[whiteboycustom]

yea i had a bolt back about half way out already keep on top of them and if its ticking and u have the bolts tight theres a leak somewhere, best way is to get a hose and put it to ur ear and move it around by the motor to hear for it

[Tony_90fox]

my buddy said one or two could have already come loose. he said he fussed with his for 2 weeks, but it was fine after that. I will tighten them down again tomorrow, i have to go get the hangers for my mufflers put on. right now they are just hanging on with some good ole wire...but it sounds great, just ticks the tinniest bit.

i will do the hose thing too man. Thanks for the advice and help!

[mikebert]

I think that's true with every header, really. They do get very hot (duh, right?) and it's just that period of a week or two where you need to keep a wrench handy.

Not to mention, when you're like me with a lowering kit and some crooked muffler, you hit every damn thing in the road and keep knocking those headers around and it doesn't matter. . ..not that I'm mad or anything.

[shurb125]

I was also told the same thing, when I installed mine I put a dab of loc tite on the header bolts to help prevent them from backing out. I'm glad you mentioned this I need to check mine and see if any are lose.

[mikebert]

Ssh. . .don't tell the forum elders, but I drive around with 2 or so header bolts missing. F'ing low hanging exhaust. . .

[Tony_90fox]

^^forum elders...That just made my day man...Good one! Thanks for confirming this info, it just makes me feel better you know.

[mikebert]

Yeah, I had a relative come over who was a mechanic to help me in my desparate times after my last build up and he looked at one bank of headers and said 'Did you know this header bolt is missing???'. Since we were trying to troubleshoot an "exhaust leak" at the time I had to act all surprised. "What?! No! You think we can work around that?" etc.

So he looked at the other bank and said "This side is missing a bolt too!" I figured I had already played my "shocked" card, so I went for mad that time "What the fuck?! Dumbass exhaust system!"

For trivia's sake, the "exhaust leak" had nothing to do with the headers and everything to do with the thermactor holes, but that's another story. The moral of this story is don't worry too much about those header bolts. I can't remember having all 16 since I got the car 4 years ago.

[Tony_90fox]

so you are saying that loose header bolts arent causing the ticking?

[mikebert]

"Ticking" is a relative word. Especially when used over the internet.

Of course they could be, but I can't guarentee you. I don't think you would say that loose exhaust parts make a "ticking" sound. I think ticking usually means a small bit of metal is striking another metal surface. If the headers are loose, then the relatively large metal bracket will rattle against the exhaust bank of the head.

Of course, the header may be warped ever so slightly and you hear a tick, etc. I'm just saying you don't need to lose sleep over the bolts themselves. It's almost 2:30 in the morning, so I don't feel like reading back through all the posts in the thread, but have you tried listening with mechanic's stethoscope? It would help you isolate where the sound is coming from.

[GTXRacing]

Originally Posted by mikebert Ssh. . .don't tell the forum elders, but I drive around with 2 or so header bolts missing. F'ing low hanging exhaust. . .

Don't feel bad man, I'm tired of knowing I have bolts missing, I'm ready to take the damn pipes off and run open header