exhaust studs??

[350Matt]

Has anyone tried the exhaust stud kits in a griff?

I'm getting fairly bored of chasing exhaust leaks in mine and can only think that the weight of the manifold canter-levered off the bolts can't be helping also a few of the threads in the head are bit iffy so this would rectify it.

However I'm concerned about the lack of room, is there enough to lift the manifold on and off the studs?

Matt

[spend]

I dont think there is clearance - it has been suggested before.

I would'nt worry about the weight - you can lift the engine with the manifolds so the bolts are pretty strong.

Smaller headed ARP bolts are the current vogue. But if your heads threads are fckd then only solution is to repair the threads...

Dave

[Barreti]

What Griff is yours Matt, I think the exhaust is different pre-cat vs serp
I reckon you could only move a pre-cat manifold 10mm from the head towards the wing before you'd got it stuck, so I doubt you could use studs.
I'm not surprised people have looked at this as an option though, getting the bolts in while holding the manifold is a real pig of a job, particularly all the lower bolts on the nearside

[Pasco]

spend said:

I dont think there is clearance - it has been suggested before.

I would'nt worry about the weight - you can lift the engine with the manifolds so the bolts are pretty strong.

Smaller headed ARP bolts are the current vogue. But if your heads threads are fckd then only solution is to repair the threads...

Dave

When i booted out the pre cats i tried in vain to fit a stud kit and as Dave says they will not fit a serp motor had to send the buggers back

[350Matt]

Mine is a 92 4.3, I wonder would it be possible to do the same as used on the cerbera's and cut slots in the manifold flanges so you can slide the manifolds onto the studs.......

And I'm not worried about the ultimate strength of the bolted joint, rather that I think studs would resist coming undone so readily and it takes the load away from the dodgy head threads so I can really jeff the fixings up

Matt

[David H]

I've just got a set of gaskets from Clever Trever, the look much stronger than all the others I've tried. Might be worth you going the same route.

[Barreti]

350Matt said:

Mine is a 92 4.3, I wonder would it be possible to do the same as used on the cerbera's and cut slots in the manifold flanges so you can slide the manifolds onto the studs.......

Matt

I'm not convinced abut this Matt, you'd still need to slide most of the exhaust past the first set of studs, which might be easy for the rearmost (4 or 8) manifold tubes but as the exhaust drops closer into place I think it may still foul or get trapped. Have you got the inner wing cutouts though, that would give you more room. I suppose only you can tell when you have the exhaust off.

[GreenV8S]

If you want to stop them from coming loose, you need longer bolts so you get more stretch. Obviously you would need to sleeve them to get any benefit. This would be OK for the top bolts, but I very much doubt you'd have space to do it on the bottom ones. Alternatively, fit thread inserts so you can afford to do the bolts up an extra squeak.