I finished up bolting everything together at 4:30 pm. That gives me a total
install time of 5 hours and 45 minutes. And I have never done anything like
this before. Everything went together as planned except one little item. The
reducer for the cat converter inlet is the exact same size as the pipe that
is supposed to slip into it, so I was unable to join the Y-pipe to the rest
of the exhaust. This means no test drive yet :( I will take it to a
muffler shop tomorrow and have them cut it to the correct length, then weld
it to the pipe, and bolt it to the Y-pipe. I guess this is why at the
beginning of the instructions they tell you that you should have a shop that
is familiar with headers install them due to slight differences from one
vehicle to the next. Since that was my only area of trouble I can honestly
say I am impressed with the kit. I did have to dismount the plug on the
harness side of the O2 sensor as the wires were very tight when plugged back
together, but this will not cause any problems I'm sure. The way they worked
around the front drive shaft is cool. They go below it, and then there is a
little sweep in the crossover to clear the factory skid plates as well. Even
though the Y-pipe is below the drive shaft, it isn't any lower than the
tranny so I have not lost any ground clearance. There is plenty of room on
the Y-pipe to use a clamp instead of welding, but since I have to have the
reducer welded to the cat inlet, I'm going to have it welded up as well.
That's it for now. I'm going to go sit back and help my wife finish off the
New Years bubbly :)
Talk to you later.
John
98 Dakota
Headers are installed...............almost
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 12:11:50 EDT