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.

Mike, located in the Siskiyou mountains, Southern, OR 292 powered 1946 Ford 1/2 ton, '62 Mercury Meteor, '55 Country Squire (parting out), '64 Falcon, '54 Ford 600 tractor.

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.

  Ron Lane,  Meridian, ID

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


Lawrenceville, GA

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".

Mike, located in the Siskiyou mountains, Southern, OR 292 powered 1946 Ford 1/2 ton, '62 Mercury Meteor, '55 Country Squire (parting out), '64 Falcon, '54 Ford 600 tractor.

Advance auto etc. should carry header bolts with smaller heads.

-Gary Burnette-

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. 

Mike, located in the Siskiyou mountains, Southern, OR 292 powered 1946 Ford 1/2 ton, '62 Mercury Meteor, '55 Country Squire (parting out), '64 Falcon, '54 Ford 600 tractor.

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

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

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. 

Mike, located in the Siskiyou mountains, Southern, OR 292 powered 1946 Ford 1/2 ton, '62 Mercury Meteor, '55 Country Squire (parting out), '64 Falcon, '54 Ford 600 tractor.

You can get header bolts from Sanderson and you can even get them ceramic coated.

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. 

Mike, located in the Siskiyou mountains, Southern, OR 292 powered 1946 Ford 1/2 ton, '62 Mercury Meteor, '55 Country Squire (parting out), '64 Falcon, '54 Ford 600 tractor.