|
By 46yblock - 15 Years Ago
|
|
I was mounting a new Mummert Ramshorn today and found that on some of the bolt heads, there was too little clearance and my socket would bind up before bolt was seated. Think I read of other's similar difficulty but dont remember seeing solutions. Grind down socket, grind relief in manifold, use allen head bolts? John, anyone? A "crow's foot" doesnt work either.
|
|
By Rono - 15 Years Ago
|
|
I've had similar problems with other Y-Block headers (Red's Headers). I gave up on the conventional header bolts and went to "Stage 8" Locking Fasteners. They have both the hex and allen on the bolt head but use a lock that butts up against the tubes. i just get the bolts as tight as I can with whatever works (even an open end wrench) and then use the locks so they can't back out. They aren't cheap, but they seem to work so far. They have different locks for different applications, so if you order them from "Stage 8", make sure you tell them it's for a Y-Block.
|
|
By charliemccraney - 15 Years Ago
|
|
You can try header bolts. They usually have smaller diameter heads than regular bolts. ARP is one brand which makes them. The ones I'm using require a 5/16" socket
|
|
By 46yblock - 15 Years Ago
|
|
I hadnt thought about header bolts. Hopefully there are some in town that wont need to be ordered. 1/2 in. cap would probably work, 7/16 definitely. While watching TV I considered some longer studs with a heavy wall steel spacer. Think I saw some at the hardware store today. About the hardware store. I took the manifold in with me to make sure of needed lengths of new 3/8 in. bolts. Found what I thought I wanted and bought them. Got home, 20 miles away, and upon installation found them to be 7/16! I even had the glasses on! How many times do you need a 7/16 in. grade 5 bolt? At the checkout the younger lady asked what the manifold was for. Thinking here we go, I said it was for a '54 to '64 Ford pickup. She said cool, "I have a 1940 Ford pickup we built from ground up". The next stop after the hardware store was the muffler shop to get outlet flanges for the manifold. Showed it to the well seasoned owner and he said "that is an odd looking Chevy manifold".
|
|
By speedpro56 - 15 Years Ago
|
|
Advance auto etc. should carry header bolts with smaller heads.
|
|
By 46yblock - 15 Years Ago
|
|
I came up with one or two solutions. After checking all of the ebay listings for header bolts and not finding anything long enough, the plan of buying locally didnt look worthwhile. I looked at every bulk bin in the hardware store and came up with 2 inch. long cap screws, and collars, the type with allen head set screws. The collars are 3/8 ID, 3/4 OD, .378 thick. It seemed like a great HD washer once set screw was removed. The 3/4 in. OD is critical for any type washer, bigger wont fit. Brought them home and the OD of the collar is perfect for the machined recesses of the inner manifold bolts. It seemed like a little too much thread revealed, so with an HD flat washer .150 thick it looks good. They probably have 1/2 in. thick collars and then the washer wouldnt be needed. A regular 9/16 socket works with lots of room to spare. The second approach used 1.5 in. long grade 8 flange head bolts. The flanges are about .030 too wide, so by chucking into a drill and grinding on wheel, a diamter of .746 worked fine in terms of fitting into recess. The 9/16 socket still bound up, even though flanges are approx. 1/10th inch thick. Carefully ground a taper keeping it as true and even as possible on a vertical grinding wheel. It fit (and looked like a machine shop job, dont think I could repeat) and worked to tighten up. However I would be afraid to put too much torque on the socket for fear of it breaking.
|
|
By Ted - 15 Years Ago
|
|
How about 12 point headed flange bolts? These are available at the various nut and bolt stores in various lengths and for a 3/8” bolt, will use a 3/8” 12 point socket to install them. Here’s a Fastenal link. http://www.fastenal.com/web/products/detail.ex?sku=22865&ucst=t
|
|
By 46yblock - 15 Years Ago
|
|
Ferry Cap Screws (or was it Ferry Flange Screws) sound like a winner. Thanks Ted. I ordered two sets of 8, 1.5 in. long, so if anyone else wants a set let me know. They were only 91 cents each and very reasonable shipping. Grade 9.
|
|
By NM56F100 - 14 Years Ago
|
|
You can get header bolts from Sanderson and you can even get them ceramic coated.
|
|
By 46yblock - 14 Years Ago
|
|
Are header bolts available 1.5 inches long? The Ferry flange screws are here. Socket clearance is fine. The flanges are only slightly more than 1/2 inch wide, so ground down HD flat washers are still necessary. I had to grind down a sparkplug socket due to binding up with the manifold, and also on 2 or 3 of the sparkplug recesses in the heads. Finding the proper flat exhaust flange remains a challenge too. I had trouble on the OEM Rams Horns on my current engine, as well as this one.
|
|
By charliemccraney - 14 Years Ago
|
|
Header bolts are probably available in 1.5" lengths. I'm surprised you're having such trouble. Back when I had rams horns, I used hardware store grade 8 bolts and washers. They went on with no modification. I know there's more than one casting for rams horns. Maybe there's a difference it that area. Can John offer any assistance?
|
|
By 46yblock - 14 Years Ago
|
|
charliemccraney (1/6/2011)
Header bolts are probably available in 1.5" lengths. I'm surprised you're having such trouble. Back when I had rams horns, I used hardware store grade 8 bolts and washers. They went on with no modification. I know there's more than one casting for rams horns. Maybe there's a difference it that area. Can John offer any assistance?Charlie, I didnt have similar difficulty with the OEM Rams Horns which are mounted using studs, but hardware store bolts would have worked also. Maybe this thread will help someone else with installation. Several years ago Rick in WA (HT32BSX115) asked me if I was having some of these same issues. He had bought a new set of RH's. At the time I could only offer "NO", having only used the OEMs at that time. Regarding the header bolts: I looked at every offering on ebay, and there were quite a few, over 150. Didnt find any with 1.5 in. length. Also found that they could be quite expensive. The Ferry's were only around $14 for the required 8, which included shipping. Fed express delivered them 3 days after placing the order. I hope no one gets the idea that these great additions to the Y-block aftermarket are anything less than awesome.
|
|
By charliemccraney - 14 Years Ago
|
This should take you to the 3/8-16 header fastener section at Summit. There are 1.5 and 2" offerings, as well as studs.
http://www.summitracing.com/search/Department/Exhaust/Part-Type/Header-Fasteners/Thread-Size/3-8-16-in/?Ns=Rank|Asc
|
|
By 46yblock - 14 Years Ago
|
|
Checking out the Summit link, it looks like they do have one set of ARP 1.5 inch header bolts. $110! OUch As for studs, they would end up with the nuts giving the same interference as regular bolts.
|
|
By charliemccraney - 14 Years Ago
|
|
Oh, wait a minute, you have the bolts figured out, just looking for flanges now?
|
|
By 46yblock - 14 Years Ago
|
|
Yeah, with the help of Ted the bolts are figured out, and everything is installed. The flanges I have will work, but they arent the right ones. Had to grind out the inside diameter. The outside perimeter of the flange is way bigger than the manifold. It will work, but far from neat and tiddy. The local muffler shops didnt have much that would fit. The only things left to do before starting this engine up is to add coolant and drop a gas line into a gas container. Fingers crossed of course.
|
|
By HT32BSX115 - 14 Years Ago
|
I'm using studs.
I don't think I have a problem with the middle nut using a box wrench and either the brass nuts I have on it or flange nuts.....
I will check again though!
Here's the studs I used......
I may also do something like the following from ARP
|