Michael Maskalans wrote:
>
> so I got my headers on with relatively few problems, but it took an
> embarrassingly long time - on the order of about 8 hours of nearly
> constant work. Two things really slowed me down - one of the y-pipe
> flange bolts refused to budge and I had to dremel it off, and none of
> the 4 bolt heads were a real size. I think the main problem with the
> one that refused to budge is that due to the oil filter I couldn't get a
> good grip on it with the crescent wrench. Once I got a well-tightened
> crescent on the other three bolts (a real exercise in pain tolerance for
> the rear bolt on the passenger side) I was able to loosen them and the
> rest went pretty smoothly. for those interested, here's a blow-by-blow:
>
> at around noon I headed out to the lot to start work. the first thing I
> did was give everything I could get at a very health squirt of WD40.
> Then I got my tools accessible, and pulled off my K&N FPIK.
>
> I started on the manifold removal by pulling off the heat shields.
> Their mounting points are actually studs that have multiple nuts on
> them. on 3 out of 4, the nuts came off and the remaining nut stuck on
> the stud and the whole thing came out.
>
> I was then able to see the rest of the mounting points, and soaked them
> down, too. Rather than do the smart thing and immediately move from
> this point to the y pipe flanges, I continued on the easier path of
> continuing on removal of the manifold bolts.
>
> Once I'd removed all but one mounting bolt/stud on each side removed I
> went on to the flanges. The bolt I started with was the absolute
> hardest - the front on the passenger side. The first - and most
> frustrating - thing I found was that the bolt heads were a size that
> does not exist. neither 13mm nor 1/2" would go on, and 14mm and 9/16"
> were both much too large. and no, they were not notably rusted or
> dirty. the scale on my crescent wrench put them at about 13.3mm or a
> hair smaller than 17/32". I was unable to get my crescent on the front
> passenger bolt, even with anne's help, so I resorted to getting my
> dremel to cut it off. that took about an hour or so to do since I can't
> run my dremel at full speed or full load on my 140 watt inverter.
>
> I started cutting on the second passenger side bolt, but couldn't see
> well enough to do much of anything, so I moved on to the driver's side.
> Over there, I had massively much more room, and I was able to get
> easily to the other side of the flange, and I was able to take it
> apart. I then pulled off the driver's side manifold, which came out
> very smoothly.
>
> I navigated the header into place, and very loosely installed the front
> and rearmost bolts, intending to navigate the gasket between the header
> and block, since that's technically how it's suppose to work. I put a
> small bead of ultra copper around the exhaust ports on both sides of the
> gasket, and began navigating it into place. I immediately realized that
> without pulling all the plug wires that this would be a hopeless
> proposition. Since I didn't have any means of marking them on me at the
> time, I decided that wasn't the way to go. I pulled off the front bolt
> so I had more room to work, and then succeeded in getting the gasket in
> place. Then I got all the bolts loosely in place, and then began
> tightening them. Half the bolts are a severe pain just due to tight
> tolerances, but with a LOT of patience and an open end 7/16" I got
> everything nice and tight.
>
> The next thing I noticed was how piss poor my plug wire routing was when
> the heat of the headers were concerned, since the back two plugs' wires
> were actually in contact with the headers. I then rerouted the plug
> wires in the valley on the high side of the valve covers, so they run
> across the valve covers straight to the plugs, and avoiding the headers'
> heat entirely.
>
> I then moved back on to the passenger side, and found a means of getting
> a wrench on top of the flange by working my arm up through the small
> open space at the inner bottom of the fender well, and avoiding
> mutilating myself on the heat shield on the firewall. it would have
> been so much easier without the damn frame in the way....
>
> so once I got that flange loose, I removed the last nut from the last
> passenger side stud and cursed the fact that this nut didn't stick to
> the stud. I couldn't navigate the manifold out around the stud, so I
> got to removing. I sprayed down the stud's threads at the block, and
> attempted to tighten two nuts against each other to remove the stud. I
> had previously thought that these nuts were 1/2", but as I attempted to
> jam them together as tightly as I could, I discovered that they were in
> fact 12mm. Thankfully I didn't strip them when my wrenches slipped. It
> took 3 or 4 tries to get them tight enough against each other that the
> stud started to move, and it fought me all the way out.
