Brent: First of all, I have not been near the car for over a week. I try and have a clear path of remedying a situation before I go further. When I rush things, I end up in trouble! Besides that, I have a lot of other stuff going on in my life than just my Cobra. In fact I have not driven it yet this year. House projects and recovering from knee surgery 4 weeks ago.
To be clear. I cannot get any kind of wrench on these two bolts. Except that flex socket/open end combo, that will go on. Again, I do not have your experience or touch. I don't trust my feel like you trust yours. I believe in Torquing and it has kept me out of trouble. when I start just tightening things, I tend to over do it...I have broken a couple of things in the past and I do not want any repeat performances...so yes, I am a little anal.
9/16? Not really sure what you mean here...my bolts are 3/8 not 9/16. Or are you saying to use the 9/16 over a stubby as a cheater bar for leverage?
If the fuel log was not there, I would have no issue. My old cobra had no fuel log and I was able re-toque that manifold. When I get back to it, I will probably just pull the carb, then I can work on it from another angle.
Today I found a 1/4" drive, very short open 12 pt crows foot, I think they would call this a flare. Same as this only 1/4" drive:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/1907565...2F190756544479
I would be stepping up to adapt to my 3/8 drive torque wrench. Do you think the 3/8' drive to 1/4' drive adapter will hold up at 25 ft lbs? How about the open 12 point crows foot
Dan: as I said earlier, converting to Allens won't help anything. It would be the exact same issue as I have now. I have no room for adapters or Torque wrenches on these two bolts. they are to close to the intake runners! All the allens would let me do is stick a 90 deg allen wrench in it. Now were just pulling on it and hoping for the best. I am sure it would not be tight enough anyway. Again, maybe if the carb was off, things would be better, but it would still be far from a straight shot, Maybe with one of those universal sockets.
Patrick: I am not worried about stripping the threads in the intake. I think you mean the heads right? Anyway, if I was only using a stubby as you say, it would not be possible and it would not be tight enough. I want to do it right using a torque wrench or a method to achieve the called out Torque. I do not like or trust the "Good n Tight" method!