, it works like a universal joint. You can tighten up the Allen head bolts at 15-20 degrees off center angle and still get everything tight. Cut the "L" part off the wrench with a cutoff wheel and stuck the straight part in a Allen socket. This works great, cause the Allen heads are smaller than even the 12 point bolt heads, and with my fancy tool I can tighten them up with a torque wrench.
Torque the bolts down and pull off about 12" of .032 stainless steel safety wire. Thread the wire through 2 holes, or just one if the other one is blocked by the header pipe. Pull the wire through until the ends are even. Twist up about 2" with your handy-dandy safety wire twister pliers, making sure that the wire pulls the bolt tighter as it routes across the header pipe. Make sure the twist ends at the wire hole in the next bolt, and that it pulls the bolt in the tightening direction. Thread it through and twist up about 3/4"of wire on the other side of the hole and cut it off evenly. Fold it over about midway so that the sharp end doesn't stick you.
The safety wire takes about 10-15 minutes a header pipe to do right and make it look good. The driver's side is easy, but you have to remove the mass air & smog pump air plumbing on the passenger side to have room to work.
The bolts are 3/8 -16 thread stainless steel Allen head, 7/8" or 3/4" long depending on the thickness of the header flange that is on your headers.
I bought a 5/16" Bondhus Balldriver Allen wrench, it works like a universal joint. You can tighten up the Allen head bolts at 15-20 degrees off center angle and still get everything tight. Cut the "L" part off the wrench with a cutoff wheel and stuck the straight part in a Allen socket. This works great, cause the Allen heads are smaller than even the 12 point bolt heads, and with my fancy tool I can tighten them up with a torque wrench.
Torque the bolts down and pull off about 12" of .032 stainless steel safety wire. Thread the wire through 2 holes, or just one if the other one is blocked by the header pipe. Pull the wire through until the ends are even. Twist up about 2" with your handy-dandy safety wire twister pliers, making sure that the wire pulls the bolt tighter as it routes across the header pipe. Make sure the twist ends at the wire hole in the next bolt, and that it pulls the bolt in the tightening direction. Thread it through and twist up about 3/4"of wire on the other side of the hole and cut it off evenly. Fold it over about midway so that the sharp end doesn't stick you.
The safety wire takes about 10-15 minutes a header pipe to do right and make it look good. The driver's side is easy, but you have to remove the mass air & smog pump air plumbing on the passenger side to have room to work.
