you're going to have trouble putting them on regardless of what they are. the point is not to have them keep backing out BECAUSE they are a pita to tighten over and over lol

 

Can't you use some locktite? Also, why the heck are these things so much trouble, why not use the stock bolts?

 

stock bolts are a couple different sizes, for headers they're all the same size. look at the first to last bolt from right to left and you'll see why they're a pita. when i got mine the bolts were low quality and were the wrong size so i got some grade 8 bolts but i think i should have gotten som header bolts instead looking at all the rust.

 

stage 8 bolts are totally worth it, i had my headers done at a shop ,m and he saw the bolts , and said he was really happy i got them , because others will fall out and leak and , then your going to need new gaskets ,bolts , maybe a warped header, so in the long run its just good to pay the extra money for them

 

I never realized having headers could be such a problem. I have the stock set up so I have never messed with it. I also don't understand why the heck the header manufacturers made them so freaking hard for people to work with them. I mean, cheap bolts, weird set up, bolts that are blocked, that really sucks. They really should come powder coated or something, that amount of rust is just not really acceptable. The stock exhaust system always get a nice pink coat of rust on it, but I have never heard of bolts coming loose on those, or the manifolds warping either.

I think these headers could have been designed better. We have plenty of room under the hood to allow pipes to flow more freely than that. I was surprised on my Mustang that it actually comes with stock headers. They are free flowing exhaust manifolds really, but all the pipes flow out in a nice even direction towards the back and come to a meeting point, (each port has a separate pipe coming out) the should have done something like that.

 

you can get ceramic coated headers but i got mine for 150$ on ebay so they're just plain old stainless (t304). the reason they put that last pipe in the curve is so the each burst of exhaust hits the collector at the right time and its so close to the rest of the pipes so it'll fit in the engine bay.