airborne22

I can't seem to get one of my lt bolts threaded onto my driver side head! If I don't put it on will my exhaust leak??? Or does anyone have any ideas of how to fix this? Thanks

airborne22

come on I know someone here knows!

Davojan59

im pretty sure it will leak but im no expert....see man i wish people would give more help with some replies to technical posts like this one but its very sad that people with neon and body kit questions get like 3 pages of replies about the same garbage, and people that really need help cant get it...makes me wanna go to another mustang forum....i feel ur pain man i didnt get many replies either.

SmallFeesh

What exactley do you mean you cant get it threaded? Are the threads bad? Is it to tight to get in there with the wratchet? And yes... you will probably have an exaust leak!

kecclest

It sounds like you aren't lining up correctly...You might need to separate the header tubes a bit to get the bolt to line up... I didn't have this problem, but I have seen a tool that you can use that will separate the tubes to bend the flange just enough to line up the holes correctly. If it isn't that, and you and the bolt goes in but doesn't tighten, you musta stripped the hole(probably unlikely), if that is the case, you will need to rethread the hole and upgrade to a larger diameter bolt.
Sorry I can't help more.

airborne22

thanks guys yea i dont know.... i starts to thread and then just comes back out.... beats me just tried moving to the egr tube (not any luck there either....)

clarehills

"thanks guys yea i dont know.... i starts to thread and then just comes back out.... beats me just tried moving to the egr tube (not any luck there either....) " -

You mean it threads and starts to screw in but after a while it starts to come out again even though you continue to turn it clockwise?

If that IS the case it must be f'ed up threads in the hole, get a self tapping bolt that is one size larger, any good bolt store will know what you need if you bring in the old one.

If that IS NOT the case then you might just have grit or something in there, when this happens to me I put my thumb nail into the start of the threads and start to twist the thread, this will help you find any obstruction on the bolt itself including cross threading. If this is not the issue I would then clean the bolt as well as humanly possible and gently try to thread it back in, as soon as it encounters resistance unscrew it and take a look at the top of the threads and see if there are any deposits, might be a dirty hole. I have not changed headers myself so I am not sure if it is safe to spray degreaser or brake cleaner into the hole to clean out crap - maybe someone else can comment there?

Hope that helps somewhat - good luck dude

Pitt

Are you using your original header bolts or bolts that came with new headers? If you are using new bolts...try to screw in an old bolt to clean the thread....if the same thing happened to you as it did to me then you probably messed up the beginning of the thread by trying to screw in the bolt, your thread should still be good. The original boltsare like coned shaped at the beginning. When you screw it in a bit, take it back out and then try to screw in your new bolt by hand....never start the threads of a bolt with a ratchet or a tool, always hand start the thread unless its in a very hard to reach area, ie: passenger side top rear bolt (PITA!!) Good luck.

bb 460

Definitely don't get a bigger self tapping bolt at try and screw that in there. You may have to unbolt the header and try to screw in an old bolt. If that don't work get a heli-coil kit for the head. It taps it out to a slightly larger size and then you insert a steel coil that will be your new threads. Just remember the it's pretty easy to f*** up a head because of a stripped hole.

airborne22

thanks guys.... I got it in there. I had to take the whole header off again (that was the last bolt i had to do) becuase that was going to be the easiest way to get the egr tube back on!!! now thats a PITA!! but thanks again