Hi Guys.
I'm replacing all the manifold bolts today. I bought them from AB. I've had the manifolds surfaced for flatness as the previous person had stacked gaskets to shim the bow? Anyway they're nice and true now. While carefully bringing up the torque on the bolts I found them to be extremely tight, that dab of red on the end of the bolt seemed to be binding them up to the point it was giving me completely inaccurate torque readings. Also they felt waaaay over stressed. So I started from scratch cleaned that red stuff off lubed the bolts and they went in a treat. What the hell is with that stuff?
Cheers John..

 

manifold to head or manifold to exhaust pipe?

 

I think they're talking about the thread locker (or anti-sieze?) on the manifold-to-head bolts.

 

Yes. Manifold to head. Those are the bolts. Straight up those bolts don't go in easy with that red stuff on them. So glad I removed that stuff. Lubricated and used a speed bar by hand to make sure there was no binding. Then I was able to torque correctly.

 

I wonder why they're not zinc coated. They get flash rust pretty quickly.

 

Same here. I started to install genuine LR manifold to head bolts with the pre-applied red thread lock. They felt horrible going in - did not keep going. I pulled them all out and reused the old ones.

 

Had the same issue. Wire wheeled the locktight off them.

 

I think I'll have a chat with the guys at Atlantic British and see what they say.
I'm so glad I got that off too.
Cheers John

 

Just spoke to Atlantic British about these bolts. He couldn't tell me anything? He said he's never had any complaints.
I told him that the spec torque was 22 ft pounds. These things were getting to 25 to 27 before they even touched the manifold?
Weird.

 

Sounds like the Loctite is trapping air in front of the bolt and as they are threaded in, the air is being compressed. Getting rid of most of the red compound allows the air to escape up the thread.