Hot or cold?

[Charliewag]

Hi all, hope you have had a great Christmas and are looking forward to the new year.
My question is, is it easiest to loosen the header nuts with the engine hot or cold? Got a good 2nd hand set of original headers and collector box, so thought I'd give it a go whilst I've got a few days spare.
Thanks in advance for any advice!👍🏻

[seth]

 
They are made of toffee you'll be luck to get them out in 1 piece no matter what you do
Good luck.

[gsxbarmy]

As Seth says they can be a bit of a so and so. Personally I'd take them off cold, but if you haven't had them off before, personally I'd take the oil cooler off first so you can get the socket with extender on it directly onto the bolt(s) itself (esp those in the centre). I'd also put some Plus Gas (ideally) or if not WD40 on the bolt threads a couple of timesa day  in the preceding days before attempting to undo them, also with the socket and the extender bar on, just give the nuts a bit of a tap before attempting to undo them (Plus Gas gets drawn into the thread a bit easier than WD40)

May sound a bit of a hiatus, but they standard bolts are quite soft and prone to snap unless they have been "treated" prior by some previous owner taking them out and re-assembling using copaslip (or similar) on the threads to stop the bolts jamming in the bolt holes.

Just take you time and take it easy and they should come out, if they do snap, then its an engine out job and take it down the local engineering firm to get the offending bolt drilled out

[froudy]

Lots and lots of Plus Gas!!

Good luck

[Cykik]

Did mine 2yrs ago. Soaked in 3-1 oil for a week. Took 'em out cold, very gently. Some say tighten 1/8 turn before starting to loosen. I replaced the bolts with 8mm x 6mm stainless studs.

[Mick_J]

If you don't have plus gas try a bit of diesel, stinks but does the job.

[grog]

The best ive ever used by far, dont know plus gas but this stuff just works. https://www.eeuroparts.com/Parts/76198/Rost-Off-Max-Ice-Rust-Penetrating-Lubricant-9oz-0893241002/

[Kiwifruit]

Mate in aviation swears by "Mouse Milk".

Please don't ask.........l suppose they use a rotary milking shed just like cows but a bit smaller

[gsxbarmy]

Mate in aviation swears by "Mouse Milk".

Ah - but that's for fixing squeaks 

[Globalrider]

FREEZE Off from TTP??

[BlueDragon]

hope you had better luck than me.

Soaked the bolts for a week..  only 2 came out clean.  The others snapped.  Now I'm busy drilling them out and re-tapping the threads and putting helicoils in.

[Andre]

Fretting about taking them headers off for the last couple of years.

Now I did it and they all came out clean. Only the last one made jarring sound all the way out.

I have been dousing them with WD40 every now and then. Now a few light hammer taps on the hex key, tightened them a touch till I heard a clack and then wound them out. The jarring one did not make the clack sound. Done on the cold engine.

I guess I am one of the lucky ones.

[grog]

Yeah, great result Andre. Fitting a full Yoshi?

[KiwiCol]

My black came out clean also, been 'Nicklesliped' now, so should be fine, haven't tried the blue.  They're a bugger to get back in & torque up right. Mine must of got just right by themselves even with the original gaskets, no leaks either.

[froudy]

It's a huge moment of relief as the last one comes out without snapping off.
My advice to anyone that gets the squealing/jarring noise as it comes out is to spay more penetrating oil/PlusGas on it..Take it back in a bit and then out again.
The last time I had one do this I carried on going and it got tighter and tighter and then snapped off (years ago on my first Bandit)

Another tip is that if the Allen Bolt heads have rounded off, is to bash a 12mm multi point socket over the whole head and then unscrew them