Manifold torquing?!

[jkp]

Hey all

I was sent a pair of offset manifolds as part of the 34 ICT bundle I bought and I gotta ask since I feel like I’m being stupid: how in the hell does one go about torquing these babies up?!

On the side of the manifold which leans towards the nut there’s almost no room to turn anything let alone get a socket on to it. Are these just poorly designed manifolds? Is there a trick I’m missing? The kit was missing nuts and washers for this I think as the photo shows eight and I only got four but I don’t think even with those it would be possible to get my torque wrench on it. Seems like somewhere one would want to get that side of things correct right?

I should note: I’m doing this without dropping the engine so maybe you’re going to tell me that’s my issue - hope not as it’s a hell of a long route just to tighten four bolts.

Thanks folks

Jamie

 

[ozziedog]

I had the same issue and I copied the torque on mine once. I did up a nut similar on something else after making sure the nuts were flying up and down the studs ok. Then I Torqued to just under the poundage then ‘felt’ how much tighter I had to do this test nut with my hand on the spanner right up to the open end. It got me amazingly similar results after I practiced two or three times. My engineering mate was disgusted with that approach and he got me some nuts that were the same thread but much smaller on the nut size. I’m pretty sure he told me they were nuts used in racing carts to hold the wheels on. But after I’d done it a couple of times it was really a nip and a bit of a nip and one flat. The engineering types will be all over me now.

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,,,, just don’t go crazy with it

 

[matty74]

Hey James, I bet you’re wishing you’d invited Mr Tickle round to help, I know I was when I did mine without dropping the engine last year .

After putting in longer studs (mine were way too short) I spun the nut onto the front (inaccessible) stud then tightened down on the back ones using a small spanner set. Then nipping up the front again flat by flat. From memory the nuts in my kit were the flanged type and there was just 4 for manifold to cylinder head.

You’ll love the carbs once you’re up and running again

 

[67panel]

You can get smaller nuts that fit the thread no problem from VW parts folks. Used on all race motors, the big manifolds on the race heads of the drag beetle needed to be the 11mm spanner size and then its tight!

 

[jkp]

Awesome. Thanks for all the shared experience! I’ll get some better nuts ordered and change em over when they arrive.

 

[sparkywig]

You can get 10mm M8 nuts from BJ Speedshop

https://bjsspeedshop.co.uk/parts-for-sale/

 

[jkp]

Hey James, I bet you’re wishing you’d invited Mr Tickle round to help, I know I was when I did mine without dropping the engine last year . After putting in longer studs (mine were way too short) I spun the nut onto the front (inaccessible) stud then tightened down on the back ones using a small spanner set. Then nipping up the front again flat by flat. From memory the nuts in my kit were the flanged type and there was just 4 for manifold to cylinder head. You’ll love the carbs once you’re up and running again View attachment 8910