89hatchman

I go to drift for about an hour or two and eventually the manifold to turbo nuts start coming lose and I get wicked exhaust leak noises. How the hell do I fix it? Every. Single. Drift. Event. I'm tightening these nuts up after letting the manifold cool.

And in addition to that. I put an FMIC on the car. I bolted it to the headlight motor brackets and now my headlights aim SUPER low. Like High beams are lower than my normal headlights were, now. Anyone else have this? How do I mount it if not to these points?

Drift_FX

as far as the exhaust nuts go, just locktight them on there....

89hatchman

I do....it doesn't do shit. I covered the stud and the inside of the nut with locktight. It must burn off or something because it still backs out.

90drftsx

Are you using crush washers?

huffandpuff00

KiLLeR2001

Screw the locking tab. This is what I did, and never had any problems...

Nord-Lock | Wedge-locking washers and Superbolt tensioners | Your trusted partner for optimizing bolted joints

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Mikester

I use thread-locker, lock washers & the locking tabs and they work fine... MUCH easier to get it totally secure if you pull the turbine out to work with it... The way those 4 bolts/studs are situated, you will never be able to get them as tight as need-be. Having the turbine/manifold out, you can thread-lock the studs as well. Do this, add some of those Nord-lock washers into the mix and BAM- never agin will that shit come loose~

Killer- those washers are fricken awesome!

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ultimateirving

Addressing the head lights if you screwed the ic brackets very close the the head light bracket my concern would be weight. The metal isn't very thick or sturdy and I think it could bend. Especially if you have ever tapped a curb or anything with the bumper and pushed the intercooler

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Z32 with lq4 swap
Desert Street Scene || Dssevents.com

Mikester

Here's how mine is mounted-

IC to upper bracketing mounted to core supports to distribute the weight:



Made the upper cross-plate out of a piece of 14GA SS.

Simple lower brackets from IC to OEM tension rod support holes:



Simple, and quite effective... Push/pull on the IC & the whole car moves- solid as a rock!

The key is that you want the FMIC to be as solid as possible... If it moves around too much, shit bends... and couplings chaff and/or come loose.

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eye-5

I've gone through every iteration of trying to fix this issue of manifold to turbo nuts coming loose for track days, here is what I've found.

1. Get rid of the stock locking tabs, they suck and prevent you from being able tighten the nuts back up in case of them coming loose without you removing the whole manifold and turbo.
2. Next time you have everything out, replace the studs. You can get them out with a pipe wrench. These start to stretch with too much heat so should be changed periodically.
3. Try some Stage 8 locking nuts, these things are awesome. Otherwise safety wire.
4. No thread locker is going to work with the amount of heat the mainfold & turbo see, excess of 1600 degrees.
5. I no longer use a gasket between them. Once they blow, you are screwed until you can take everything else out. I use copper RTV instead.
6. Just for kicks when I put in new studs, I put a small amount of copper RTV on the side that goes into the manifold to prevent them from working loose on that end.

Here is a pic of the stage 8 setup I'm using.




Hope that helps.

mechanicalmoron

Copper RTV is rated for 700 degrees, I believe.

Just sayin'. If it works that's cool, I have it on my cat, and technically I think it shouldn't even work there, it's doing fine. But it says 700.

eye-5

I have also used nordlock washers, they were loose after about 5 track days. However, they didn't move enough to cause an issue.

I also forgot to mention you need a downpipe with a trans mount and it should be hooked up. If there is no support on the exhaust other than the turbo, this problem is amplified.

eye-5

I am aware of this. I got this tip from a long time reputable shop owner around here and brought up the same point. He told me he's been doing it for years and it works no problem. So far I haven't had any issues with it for over 3 years of track days.

Mikester

Not to mention your outlet elbow will crack at the flange (experience)

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89hatchman

nice, I'll give that a try

where do you get those locking nuts? I don't think I've ever seen them before. Can I pick them up at the parts store or something?

eye-5

You can get them from Stage 8 World's Best Locking Fasteners & Locking Nuts and Bolts STAGE 8 or I ordered mine through Touge Factory. TFworks.com

The exact kit # is on the picture.