Nice man. I'll give it another look over and re-tighten the bolts again.

Did your revs go up and down on your initial startup? Was there a lot of heat coming from the engine?

*** Edit - Started it up again, revs normaled out. Not loud as the first startup yesterday. Feeling better about it, tightened up some loose bolts. Engine seemed really hot, but my custom gauge was showing 115 degrees F. Will follow same process tomorrow and take it for a test drive. How long will the pipes continue to smoke /burn off?

 

There is a bolt holding the dipstick in place if this is an L67

 

We got it, boys. Test drove it and works fine. Firm handshakes all around to everyone.

 

Awesome to hear..

 

Curious, does anyone have any video of their Montes (either inside the cabin or video placed outside), driving around with their new headers and/or catback system? I wanted to make sure my engine / exhaust was flowing correctly, as around 10% throttle position, I'm hearing a noise that sounds differently than stock exhaust, but it's hard to explain.

Could just be my back headers are not on tight enough. I was having an issue with one bolt not going in all the way, maybe it was a shorter header bolt than the others.

 

I was looking at the picture you posted of your new header and I'm wondering if there's a gasket between the header and the cylinder head ? From looking at the picture it appears there isn't anything there which would explain it being loud and bolts not tightening correctly.

 

I can see how you can see that, and I will double-check when I get home. Good catch. I'm 90% positive I put it on there, but people have stated in the past that the ones that come with the headers are flimsy and awful.

Thanks for that, I'll do a quick check again and tighten some bolts if needed.

 

If your still having trouble with the bolts I would swap over to studs and jam nuts or nuts and lock washers

 

That picture indeed looks as if the gasket is missing but I do remember they have quite a bit of room to move around.

Does this mystery sound kinda sound like a zipper.

Something I want to mention (kinda useful) is that the header bolts are actually a nut on a bolt. You can bring the nut closer to the engine before tightening the headers down . The end of the bolt is hex.



Something I notice tho, in the left most bolt you can see in that pic.. Thats rounded at the end, all mine are hex except where the oil stick goes.. Idk, something to look at if youre having problems still.

 

You say zipper, I want to assume something along the lines of a lawnmower engine.

Interesting, never caught that. I actually have 2 extra header bolts left. One was for that extra space on the front of the engine, and the other one... I've no clue. I'm almost positive I've filled every hole, but will check again. Good call. That one bolt I was talking about on the back of the engine headers, it seems like a full on header bolt doesn't bolt all the way in, as it's too long. I bet that's it, as I'm using a smaller bolt that's different than the others.

Other than that, this thing is sounding great, especially at startup. Had a few face turns when starting up the Monte. No knock retard at all when going full throttle.