[tm454]

I hooked my side pipes up the my headers and now notice a header leak. My question is this: should I tighten the header bolts with the header hot or cold? I think I remember my high school shop teacher telling us to tighten the header hot as it may crack cold?? Any suggestions? I am thinking I may be better off putting new gaskets all across and tighten down the header and fire it up and see if a combonation of tight header and new gasket solves my problem?


Todd


Rat Rods Rule!

[badknuckles]

ive done both hot cold you should tighten them twice i usually tighten them hot though. ive never heard of a header cracking
rat rods do indeed rule

[darom]

I would tighten up the headers when they are cold. For 2 reasons:
- to save my hands from burns;
- not to do it again when they cool down.

When the headers are hot, the metal expands. You tighten them up in this expanded condition, leave, the metal cools down, gets back to its original thickness. Your work is wasted (to some extent).

Just for an experiment try both ways: hot and cold. You will notice that after hot tightening them up, there will be some free play when they cool down.

Regards!
Denis
'67 Camaro RS