>
> I then navigated the manifold out through the various a/c lines and
> everything else that was in the way on that side and got it clear.
> Trying to put the header in was far more trying - since it was so much
> larger, I had problems clearing the a/c lines, the plug wires, and even
> the frame (the down tube on the passenger side is far longer than the
> driver's side). Even though it appears that there should be so much
> more room on the passenger side, both on the bottom and the top it's far
> more crowded.
>
> Once I got the header in, I followed the same procedure as the driver's
> side with regard to the gasket and the tightening.
>
> JBA's well-done instructions mentioned that the Y-pipe often is
> distorted through repeated heating and cooling, so I was a little
> worried what I'd find when I went back under the truck, but it ended up
> lining up perfectly right off the bat. I stuck the new bolts through
> the headers, into the flanges on the Y pipe, cinched them down, and all
> was kosher. rinse, and repeat on the passenger side. This was made
> far, far easier by the fact that the new bolts were a real size, and I
> could use a real wrench on top of them.
>
> Since cinching down the Y pipe took so long, I figured the sealant would
> have had enough time to set up, so I started her up. I was immediately
> worried about the smoke pouring from the left side of the truck, but a
> quick flashlight-based investigation revealed that it was WD40 burning
> off from under the heat shield at the bottom corner of the y-pipe.
> There is also a nice little rumble at idle that wasn't there before =)
>
> I let the headers heat up as I cleaned up my tools before I headed in
> for dinner. it was also pretty nifty to watch the pipe turn golden from
> the heat moving from the block down each of the pipes. After dinner I
> came back out and tightened bolts again, and then went for a drive.
> I'll check them again before I leave for Lebanon Valley.
>
> Of course, I am left with a few worries. My plug wires are now in even
> closer contact with each other now than they had been, which is bad, and
> I pinched a few on the passenger side quite thoroughly, which is also
> bad. also, when I took off my K&N, I found some very bad news in the
> form of a decent amount of mud on top of my throttle body. Clearly the
> air hat had not been on tightly enough while I was at Jon's. I wiped
> that out as best I could (mud on top, mud on the butterflies, mud down
> into the TB passages), and became *very* thankful that I only still only
> burn a quart every 3k or so considering how much mud then engine
> probably ingested.
>
> In my late night drive around Rochester last night, I was very pleased
> to see an improvement in butt dyno ratings. I use less throttle to
> drive like I usually do, and I seem to have quite a bit more at the top
> end. Since it seems there will be few other - if any - DMLers to want
> to BS with this weekend I think I'll see just how well I can do now. I
> think it's reasonable to expect that with a PCM reprogram, a set of
> headers and my K&N that I'll make up for the extra weight of my topper
> ;-) it really is too bad I don't have any base numbers though.
>
> So I've got my headers on. I've got my new door switch put in. I have
> a Roadmaster setup on it's way, a desire to put in a big center console,
> a skid plate to mount (maybe with a side order of straightening a
> torsion bar crossmember) and wiring and mounting of motors to do for my
> power rear windows.
> --
> Michael Maskalans '98 Dakota SLT CC 4x4 318
> details here: <http://mike.tepidcola.com/dak.html>
> mobile.612.618.4652 campus.585.274.2246 fax.954.697.0487
>
MMMm headers... (ponders) hmm - headers would compliment my
muffler-less exhaust pretty well i would think. And considering how
large the engine bay in the Ram is... it would go pretty easy.
Congradulations on a successful install Mike :) Your discovery of mud
in the TB is very alarming. However I must admit its not that
suprising. A quart every 3000 miles? Thats moderate consumption. How
much did it use (if any) prior to the BBQ?
Watch the oil comsumption carefully... I didnt think I did any damage
to christines engine last year but the more I drove the worse the rings
got until it was puffing blue smoke out the exhaust.
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Terrible Tom -- AIM & Yahoo Name: SilverEightynine"Take me to the river, drop me in the water..." - Talking Heads
'89 Silver Dakota RC, V6, 4x2 -- '89 Silver Dakota RC, V6, 4x4 '01 Graphite Ram Offroad Sport, RC, 360 V8, Auto, Short Box! 4x4
http://home.earthlink.net/~silvereightynine/ http://www.twistedbits.net/WWWProfile/dakota/LkxxVw49jp7dU/
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