ok, putting new intake gaskets on. need help bad!! i took the intake off and just about all the bolts were loose, now when i put it back together my 8 corner bolts all tighten up nice and snug, however, the 4 center bolts don't tighten at all and they are a 13mm instead of a 15mm... is this the way it's suppose to be or not? someone please let me know asap so i can take care of it if i need to change anything......

pictures included....
1. good corner bolts, 15mm, tight
2. small center bolts, 13mm, still spin
3. back out picture

 

I'm thinking that the smaller head on the four inside bolts is for ease of wrench access. I know you're using the smae bolts that were in there in the first place, but why then are the center bolts "still spinning"? I see you put in a Fel-Pro gasket so it cant be much if any thicker. So did you tighten the outside eight bolt and then try to install the cener ones? I find that If I just start all twelve wiothout tightening any I can usaully get them all going. The intake slides around a bit and maybe the centers are just not lined up.

 

yeah, tried to start them all at the same time, the short ones started, but then as i jumped around to tighten them all, the 4 center ones never would tighten down, pulled them back out to check if i stripped them and they are all still good.... i'm lost.... got it all back together and started it and ran it a bit to get the timing set (didn't want to run to long cause of water in the oil) but it didn't leak...... just plain lost... LOL

 

Short one's? Not sure what that's about. What year are the heads? Did you put the Edelbrock on in the first place? Sorry for all the questions, just tryin' to get a feel.

 

didn't mean short, meant small.
86 are the heads and block
No I didn't put the intake on originally

no problem, keep askin....

going to the car show here in town now....2010 CAMARO IS THERE!!!

i will get posts on my phone but can't reply on my phone... just thought i'd let you know.

let me know if you can think of anything.....

 

The new Camaro? Kewl. OK, as far as I know, ALL of the intake bolts on all of my sbc's, and they are all 86 and older, are 3/8-16 with 1 inch of thread. So the "small" bolts are all in the middle and you can start the thread huh? Interesting. Is it only the bolt head that is smaller? I like to use the ARP set, they have a 3/8 head, and even the middle bolst are easily accessable with my box end 3/8 wrench. I guess they cost around 20 bucks at Jegs. I don't know what you have in OK, but usually Advance Auto Parts, CSK out west, might have a set, or they can get it next day. Luckily I can go the Jegs store. Yeah, that's cool.

 

dude,if youre saying the center bolts you are using are smaller diameter and wont tighten i think you just about stripped your head bolts out. i dont know of any chevy sb head that uses small diamtere bolts. 1 size for all. now you mught have a smaller head for the center ones but if they are indeed a thinner diameter they aint tighening because theyre stripping out. i may have felt like it screwed in but what may have happened is the smaller bolt was catching the outer rim of the head threads and when you went to torque em the material wasnt enough to hold the bolt in and you just pull the bolt thru the threads.

 

you know you guys really don't make a guy feel good about himself on here too much do ya... hahahahahahaha

thanks for all the advise, going to pull a part tomorrow sometime to see what they have on their motors there, who knows, maybe they just felt tight taking them out from being in there so long... but thank you to everyone that posted anyways!

'preciate it!
Chris

 

ok, oil is changed, gasket is changed, and even with those bolts not tight, i still don't have a leak anywhere so hopefully it will take care of me to get to work and then to the junkyard for one day. taking it out on a test drive here in a bit (gotta clean up and change AGAIN...) so we'll see how she does...

thanks again for everyone's help!

 

if it was a t.p.i motor 88 and newer they make a special intake the heads are diff. and the middle bolts are flat thats why your binding on a regular small block intake look at edelbrock on line in intakes.

 

badohio,
Chris mentioned in an earlier post it is an '86 block and heads and in the photos it appears to be the correct intke so the bolts should all be 3/8-16 x 1 inch. He also mentioned that he did not originally install the current intake. So...

 

That's my experience, although some of the later models would use smaller heads. All of those heads look like 9/16" to me. I've never seen 15mm heads on SBC intake manifold bolts (9/16" is slightly larger than 14mm, but smaller than 15mm).

Check the shank size. If not 3/8", they aren't the right bolts.

 

ha ha hahahahahahahahaha THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SAYING THAT.... I'M SO GLAD I READ THE REST OF THE POSTS BEFORE "QUOTING" HIS...... PRECIATE IT....

Anyways, all seems to be ok, took it out for a little drive and she's still not leaking, even put some decent torque on it too and still no leak..... so i hope we are good to go....

now all i have to do is prefect my home-made secondaries linkage and i'll be good!! lol "put some torque on it" meaning that I went to hammer on it and my man-made linkage stuck the throttle WIDE FREAKIN OPEN! ran about 6K before she shut down!! LOL

THANK YOU FOR ALL THE HELP THOUGH, REALLY APPRECIATE IT MAN!