I spent three hours yesterday installing the new JBA's. About 3 hours
total. Everything went fine except for all the blood and skin I left
behind (the disadvantage of having large hands). Go to the hardware
store and buy a dozen stainless 5/16" lock washers - the ones in the kit
are a joke. I used all standard tools, nothing special or modified.
Probably could have cut some time tightening bolts with shortened 7/16".
1. Removal of stock manifolds - less than 30 mins total.
2. Passenger side install - 1.5 hours. The 4th bolt from the front
took about 10 mins to tighten. The 5th bolt took about 30 mins to
install, it kept wanting to cross-thread due to the angle of the
pipe, tightening was no problem. No problem with getting the JBA
under the A/C line, either.
3. Driver side install - 25 mins. Time says it all - no problems here.
4. Bolting up the flanges - 1 hour. WOW! What mess! The flanges are
not quite in the same location as the stockers were. Some advice
here - do not use the JBA hardware, use the (lock-type) stock bolts
if possible to keep the bolt from spinning. All this moot if you
have a helper - I didn't. Also, it helps to have pry bar to
"tweak" the down-pipes into a more suitable position. I had to do
this with one hand, while feeding the bolt through the flanges, and
fitting the nut with the other hand. At least I found a creative
use for my flabby gut <G>.
5. Reinstall plug wires, battery, etc. - 10 mins.
After completion, I ran it out until fully warmed up (still on jack
stands). Shut it off, let it cool for several hours. Recheck all bolts
for tightness - I did find a few that I could get another 1/2 turn or so
on. I'll mention here that I do have a small leak at the driver side
down-pipe flange due to the flanges being slightly off from stock. I
can live with it until Jeff comes up with the down-pipes.
This is the first of my mods that I could definitely feel - midrange
and top-enf pull are much better. I'll G-Tech it as soon as I get back
on the night shift.
Now for the OOPS - I was under this thing twice before and could have
sworn that I had a "Y" pipe and "1 into 1" cat-convertor, BUT, I
definitely have the "2 into 1" setup with separate down-pipes. Don't
know how I could ah ve missed it. I'll probably be swapping it out
soon, as (disappointing) measurements were taken while underneath
1. down-pipes 2ea @ 1.875"
2. cat inlets 2ea @ 2.00"
3. cat outlet 2.375"
4. muffler inlet 2.500"
5. muffler outlet 2.500"
6. tailpipe 3.00"
As you can see, the sizes don't match up - this is due to necking up
on the various pieces of pipe. I'll most likely use 2.25" down-pipes
(hope that's what the JBA's will be), a Flowmaster "2.25 to 3" Y pipe
(Summit), a 3" in/out cat-convertor, and full 3" pipe/muffler. Tailpipe
is A-OK as is.
Later,
Russell Selkirk
P.S. Small hands are a definite advantage!
-- '96 Black Impala SS '85 Silver Monte SS '98 Amethyst Dakota RC R/T - Port Neches,Texas ================================= NOTE: Anti-Spam Address! Please reply to: RAS002@worldnet.att.net =================================
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