LS1 Exhaust Manifold Bolts...

[VYSS_Black]

I have a mate that just noticed one of his bolts closest to the battery has had the head snap off, and the remaining piece is stuck inside the manifold.

He has asked around and apparently its a very common issue with LS1's get to the 10 year mark due to holden using cheap quality bolts. He's been told that if any others snap, particularly down at the rear of the engine, it is very hard to get to and the end result would require pulling off the entire heads to fix the issue.

He's been quoted $250 at a local exhaust joint to replace all bolts with stainless steel ones.

Have you heard of, or had this happen to you or anyone you know? This all seems a little strange to me and possibly just an excuse to make a bit of extra cash from the repairer.

How common is this issue REALLY? Also, if one bolt snapped, what is the likeliness that others will snap, and if they do snap what's the big deal anyway?

 

[mpower]

probably common if re-used, most bolts are one use.

 

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

Pretty common. It's usually the rear ones that actually snap.

 

[BigMik]

Yep very common and as has been stated, it's usually the rear ones that break (Murphy's Law!!)

 

[VRSenator065]

$250 I guess is fair given they are removing a broken one. But If your just wanting to swap them for piece of mind buy a set of ARP bolts. The trick is to unscrew the existing bolts one at a time and swap them over and torque them up. That way the manifold is always held tight in place, no need to even touch or swap the gasket.

 

[bozodos]

The hard part is working out which ARP part # you need, as for some strange reason they only list studs for LS engine headers. There is one that fits, can't remember the part #.

I used Stage 8 locking header bolts for mine - would not recommend as the circlips rattled like hell initially, resulting in me having to lock them with a bit of exhaust cement. I now have headers that are going to be an absolute prick to ever take off again. They were fairly cheap though, under $100 for the set