Torque on the manifold Bolts
Once all 10 intake manifold bolts are hand threaded as far as they'll go, tighten them down with a wrench and then torque in the order shown in the picture on the left. You need to torque these down in a 2-pass fashion..the first pass, tighten to 44 INCH-lbs, then, on the 2nd pass torque them to 89 INCH-lbs. Again, note those specs are in INCH lbs. If you don't have an inch pounds torque wrench, just tigthen the bolts hand tight...its only about 7 ftlbs of torque on that final pass and the intake seals with rubber gaskets so its doesn't need much pressure at all to seal.

**I'm guessing this is where you say you meant the exhaust manifold bolts...**
If so, those bolts are 18ft lbs
Welcome OP, good answers available here, including from the gents above. FWIW ls1howto has a lot of good info, but double check everything you can by searching this site. Google works better than the site search.
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The torque "spec" is really more of a FACTORY thing, than a "must follow" out here in The Real World. In the factory, they have automatic (or nearly so) assembly tools, and they have to have SOME setting or other. But out here, all we need to do is, make sure they're TIGHT ENOUGH to properly compress the rubber and seat thoroughly against the sleeves, but not TOO TIGHT such that we strip the threads. Obviously the factory spec gets us there. Butt, understanding what we're REALLY DOING, as opposed to merely worshipping The Book, helps illuminate reality, and dissipate the hunger for Revelation.
I'd suggest starting over with new intake gaskets and new those rubber bushings.
I'd suspect something went sideways at your initial assembly, and it's too far gone to recover. It needs new at this point. The System is really quite reliable if something didn't slip out of place or whatever. That's why they designed it that way.DO NOT use RTV. It dissolves in gasoline. Just use the parts in the kit, ALL OF THEM, with a little white lithium grease on everything including the bolt threads.
Incidentally, the "89" number is just, 35 metric units, converted to Imperial. Kinda like the 22 you see for rocker bolts: that's just, 30 N-m, out to 2 decimal places. These motors are metric at the factory.
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Make sure the bottom of the intake isn't hitting anything, steam tubes, etc.
Spray the cylinder heads with WD40
Use blue loctite on the intake bolts
Do the first pass at 45 inch lbs
Second pass at 89inch lbs
Use a quality torque wrench.
Overtightening the bolts WILL NOT damage the intake. Only (potentially) the heads.
and dont re use the gaskets.....get new
I've started using orange loctite instead of blue. The orange stuff is badass and is perfect for something like this.














