Header Day, Header Day, Header Day!!!!

[BMWDON]

Finally gettin' off my ass and gettin'er done Wife's got the boy, brother is on his way over....it's gonna be a good tuesday, hopefully I can get the grill in too!! :D

[Fred]

Congrats man, good luck! I'll pop a bottle of bubbly for you =)

[HEMI_RT]

Don't forget to post some pictures of the process. I am curious to see how much work is involved. Have fun!

[Rev.Hammer]

YEEEEHOO!!! I wish I could be there to bust knuckles with you! Good luck!

[obiwan]

Best of luck Don, I'm just going to wait and have them installed while it is in the shop getting the blower done. I'm just too big to fit under there even on stands, for any length of time...

[BMWDON]

Officially started at 1030L, had to make a run to the store to get some antiseize goo. Sorry fellas, I don't have it on a lift, it's on stands, and using the camera while trying to make sure I get this done today, isn't going to happen. I know now the stupid ass bolt that everybody talks about, it's on the passengers side, it's the very front bottom one...and man does it suck butt. Not only do you have very little room to manuever anything in there, it's not just one bolt, but there's a nut that sits ontop of the bolt that holds on the heat shield and the dipstick. So first you get to get some practice in on the 10mm nut that holds on the shield/dipstick...then you get to do the 13mm manifold bolt. I must have gotten a whole 1/10 of a turn on every wrenchin', every get a charlie horse?...in your hand?!?!?

So here it is 2.5 hours later, everything is off. Wife had to head to the post office to send some stuff, I've got baby watchin' duty for the next hour, me and my brother are gonna play warhammer 20000, drink a beer...and take a break before heading back out and putting the new ones in. I'm hoping we're over the hump on this one....install has got to be easier than the removal!!!

[grinner]

I hear it is. Props for tearin into it yourself!
I'm gonna make a video of my install and offer it on DVD or VHS.
I hope to recieve the headers and have em installed this week.
Already got the magnaflow kit in and already painted the cans black.
cmon, headers!!

[67alecto]

Any room in there for a breaker bar? Even a smallish one would make a world of difference.

When I was removing a head from one of my old Mustangs, I ended up slipping a weight lifting bar over the socket to get enough leverage. I broke one ratchet and two sockets before I got out the "good" tools and the bolts came right off.

[BMWDON]

Got done at 7pm, started at 1030am, took an hour break in between so the wife could run errands.....damn near 8 hours! Only had to run to the store once after starting, so 15 minutes of haul ass time to get more exhaust clamps (magnaflow ones broke while backing them off to let the cat-back be shifted around a little bit). Let me tell ya, the space available wouldn't be acceptable for a elf to work in. I got most of the new bolts torqued to spec, but the 2 center top ones on both passenger and drivers side suck nuts bigtime, not enough room to get my torque wrench in there, only a small 10mm box wrench and a as much ft/lbs o' torque stetched out fingers can produce. No noticeable ticks while the exhaust is going, it'll be another fun time retorqueing these suckers in a few hundred miles.

No CEL lights, modding the extensions was easy with a dremel. No leaks...and now to the good shyte

This is fricken' sweet!!!!!!!! The sound at idle as it burbles after the new headers is definitely sweeter than before, the low back pressure burbles as you downshift while cruising to slow you down...awesome The sound when you are rolling at 60, move it to 3rd and hammer it...and the front end picks up with authority and listen to her yell out.

Man, the only thing I could think that is better right now is a little rumpity rump from a loppy cam as you sit at the light. Don't wanna hear her sputter and die out, but a nice loppiness to her would be wicked sweet. And of course the sound of a s/c jammin' her throat would be nice too....but I think that's just about a pipe dream

Good night fellas, I need a shower and sleep!!!

[Rice Eater]

Nice Don- it took my brother and I about the same time it took you. I said the hell w/ the tourque wrench and just tightened all the bolts the best I could. I agree the sounds and performance are awesome. I have the Borla cat back which elimantes the resonators so its real loud! I am going to the track on Friday.

[BMWDON]

Yeah, my bro has a 90 mustang lx 5.0, he was thinking to move up to a 2003-2004 Cobra, but after dealing with "today's car's and their cramped engine compartments", I think he's gonna get a old car where the engine bay had enough room to nap in, and we're going to tear that apart and go nuts. The lack of room to move a hand around in there is amazing. I could even use my turtle, the extra 1.5" of clearance for my gut to not hit the bottom of the car moving around was definitely needed. Now my ass bone and shoulder blades are sore as hell from back crawling around on concrete for 8 hours. Hands aren't cramped up as badly as they were before going to bed, and all the rust and dirt is outa my eyes I'm so damn glad I got the whole week off, time to recoup, and enjoy the sounds of the hemi un-capped :D

My guess is the guys with the borla's are louder than the magnaflow setup, initially I went into this hoping it would sound like a mustang with one of those really really loud Basani setups, but the change is subtle at idle, and good at WOT. I don't think it got rediculously loud, and I'm glad about that considering road trips and the such, too much would make it annoying. Gotta cruise, I'll thinking of more hints and tips and reviews later tonight or tomorrow, today I'm gonna take it easy!!

[Rev.Hammer]

That is such awesome news to hear!! I would have loved to have been there with you on this!! I love helping my friends on thier cars!

[BMWDON]

You wouldn't love installing these Rev., if you got meat hooks like mine, it sucked bad trying to reach back along the long tubes to barely get a socket onto a bolt head and then squeeze through again to put on the ratchet then use fingertip force to turn a bolt that's got to go down a good inch, and every little motion you make might turn the stupid bolt 1/8 of a turn....no amount of "anything" you've gone with your right hand in the past could equal the cramps my right hand went through

[SilverMagRT]

Now my ass bone and shoulder blades are sore as hell from back crawling around on concrete for 8 hours. Hands aren't cramped up as badly as they were before going to bed ...

Sounds like an aspirin deficiency.

[moparman53]

Yeah, my bro has a 90 mustang lx 5.0, he was thinking to move up to a 2003-2004 Cobra, but after dealing with "today's car's and their cramped engine compartments", I think he's gonna get a old car where the engine bay had enough room to nap in, and we're going to tear that apart and go nuts. The lack of room to move a hand around in there is amazing. I could even use my turtle, the extra 1.5" of clearance for my gut to not hit the bottom of the car moving around was definitely needed. Now my ass bone and shoulder blades are sore as hell from back crawling around on concrete for 8 hours. Hands aren't cramped up as badly as they were before going to bed, and all the rust and dirt is outa my eyes

THis reminds me of the time I put headers on my '73 340 Duster. We had plenty of room to work, but still had to take the hood off so we could raise up the motor from it's mounts. We goofed up and hit the master cylinder and broke it. By this time, I was tired of messing with it, so I limped it over to the dealer with open headers to get it replaced.