Hi. Hoping to get some advice here from someone more experienced than I. I am replacing the cylinder head on my wife's civic. I bought a reconditioned head from autozone and I am trying to put the studs for the exhaust manifold on it. I bought them from Honda so I am sure that they are the right studs. However, as I turn them I get about 1 revolution and then meet quite a bit of resistance. I want to tighten them up, but I am afraid that I might strip the threads in the head. Is this normal? The nut from the original cylinder head threads on quite nicely.

 

I believe the OEM exhaust manifold nuts are self-locking from my quick research. You will need a wrench or ratchet to tighten them down. The old nut has probably lost it's "locking properties" which is why it threads on by hand. It seems Honda repair manual states the nuts should be replaced if they are removed for this reason.

I cannot say i've ever had a Civic to replace an exhaust manifold on, but I do know what self-locking nuts are, and that seems to be what you're experiencing

 

Thanks, I didn't realize that I was supposed to install new nuts, but I was more referring to installing the studs into the cylinder head. I was confused because the nuts screwed on easily which made me feel like they are the right pitch, but the studs are not screwing into the head easily at all.

 

Stick the studs in your freezer overnight or get some dry ice to put them in they will contract a bit and may go in easier.

Kind of hard to tell how the "hard" you are trying to describe is. If MAY be worth the small price to buy a tap of the right size and chase the threads.

You do know the trick for installing studs right? Look up double nutting a stud (down you perverts)

 

Thanks, I will try the freezer trick. When I was talking about them not turning easily I was just referring to being hand tight. I do know about using the nuts to screw them in and I was just afraid of trying to tighten them that way when it was going in so tight anyway. I expected to be able to turn the stud 5-6 times by hand first and when I was only able to get it in a little over a turn, it made me nervous.

 

You said you bought the nuts new from Honda right? They are locking nuts and aren't supposed to be able to be hand tightened. You will need a ratchet or wrench to tighten them. They do this so they don't back out as easily.

Someone on here recently experienced the same thing with camber bolts and was nervous as well, it was because they were locking nuts

 

What I ment was I bought the studs new from honda and actually didn't buy new nuts, but I guess I will be now . It was putting the new studs in the new head that was making me nervous. I expected that they would screw in easier than what they were.

 

Ah! I saw you had a rebuilt head and assumed that included installed studs and you were fighting with the nuts

Reading is fundamental!

At least I was able to convince you to buy new nuts.

 

Yes! I actually went out and bought some new nuts today for it. I actually just installed the studs and they went on fine once I put some torque into it.