I have a few comments and concerns. This text got a little bit long, but I don't think there is anything really difficult in here First the comments: Thanks for all the suggestions you guys have made over the years. I found all kinds of hints to get those headers in easier, ie. jacking up the engine, moving the steering wheel, starting from the bottom, remove the starter, etc. These made the job much simpler. Problems I encountered: Once the starter is removed, it is a major bitch to reinstall with the headers in the way. I pulled the end piece of the steering off, dropped the steering linkage out of the way, the used my skinnier fingers to get the bolts in. The passenger side just barely touches the shock tower. I found that installing the driver side was MUCH easier, once the motor was jacked up a couple inches. In fact, once it went it, I had to prop it up from underneath because it wanted to fall right out. Driver side has LOTS of clearance, luckily for me, since I have to take this side off to install the spark plugs (GT40P heads). If I had to take the passenger off to get to the plugs, I would stop right here and get some custom made headers. They will not move more than 1/4" or so before binding up. ***CONCERNS*** 1. Biggest concern is my trans-cooler lines sit right on the header. Can I run braided steel lines and get rid of the bent tubing? Any other suggestions? Or just leave it alone...with the logic that only 1-2" of tubing will get hot and the rest of the tubing will act as a cooler as the fluid passes the hot spot. 2. After doing the shock tower cut (best thing I ever did to this car, should have done it years ago!!! LOTS of room!) there is fine metal dust on everything. I ran about 3 quarts of oil down the dizzy hole after I drained the oil and antifreeze out of the oil pan (from head swap). Put in a new filter and 5 fresh quarts of cheap Wal-Mart 10W-30. How long should I run this before doing another oil and filter change? 3. I did an oil system prime just because everything has sat open, heads off, water in the pan, dust everywhere for over a month. I was happy to see that no water or dirty grime came out of my pushrods. Should be a nice clean start with plenty of lube and no grime or water in there. But, I still want to change the oil out pretty quickly. Sorry this was so long. Hope nobody gets scared off due to the length
I'm curius what is going on with your engine. I have a 5.0 with the larger 164tooth Bellhousing & flywheel. My passenger side header slides in and out without touching anything. It was actually a pain putting it in by myself because it kept sliding out before I could get out from under the car and start bolting it from the top. For the starter .. put the back of the starter in first .. tilt it towards the front to the car and then insert it into the bell ... it actually slides in and out fairly easy once you figure out the puzzle. I may have had to turn the wheels in one direction or the other but didn't disconnect any of the steering linkage. The lower Starter bolt is easy. The upper I had to use every extentions I had to put the upper bolt in down through the engine compartment and header pipes. The driver side also goes in easy once you jack the engine up several inches. I had to very slighlty ding it in one spot to clear the 164t bellhousing ... and then another spot to clear the manual tranny z-bar ... There is plenty of room on each side with no rubbing whatsover on the shock towers ... or anywhere else for that matter ...
I myself would change the oil and filter at about 500 miles....then every 3 months or 3000 miles with a new filter and and a quart between oil changes, I am also a firm believer in Rislone oil treatment......I've locked my motor a few times and believe this is what saved the motor....... Hotrod-Daddy
Tranny lines are not that tough to remake. Take yours off and find some steel brake tubing at a parts store. Make sure the fittings are the same thread size etc. I think Terry did a 'how-to' for making flared ends. Maybe he has pics? Get a decent set of tubing benders and start duplicating the existing lines up to the point that you are having trouble. Make sure the car is up off the ground so that you can test fit. I cut mine at this point and used a union to join them That way the part that is correct can be laid aside until you are able to find a alternate route for the remainder. This takes lots of test fitting. Make sure you don't have sharp angles and good angles. Keep it away from heat as much as possible. Even for 2-3 inches it can defeat the purpose of a cooler. Make sure that they don't spring back and forth. Hardware stores carry rubber insulated tabs to attach them at 'spring' points where they move too much. As far as your fitment issues-perhaps it is the heads you are using. They may be cast totally different than std. 302/351 heads causing problems. Mine fall out when unbolted as Dan's do. Good luck to you. Seth
I am starting to wonder, there is mild fender damage on the passenger side, and the front lip of the door was caught during a "fender-bender" when my wife's great-grandmother was driving this car. My allignment guy never mentioned anything being out of line, but I wonder if she hit that garage hard enough to bend in my shock tower a little. In this case, 1/2" would make a difference in ease of installing the headers. Also, what are your feelings on braided brake line rather than tubing? I would love to lose all the tubing on my car and convert to braided. Looks good, easier to work with, etc. Kinda expensive, though.
