The pains of living with manifolds...time for headers?
12-28-2013, 12:56 AM
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The pains of living with manifolds...time for headers? Well while looking underneath the car today I found that the head is missing from the last bolt on the back of the passenger side manifold. 
Really didn't want to see that happen. This car's been in my family since new and its first owner, my uncle had a cracked manifold, same side. My dad helped him replace it, he snuck it out the bottom and swore he never would do one again. Well now its many years later and I own the car. Seems these manifolds are alot of trouble, or maybe its just bad luck. Am I on borrowed time until the gasket blows out? Or the fact that its the very last bolt giving me extra time to not worry so much? It would be nice to upgrade to headers, I've shopped around before but never pulled the trigger since its best to leave those old rusty bolts where they were. I was thinking MAC or BBK shorties or mid-lengths, emissions legal with plenty of clearance, ceramic coated, and with a y pipe to bolt up to my single cat system. Do headers bring more headaches than manifolds? I ran edelbrock TES ceramic coated shorties on my 87 monte and loved em, spark plugs were easy and I never roasted a wire really.
Really didn't want to see that happen. This car's been in my family since new and its first owner, my uncle had a cracked manifold, same side. My dad helped him replace it, he snuck it out the bottom and swore he never would do one again. Well now its many years later and I own the car. Seems these manifolds are alot of trouble, or maybe its just bad luck. Am I on borrowed time until the gasket blows out? Or the fact that its the very last bolt giving me extra time to not worry so much? It would be nice to upgrade to headers, I've shopped around before but never pulled the trigger since its best to leave those old rusty bolts where they were. I was thinking MAC or BBK shorties or mid-lengths, emissions legal with plenty of clearance, ceramic coated, and with a y pipe to bolt up to my single cat system. Do headers bring more headaches than manifolds? I ran edelbrock TES ceramic coated shorties on my 87 monte and loved em, spark plugs were easy and I never roasted a wire really. 
12-28-2013, 08:14 AM
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Plug access may be easier with headers. Stock gaskets were steal so it probably will not blow out. I replaced my manifolds with Edelbrock shorties only after a year of owning the car so I have no idea what you'll be up against rust wise. Probably would be a good idea to have PB Blaster or equiv and an impact when taking off the flanges and such. Is it leaking? If not, and you don't want to do it, don't fix it unless it starts leaking.
12-28-2013, 09:55 AM
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yeah that's what I plan on doing fixing it when I actually need to, I could get away with it for months maybe years. I would just hate seeing the car get the manifolds put back on it. I had a bunch of money saved for paint thats happening in two weeks and I didn't want to use it for other things, also my ECBM went bad the same day, but I'm getting a new one from a guy who parts them out for 50 bucks.
12-28-2013, 10:03 AM
#4
I had that same bolt broken on my manifolds, ran them that way for years with no leaks. There's some heat stress issue with those back bolts, alot of guys report them to be broke.
If you go with headers they use another unused bolt hole that you can't see under the manifold, so don't stress about removing the broken bolt from the head.
If you go with headers they use another unused bolt hole that you can't see under the manifold, so don't stress about removing the broken bolt from the head.
