Its impossible. I have Hooker Long Tubes with a new felpro gasket and ARP 3/8 bolts, and they just dont go in, or the ratchet/wrench is too big to screw them in. the header tubes are too close to get a tool in there. I seriously spent 3 hours with 3 friends, im going crazy. is there an easy way to do this?

 

if they wont line up with the holes youll probably need to grind the holes a bit bigger... If your problem is that you just cant screw them in, then go to the stor and get a 3/8 deep socket with the smallest drive you can, it should fit right next to the headers.. thats what i did, for the rest you can get a tiny 3/8 open ended wrench..

 

i personally couldnt fit my hands in there to tighten some of the passenger side bolts, may need to find a set of smaller hands

 

They will go in, trust me. Its just a bitch to do it. There were plenty of times that I thought getting one of the header bolts in was "impossible" but they will go.

 

This may be self-explanitory, but most often, you have to keep all the bolts LOOSE until you get them all threaded. If you installed one bolt and tightened it all the way in, you most likely will not be able to thread in the rest. So, keep everything loose, and thread the bolts in with your fingers.

Other than that, using standard sockets would be a joke on the headers I'm running. The only feasible way to tighten the bolts is with an open-ended 7/16" wrench (box-end if there's enough clearance with the primary tubes). It helps to have a few different-length wrenches as well (short and long-handled).


Try to remain patient -- you'll get it done with time. It can be somewhat tedious and frustrating...

 

Also be sure to remove everything you can... alternator, starter, stuff like that as it will make it much easier to install them. I'd also recommend getting a set of cheap wrenches... ones that you can grind down, cut off, bend in a vise, etc. You'll find that if you have some cheap wrenches that you don't care about, you can often times hack one up to MAKE it work where you want it.

 

YEP, there is also a little bitty wrench that you can buy that isnt like a standard box/combo wrench
the open end on this wrench is turned 90* so you can get into VERY tight places with it

the other option is different header bolts, the ones with an allen head...

like the other guy said too make sure they are all just threaded in 1st, then tighten them all down, not one at a time

 

Theres your problem right there at the top of this post. Get them all threaded in then tighten them all systematicly at once.

I have a 7/16 wrench I cut in half and use the open end to get the back bolt and others. Takes time but you get them all tight.

 

12 pts and modified wrenches.