Tightened your extractors lately?

[Solone]

Hello,

I have a ve calais and has extractors fitted. I was checking the oil level etc and thought to see if the extractors were tight. To my surprise I found that I could tighten each bolt almost half a turn. Car didnt tick or anything but I was surprised they were loose.

Does anyone periodically tighten up extractors? Any benefit in doing so or when it heats up does it become tight enough anyway?

[aaron1828]

Who ever fitted them must have not tightened properly as they should stay tight.

[Solone]

I would not call them loose but I could tighten them about half a turn, most bolts too.

I thought that if you see higher rpms often enough that they come loose.

[***VX*R8***]

I used to have Pacemakers on a 3.8L V6. Eventually it got to the stage where I would have to tighten one of the extractor bolts every couple of days otherwise it sounded like the car had a BOV lol.
Haven't had any problems with my LS1 though and I don't do the bolts up anywhere near as tight as in the 3.8L.

[Peter B - CV8]

I checked mine about a fortnight after install (and flange bolts etc etc ). Most of them took another half turn.

[surfwagon]

Solone, you haven't said what engine you have.
I don't know the VE V6 at all but the LS engines have a great exhaust gasket from GM that seems to work well with any type of manifold or extractors bolted up just snug, not overly tight.



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senator http://www.ls1.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=121025
dyno http://www.ls1.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=137278
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[WOMBIE]

Hmmmm interesting but I don't believe I had a problem with the bolts coming loose in the 7 years they were on my sv8.

[macca33]

Mine are toight....toight like a tiger....

[Solone]

I have a VE SS, it has the 6L

Maybe they put some sort of thread locker on some. Mine have been on the car about a year and they were half a turn loose. Not loose but could be tightened easily half a turn.

[Mikey]

A comparison between cast iron heads and alloy heads should not be made. With cast iron heads, the bolts should be easily removed once the have been in and out a couple of times so in theory they could work them selves loose. But if you were really concerned, you could always use a bit of heat proof thread lock, but generally it should still not be a real problem anyway.

With alloy heads, you need to be much more careful as the threads in the heads are prone to flaring up and grabbing the bolt. This can lead to either snapping the bolt off or worse, stripping the thread in the alloy head altogether. So you normally find that beacuase of this, the bolts themselves seem to have their own grip and usually do not come loose, unless the threads are worn that is. Half a turn seems like a lot but equally, you should never over tighten the bolts in an alloy head either.

Cheers Mikey