Club Cobra - Header Bolts

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Has anyone used Percy's locking header bolts?

Percy's 20004 - Percy's Split-Lock Header Bolts - JEGS

Silverback51,

I tried them on my aluminum SCJ heads. I almost ruined one bolt hole.

Two things happened that I didn't like:

1) More than one of the setscrews fell out after the car ran through several heat/cool cycles.

2) The bolt itself resembles a tap; in trying to remove one of them to go back to the Stage 8 bolts, the bolt tried to tap one of the holes oversize. It apparently didn't collapse to its original shape when I took the setscrew out. Yikes!

Having said that, they may be OK for iron heads. Definitely not recommended for aluminum.

I told them this at PRI year before last and thought they were permanently withdrawn from the market. Maybe not.

I now use the Stage 8 bolts. They are a hassle to fit, but they seem to be compatible with the aluminum heads.

Hope this helps,

Tom

Sorry for this slight hijack...

Tom,

I bought of Stage 8 bolts and am planning to install them when my headers come back from ceramic coating later this week. Do you have any installation tips?

Thanks,

Chuck

Chuck,

It's been more than two weeks since I put mine in :LOL:

I recall having to take my time and study each little retainer individually. Some seemed to fit "as-is" and others required a bit of grinding to get them on snugly. If they weren't ground down a little, some of them would not go on at all. This is part of what I meant by "hassle". The other part is getting the C-clips on - I had to use the Braille method and some real contortions :JEKYLHYDE

One other thing I did was to mark each one so if I ever had to take them off, I could get them back in the same spot; this means marking them so I knew which side faced the head. I did do this once and (mostly) got them back on satisfactorily.

The good news is they were harmless to the heads, and I could R&R the headers if I had to. A real PITA.

All in all they were worth it because header leaks are few and far between now, where they used to happen every other week especially if I abused the car a bit by taking it to the track.

I tried good quality header bolts early on, and they just wouldn't stay.

Tom

Thank you for the input.

Try safety wire after a retorque.

Go with the Stage 8s. I had the "split bolt" ones in some aluminum heads I had on a 383 SBC. If they weren't loosening up, then they were galling the threads. If there were no expansion, contraction and/or vibration they'd work fine..:rolleyes:

I agree with rdorman. ARP makes a nice set of pre-drilled stainless header bolts ala NASCAR.
Bill Stradtner