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Does anyone know what ft lbs the header bolts should be when attach to the head?
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What year. What engine
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Vaejovis Carolinanus wrote:
Does anyone know what ft lbs the header bolts should be when attach to the head?
My handy dandy shop manual tells me 20-22 in two steps starting with 15.
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289 1968 fastback
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I guess it really doesnt matter because I can not get torque wrench in there, No room. And I thought the lowering bracket was used in the front part of the power steering that has the belt attached but it is not going there. So where does it attach? Some pictures would be best. What do i do with these hard lines ? the header is not going to fit on this side without some real creative work . DAMN
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Maybe this thread will help you.
This was what I did to the Shorty JBA headers on my 351W.
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Vaejovis Carolinanus wrote:
I guess it really doesnt matter because I can not get torque wrench in there, No room.
That has been my experience with many things on these cars. Torque specs are great, and for some things they are very important (cylinder heads, intake manifold, flywheel, etc.), but for other things they just aren't that important... which is good because there's lots of places where it's just about impossible to get a torque wrench to fit.
Just get them "good-n-tight" but don't wring the heads off the bolts.... Or as my uncle used to say "that only needs to be monkey tight, not gorilla tight".
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Michael H. wrote:
Vaejovis Carolinanus wrote:
I guess it really doesnt matter because I can not get torque wrench in there, No room.
That has been my experience with many things on these cars. Torque specs are great, and for some things they are very important (cylinder heads, intake manifold, flywheel, etc.), but for other things they just aren't that important... which is good because there's lots of places where it's just about impossible to get a torque wrench to fit.
Just get them "good-n-tight" but don't wring the heads off the bolts.... Or as my uncle used to say "that only needs to be monkey tight, not gorilla tight".
Good Advice!
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Remember the shop manual was written for stock parts. Now we are talking after market headers with aftermarket gaskets. Not the same. Header bolts do quite often come loose, but most usually because as was said you can't get to them in a straight forward manner. So, prudent mechanics usually re-torque after the first couple of heat cycles.
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DC wrote:
Header bolts do quite often come loose.... So, prudent mechanics usually re-torque after the first couple of heat cycles.
True... and I try to remember to go back and re-torque header bolts every spring just for good measure.
Which reminds me, I was busy this spring and didn't do this. I'll have to do that this weekend.
Last edited by Michael H. (6/16/2016 3:54 PM)
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Best thing you can do to ensure the bolts don't back out is use lock washers and install a crossover pipe or H pipe that will kepbthe exhaust system from rocking back and forth, pivoting on the weakest link, which happens to be the header gaskets.
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