Exhaust manifold Gasket - nearly done, however...

[PaulyV]

Hi there,

Firstly, thanks for the great previous advice on changing the gasket - so far it has proved to be relatively straightforward, however a couple of issues have emerged.

Undid all the bolts without shearing - nice. popped in the new gasket and started to do up the old bolts.

The bolts themselves appear to be of a type whereby the nut is on the thread about 1/3 down - most screwed in fine holding on the manifold straight, however the left hand-side upper and lower seemed to want to keep going in at a slightly different angle to the other 6...

When trying to get the upper one in the nut started to turn on the bolt itself and eventually came off the top with the bolt left in the manifold/block.

Firstly I am going to get new bolts during the week, remove all the old bolts now we are not in a rush and try again, but 2 questions:

The design of the old bolts seems odd to me with the ability to have the nut screw off - any reason for this?

Also am I making any common mistake which might mean these left hand bolts are tough to screw in?

Sorry this was long-winded!

best

Pauly

[m-dtech]

designed like that for heat & vibration purposes from what i gather.

just replace them all, makes it much easier.

screw in the threaded bars first then fit gasket, manifold then nuts.

[eamo]

Pauly

your right to replace the nuts however make sure they are copper ones!

[PaulyV]

Ah, I see. The nuts were stuck on the bolts, so i thought for a while they were one piece. Now I understand - thanks alot.

best

Pauly