started my header project

[krese]

well, i placed the order and they came today.... i got everything out of the way on the driver side and it really was not that bad..... i did snap off 5 of the 6 bolts that held the stock y pipe/cats to the stock exhaust manifold. i am feeling manly because i did it with my little 3/8 drive and no breaker bar! rawr!!!! but on one of them i managed to jam the tip of my thumb in to the sharp lip of the k member. not only did i manage to split the skin at the nailbed i also managed to tear the nail away from the bed and jam it very good. i picked a few really good words to yell and kept right on going till i felt my gloves getting soggy w/ blood after a bandage of duct tape i snapped off 2 more bolts then moved on to getting the driver side mani off which came off easily except for the 2nd to last bolt in back... that was kinda hard but got it..... header went right in. tomorrow i know im in for a fight with the pass side. i have a few questions:

i know i need to take off the starter... does that just fall right out? go back in easy???

steering knuckle easy to put back in?? it came out kinda hard...

going to do plugs... what kind? ac delco?? gap change with headers/tune??


here area few pics:

just front and back bolt finger tight as im going to do plugs/wires tomorrow:


these looked good but had some slag inside a few of the primaries...still will be a HUGE improvement over stock of course....

[pajeff02]

Starter should unbolt easily -- make sure the battery is disconnected and do not let it hang from the wires. It is unlikely, but if there are any shims that come out they need to go back in.

[headpecker]

I didnt have to pull my starter when I did mine,so I'd try it first!!

[headpecker]

Whoops,my bad,just noticed you're working on a 96! Sorry man!

[5.0THIS]

As far as plugs, you might consider some iridium plugs. As much of a pain as plugs can be on an LT1, put something in that will last awhile.

[transamtom]

As far as plugs, you might consider some iridium plugs. As much of a pain as plugs can be on an LT1, put something in that will last awhile.

I used the NGK Iridiums in mine when I did the headers in my car.

[98maro]

plugs..ac delco iridiums or rapidfire... thats it,,, any other plug,,, is not worth it or to expensive

[krese]

welp, today didn't go so well... i got everything out of the way but i could not get the pass side header in... tomorrow i will try to jack up that side of the motor and slide it in from the top.

it took me 2 hours to get the last bolt in the back holding the stock mani on. it was VERY hard to get at because of the shock tower and the a/c box. it was impossible to get at from the bottom. fun fun fun...

[TLS_Addict]

Damn man! I cant wait to hear that thing when you are all done though. Looks like you are still working on the intake gasket leak?

What are you going to do for a tune?

[krese]

Damn man! I cant wait to hear that thing when you are all done though. Looks like you are still working on the intake gasket leak?

What are you going to do for a tune?

yeah, i finished the intake but my oil leak got worse after so i figure i must have made a mistake somewhere. my guess is that i didn't clean the surface good enough and the RTV didn't seal. i thought since i have it all a part it would be a good time to clean up/paint the intake and throw on the egr block off plates and do the headers.

i sent my pcm out to pcmforless.


i was able to get the pass side header in from the top by unbolting the pass side motor mount and jacking up the motor a few inches but i gave up for today after fighting to even get the header bolts started. i will try again tomorrow and figure out how to do my plugs/wires. i ended up getting NGK tr55ix plugs. i have heard great things about them for a long time so i thought i'd toss them in...

[TLS_Addict]

Groovy man.

What wires you going with?

You may as well throw on some heads and a better intake as well while you are at it. haha

[krese]

Groovy man.

What wires you going with?

You may as well throw on some heads and a better intake as well while you are at it. haha

MSD wires. the only other thing i will do is a cam in the future. no need to do heads/intake since i will be more than happy

[TLS_Addict]

Car looks great man. Hope to get to see it in person some time. That year T/A is one of my favorites.

[jiveass]

my headers wouldnt go in at all either until i replaced the motor mounts...after that, they went in no problem....

[krese]

so, i ordered stage 8 header bolts but i got the 3/4" ones instead of the 1"

big deal? i dunno, there is about 1/2" inside the head... enough??

[pajeff02]

From a strength standpoint, as long as the thread depth at least equals the thickness of the bolt it is adequate. Iron heads I would not worry about. Aluminum heads I would want a longer bolt.

[TLS_Addict]

From a strength standpoint, as long as the thread depth at least equals the thickness of the bolt it is adequate. Iron heads I would not worry about. Aluminum heads I would want a longer bolt.

I believe his are aluminum so he may want to get some longer bolts. Your word of thumb is what I was told before as well.

[krese]

From a strength standpoint, as long as the thread depth at least equals the thickness of the bolt it is adequate. Iron heads I would not worry about. Aluminum heads I would want a longer bolt.

thanks, i have read the same thing in a few places and i have also read where quite a few people have used the 3/4" lockers with no issues.... i am not sure what direction i am going to go. i'd rather be safe than sorry but don't want to spend another chunk of cash as this has already gone over budget.

i do have some small updates though. i have not worked on it much the past 2 days but i got my pcm back from pcmforless and i have to say i'm VERY happy with how quickly they got it back to me! they got it on Friday and I have it back on Tuesday, great service! would be nice if i was ready to fire the damn car up....

i had to BFH the floor pan on the pass side because the header was hitting it and i would not have been able to get the back bolt in or seal the header to the head properly. i also found that the header on the pass side is just a cunthair away from the motormount bracket so i'm going to have to go to harbor freight and buy a cheap die grinder. i figure i'll need to grind ~10mm of the bracket away as in this pic:


my wires and wire socks came today so after i grind away the motor mount i will be able to do plugs and wires. i can tell that is going to be a BITCH with the headers in place. i will prolly leave them loose so i can move them a bit if needed.

[krese]

doh, forgot this:

[TLS_Addict]

Very cool man.

I am thinking a sound clip is in order after you finish up the job. LT1's sound better to me than LS1's.