Check out these nuts. (Problem solved)
Ladies and gentlemen: I was at the junkyard today looking at a very stock and original 1974 slant six Valiant. The engine bay was obviously never modified in any way, and I noticed these nuts and washers on two of the exhaust manifold studs - the front and rear studs on the top. The middle studs had either normal looking nuts on them, or were the studs with the cast iron keepers on them that held down the intake and exhaust manifolds. They still had blue engine paint on them, so I'm pretty sure the engine was built that way. I've never seen these fasteners on a slant six before. The nut has cuts into it on one side, which fits into a bevel on the front of the washer. The back (engine) side of the washer is flat. So it appears that the nuts tighten down into the bevel on the front of the washer. If you zoom in to the washer in the photos, you can see the bevel. None of the other manifold studs used this fastening system - just the front and rear studs at the top of the exhaust manifold. Have you ever seen these before? Why are there just two of them, instead of all of them? Ideas?
Ladies and gentlemen: I was at the junkyard today looking at a very stock and original 1974 slant six Valiant. The engine bay was obviously never modified in any way, and I noticed these nuts and washers on two of the exhaust manifold studs - the front and rear studs on the top. The middle studs had either normal looking nuts on them, or were the studs with the cast iron keepers on them that held down the intake and exhaust manifolds. They still had blue engine paint on them, so I'm pretty sure the engine was built that way. I've never seen these fasteners on a slant six before. The nut has cuts into it on one side, which fits into a bevel on the front of the washer. The back (engine) side of the washer is flat. So it appears that the nuts tighten down into the bevel on the front of the washer. If you zoom in to the washer in the photos, you can see the bevel. None of the other manifold studs used this fastening system - just the front and rear studs at the top of the exhaust manifold. Have you ever seen these before? Why are there just two of them, instead of all of them? Ideas?