Mok, Alan (SPB Brentwood) wrote:
>
> Overall it was routine as headers installs go. Took me about 5 hours.
>
> A couple of short open end 7/16 or 11mm wrenches would help. I wish I
> have those really short ones from the Sears catalog. Removal is straight
> forward. I was surprise how easy the header to y-pipe nuts came off. The
> air box was a bitch to remove. I ended up ripping the nuts (what are
> they?) off with a vise grip.
I had already tossed mine, so this was not an issue. Know what you mean
though. It's not obvious there is only one nut holding that thing on.
> I spent a LOT of time tightening 3 of the header bolts. Remove the
> passenger side O2 sensor to get access to flange nut. Used a 22mm open
> end to loosen and then removed by hand. You can actually get the wrench
> in there so try different angles. Tighten each of the flange bolts a
> little at a time so it will seal properly. I didn't use any sealer at
> all and no leaks.
I have a long box end wrench that's been ground down to minimum
thickness that's just perfect for header bolts. Handed down to me by my
Dad from when he wrenched on a Super Modified back in the late
sixties/seventies. I managed to get all passenger side bolts with the
wrench and all but two of the driver's side. The beauty of this wrench
is that I can get alot of torque on the bolt. There was one complaint
about the dimple in the tube on cylinder #7. Could have been done closer
to the flange to really help.
I keep hearing people talk about the O2 on the passenger side. On my '98
5.2L the sensor was well out of the way and didn't require removal.
Actually, I was quite surprised to find a 1.75" Y pipe that is mandrel
bent. Pretty smoothe work and not the crimped piece I was expecting to
see. I may not gain much by swapping this one out, except for a small
increase in diameter.
Anyone know the diameter of the ATR Y pipe?
> Be careful of the heat shields underneath. The edges are SHARP and will
> split your hand wide open.
>
> I now smell burning rubber when idling. I think it's the A/C hose that's
> above the passenger side header. Anyone else? Did you guys have to
> reroute some plug wires too? A couple of them (rear most cylinders) are
> very close to the primaries that loops up and over.
I got a few smells while the sealers cured. I installed some Magnum
Performance covers at the same time as the headers. The bitch is that
they give you plain old 1/4-20 bolts for the covers and you lose the
ability to slip the stock wire seperators back over the stock studs. I
can see that without these you will have wires touching headers on the
back cylinders.
I took a bunch of pics during the install and if it's of use, I could do
a write up for the DML site.
Jon, this of any interest to you?
And for the old Muscle Car nuts out there; I took the truck for a test
run after the install and on my way back I came up to the light behind
what looked like a fully restored SuperBird. I don't know enough about
them to tell if it was legit, but had the big Plymouth decal on the
quarter panels and the circular SuperBird decal on the rear wing. I've
never seen one on the street before and didn't realize just how tall
those wings are. Pretty cool looking ride.
Bob
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 12:09:26 EDT