I just paid more for a set of bolts than I EVER anticipated I EVER would...

$60 after shipping...

I'm thinking, though, this will be the end of header bolts letting loose their grip.. I also have some straight up copper gaskets, as well as donuts...

Can you tell I've had it with this?

Here is a pic of the bolts... Has anyone used them yet?

 

If you really get fed up with them then you could just pull the motor and weld the headers to the heads. That thought crossed my mind on my Camaro.

 

Freakin' Hedman Headers.

If I had troublesome headers, I'd install Remflex gaskets and Stage 8 locking bolts. Ain't no kill like overkill!

 

I actually chose these bad bears:



OVER the Remflex.... do you think that is/was a mistake?

funny... I went with the headers before I got rid of that dang Y pipe.. People are going to think me nuts, but the gains were with getting rid of the OE junction, NOT the headers.. Had I opportunity to do it over, shorties wouldn't be on my rig, the stock mani's, or LT's would be.. Shorties, by themselves, don't account for much- and in my opinion, are NOT worth it.. swapping out the OE Y for a magnaflow, or Jegs offroad, IS..

these bolts should be the bombdigadee.. I was hoping someone else had used them.. If not, I'll report back on them..

 

You'll be the first Drew...I have heard (think it was Aims) that even the "mighty" Remflex gaskets gave him exhaust leaks.

 

It'll be a mistake if your bolts don't maintain compression on the gaskets right from the get-go. Unless there's some magic that's been invented since my last experience with copper gaskets, you get only one good go at the squishy-squishy, and if you somehow end up with too much (gasket) compression or a creased dent from mishandling it's game over. They won't burn through -- they'll just leak.

Well, yeah... nothing you might do upstream of the factory WHY? pipe is going to show much improvement, ya know?

I've never fooled around with the Split-Lock bolts but I like the idea of 'em. My only concern is how easily removable they'll be after four or five years. Is it possible to sneak some anti-seize between the locking widget and the main bolt? If so I might just give 'em a whirl myself.

 

drewactual --- any idea why you keep getting leaks? what is the root cause you figure?

 

root cause? - paper gaskets, and the nature of headers.. plus, I didn't use stage 8's from the get-go.. mistake..

the nature of headers I speak of is the design of the shorties.. they are DAMN difficult to torque properly.. I mean, after you crawl between the transmission and floor pan, and shimmy out to where you can balance a little on a wheel well (best performed by wrapping yourself around the cross-over pipe, and place your tools within grasp, it's not that hard.. my present hex heads are 10mm.. I need at least three wrenches to get to them- a socket is out of the question because the proximity of the primary tubes to the bolts head.. I need a regular wrench, then a 90* off set wrench, then a tiny wrench about 2~3" long.. you struggle to get the dang wrench on the head, then turn it about 5 mils (there are 6800 mils in a 360* circle)... then you swap wrenches and do it again, because teh points are in such an alignment that you can't get on them with the first wrench.. then you continue.. no less than 78.1 hours later, you have properly torqued headers.. or, so it seems.. I may be exaggerating, but not by much..

point is: paper gaskets, non-locking chromolly bolts, hard to get at to torque properly, equals leaks over time.. the paper simply can't hold up..

the design of bolt I purchased has a head actually smaller than the shaft.. I should be able to get a socket on it.. (glory to allah).. and the little sinker thingies, well, we'll see about those.. Unreg: I'll take a few close pics when I land them, and will check out some anti-seize..

I've never used straight copper gaskets.. ever.. I hope I didn't make a mistake, but I fear I should have just went with aluminum over felt.. the thick gooey kind.. a remflex, in other words.. I won't hesitate to swap them again if the dang thing give me grief.. it's been annoying me for far too long..

sheriff: the option you presented may yet be on the table.. these things are tweaking me, dude..

 

I hear ya on the wrench trouble deal. When I installed mine I had a Craftsman wrench that's designed to remove rounded off bolts and a regular combination wrench and millimetered it along (switching wrenches for each millimeter) until they were tight. When I took one off to fix a leak I modified a wrench and it made it ten times easier.

 

Stage 8 bolts are the way to go !