Hi guys! I have a 91 L98 formula with the dealer installed SLP kit for that year. The car has 41k miles and everything on there is original. It has SLP headers with the complete 2otl exhaust. Here is where my problem lies: One of the air tubes on the driver's side header cracked. I pulled the header, had the tube welded and began putting the header back into place when all hell broke lose. The bolt holes in the header would not line up with the holes in the head. Use a pry bar you say??? Did that and was able to get 1 bolt in on each flange. 1 bolt only!! The others would not go in. It looked like they were about 2mm off so the bolt went in very off center and would not catch the thread. This is even though I already had one bolt in on the same flange!!!! What the hell is going on?? I was about to burn my car in the damn garage!! Anyway, I ended up using 2 gaskets and leaving only one bolt on each flange for a total of 3. It does not leak but that dont make me feel any better. There were 6 bolts in there when I took the header off and for the life of me I dont see why this is happening. Some of you may say that the entire header warped from the welding.....I dont think that is the case because only the air tube was welded and the crack was very small. Someone please tell me what is going on here. Thank you, Alex

 

nm reread your post.

on the same flange, eh?

[This message has been edited by Jza (edited November 14, 2001).]

 

Sounds like it got too hot and warped, dude.
Right way to weld something like that is to bolt it onto a jig,similar to exhaust flange of head,before welding!
Someone may be able to fix it for you, but this too will require heat.
-Rich-

 

How about if you loosen up the colector bolts ? I betcha that will give you a lot more play so you can align them.

I wanna know how you got a bolt in each flange for a total of three! There's only one flange per header and you got.... two!

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1991 Z28 5.7 TPI

ZZ4 heads, ZZ4 cam, Harland Sharp roller rockers, Accel base, SLP siamesed runners, 52MM SLP Throttle Body, Hooker Headers, Flowmaster catback, MSD6A ignition, Home made ramair system, aluminum driveshaft, WC 5-speed etc

 

SLP headers have seperate flanges. One flange for each outer port, and one flange for the two center ports, for three flanges each header. I believe Hookers have a single flange.

I don't think the heat warped it, I think the weld joint contracting while it cooled pulled two flanges closer together.

 

The weld theory has merit, the only thing is that the only thing that was welded was the air tube. Could that cause the whole thing to warp? The very strange thing is that I got one bolt in on each flange (yes SLP's have three seperate flanges) No leaking with double gaskets and 3 bolts but im still not 100% satisfied.

 

Can you get two bolts in one flange? If so I would put two bolts in one flange and use it to align the others. I once used a tool that fit between the header pipes, in order to spread them out and align them to the head. I am not sure what you call it?

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91GTA 5.7liter needs paint, I rebuilt the trans, engine is moded but old