Thanks Ross. Yea I am pretty sure I just did not torque it down. LOL. I will make sure I re-torque all of them again while the car is up on stands (because If I put it down off the Jack stands, I will likely forget to do it later LOL).
Anyway, Last night I was able to put on the Passenger side headers. Just to explain how little room there is down there, I am able to access the front most 2 header bolts easily. other than that, its a lot of reaching down from under the hood to try and get the bolts tightened (not torqued) as best as I can. There is literally no room at all! I put brand new lock washers on all of the Grade 8 bolts before tightening them down. Since the headers had to be split up in order to get them in and out (see the picture above), the flange is cut into 3 pieces. At the place where each section of flange was cut, is a bolt hole. At these 2 places, I used a flat washer and a lock washer just because it seemed like sort of a weak spot (being where the flange was divided).
I am hoping that since the engine sits more toward the passenger side than the drivers, that the headers will go on a little simpler on the Drivers side (more room to finagle). Just so I can put this down in writing (for my own reference mostly), the headers need to go on as follows:
The front most tube needs to be fed in from the back side (between the bell housing and the K member). Once its fed in to where the flange is roughly the right place, it is laid down on the K member (not bolted up yet). Then, one of the bolts with a flat washer and a lock washer (used where the flange was divided) is threaded in only a few turns. This will allow you to "hang the second set of tubes temporarily). Then, the second set of tubes is slowly snaked in from the back side as well. you need to feed them in with one hand while turning the first tube you inserted a little to allow the second set to twist into the right place. Once you get the second set of tubes up to the gasket, you can slip the flange up under the bolt with the flat washer and lock washer so it stays put. Once the second set of tubes is hanging there, you can then take the first tube and slip it up against the second flange (it makes more sense when you realize that where each flange was cut, the ends of the flange contain half a bolt hole. So the first tube inserted is slid back up against the bolt holding the second set of tubes. At this point, the front 2 bolt holes on the flange are aligned and can bolted down using a grade 8 with lock washer alone. Now, the second set of tubes hasn't been tightened down yet, and should not be. At this point another bolt with flat washer and lock washer is placed into the other side of the flange of the second set of tubes. this bolt is also left loose (in order to slide the last tube under. The last tube needs to now be inserted from behind, and by leaving the second set loose, you can carefully wiggle them a little to allow the last tube to be put into place. Once you slide the last tubes flange under the loose bolt, its end two bolt holes in the flange are aligned and can have bolts inserted and tightened. Unfortunately, by this point, you cant see or reach any of the bolts. So you have to reach down from under the hood back by the firewall with 2 bolts and hand screw them into the last tubes flange. luckily at this point, even though its going to rub off some skin, you can carefully slide the smallest ratchet with a 14mm socket down by the pipes and using only 2 fingers, get a little turn on each bolt. it took a while, but each bolt was tightened from the top.
OK that was confusing, but like I said, it was more for me (so I have reference next time they need to come off). LOL Oh and by the way.... since there is almost no room at all, it took another hour to slowly pull off the plastic wrap I used to stop the ceramic coating from being scratched up. Totally worth it though because the headers were installed without any dings, dents of scratches! And there was plenty of tube-on-tube-on-K member contact!
