The headers I had on the car had flame-cut flanges and MIG welded joints.
Any place where the welds might interfere with the bolts, had been "dressed"
with an angle grinder, from its appearance, and little care had been taken
to ensure a good seating surface for the bolt heads. The head flange side,
likewise, had been ground in a pretty casual fashion. From what I've seen of
commercial headers (not necessarily Tiger specific), this is not atypical,
and it means that if you want your headers to fit and seal to the gaskets,
then you have to take some extra care around the bolt holes and the flanges
to make sure that the bolt heads have a flat seating surface, and that the
exhaust port flange is flat. Counting on the bolts to pull everything
straight isn't going to work in the long run. The new headers I'm putting on
have been previously fit onto another Tiger but not run for any length of
time, and I'll be checking them over pretty carefully.
Theo
|