Bullshark, 502 RJ help????

[Twin_Turbo]

Gotz a problem here. 502 ramjet with those edelbrock heads built for GMPP..there's a huge clearance issue with headers, the head bolts are in the way. they are pretty tall with a thick washer. How did you solve this? I can just get a percys alu multi layer gasket in there and not much more. Will have to thin the flange in that spot but wondering if you have some lower profile head bolts or something. These heads are a junk design, I can not see cast manifolds even coming close to fitting. Got large primary headers...maybe a huge problem

 

[BBShark]

I removed the washer.

 

[Twin_Turbo]

same heads? same problem??

 

[BBShark]

Yep.

 

[69427]

I notched the header flange to clear the headbolts/studs.

 

[Twin_Turbo]

They'd require notching into the primary pipe

 

[69427]

They'd require notching into the primary pipe

Wow, I take it you're running much bigger primary tubes than I am. Mine are 2" OD, and there's just enough meat left on the lower flange edge for a sufficient gasket seal.

I'm reluctant to suggest this, but I assume those are D port heads. As a last resort could the tubes be reshaped (to a D) on the bottom to clear the headbolts?

 

[Twin_Turbo]

Yes they are D ports, that was my thought also, rework the tubes to fit. What I don't understand is, why edeljunk didn't drill out the head bolt faces for a deeper seating. This is simply rediculous.

 

[Bullshark]

I went to ARP. They have lower profile head bolts that cleared exhaust manifold / headers. I will look up details for you if needed
Bullshark

 

[Twin_Turbo]

that would be really helpful

 

[Bullshark]

Check out ARP Part #5AP-2000-5L Is been awhile since I did this. I replaced only the four lower bolts that had the clearance problem on each head

 

[MYBAD79]

interessting read.... this seems to be a very common problem

http://www.chevelles.com/forums/showthread.php?t=132548

 

[69427]

interessting read.... this seems to be a very common problem

http://www.chevelles.com/forums/showthread.php?t=132548

Well, I guess misery does love company. I ran into this same interference issue a bunch of years ago with these heads, and ended up grinding the flange for clearance (I assumed at the time that the problem was the flange design on my headers). I then ended up doing this flange modification again (grinding away even more material) last spring when I used ARP head studs on the current engine.

 

[BBShark]

I was going to mill the land down for clearance on the heads. There is pretty good thickness there. I took the easy way out with removing the washer. Would have been easy to do.