Did you buy the headers new or used? Are you sure you have the correct headers? They can be mislabeled from the factory... My feeling is that you have the correct headers, but I just wanted to throw that out. If you had any other part number, it would seem to me that it wouldn't even be close. Dave
Scooper, awhile back I had reccommened against those heads and met with a small fire storm against me from some other board members. You now see some of the problems one gets into when there are better heads to use and less hassle in the end reguardless of how good the 40p heads may be. On the spring towers., over time, rust, accident and just plain fatigue the towers can start to fold inward at the top. This is one reason there is an additional support accross the bottom under the engine on most v8 cars. It is a good idea to get the distance demension from tower to tower off a known good car and then make a bar to go accross the top to help with this potential problem. Good luck on the rest of the project.
These headers were used, slightly, still painted. Sent to me in the original box which was clearly labeled 6901. The guy I bought them from used them on a Maverick, and had dented in the appropriate areas with a BFH where the steering components hit it. I think Bluegrass is right on the "sagging" of the towers, likely to be further encouraged by any collision(s) the great-grandmother was involved in. I might do some measuring to verify this, and maybe bend them back out with a ram and monte-carlo them apart. Or maybe, just live with the tight fit on that side. I noticed a thread today regarding braided stainless trans line... As far as choosing GT40Ps, ever play with a Rubik's cube? There is a goal, not always a logical, or meaningfull goal (sometimes downright meaningless!), but most of the fun is "trying" to reach it, the rest of the fun is actually reaching it and having a different, but effective (I hope) setup. I do nothing the easy way. And seldom right the first time. But it makes my hobby exciting, and keeps me awake at nights thinking about it I never wanted aluminum heads, especially after working with aluminum manifolds with their corrosion at wet points, stripped threads, and the extra compression needed to get them to perform well (compression which I have NONE of at this time!). I chose from the beginning to use the best/cheap iron heads I could find...GT40Ps. Same thing with the headers, we all know they will be a bitch to install, but most of us don't spend an extra $300 for custom made. We jack up the motor, loosen this, remove that, cut shock towers, and VOILA! headers are on! And, I have never heard any complaints with the performance of any headers installed, regardless of how difficult they were to install. Anyway, my biggest complaint with this project is that I now have to save for the next few weeks to buy SPARK PLUGS, at $13 each, before I can start it up. Oh well...part of the puzzle!
What I was getting at was sometimes the wrong part comes in the right box. Why did he have to BFH them? I have never had a set of 6901s that needed 'clearancing'. These TriYs I have now are the first set of headers I have ever had to bend. Dave
I didn't need a BFH on mine. I expected to need to clear the idler arm-was told so but it does not interfere. $13 for spark plugs? Enlighten me. What kind of plugs do these heads need that require over $100 to be spent? Do you need $150 wires to go with the $100+ plugs? Seth
I didn't need to BFH mine, it would have had plenty of clearance, but I have read where a couple of people did it to clear some steering components. Luckily, he didn't hit it so much to constrict flow, just flattened it a little, looks like if you bottomed out and scraped the bottom flat. Hot-rod Daddy--shim? Hmmm, sounds like a good idea. The plugs are shorty header plugs by Accel Part #P526S, $12.99 each at Jegs and Summit. The rest are 3 or 4 dollars each, but this one size is $13. I need shorter plugs and 90' plug boots to clear the headers and leave a little "cool space". Regular size plugs will fit, but they are smaller diameter and longer shank than the stock plugs. But they would come really close to touching the headers and they would be much more difficult to remove/install. If someone knows of where I can get shorty/header plugs cheaper, please tell!!! This is the one cost holding the completion of the job back...I have a hard time writing that big of a check for such small and usually cheap parts. I think I can find them cheaper, somewhere. Any plug wires with the 90 degree boot would work, so I will just cut mine and add the boots for $12. One more thing, regarding the headers...the OUTER diameter of my primaries is 1-5/8". That sounds about right. These things look kinda big, and I was wondering if I got larger tubes than the 6901s, which would explain the tight fit. But this sounds like the right size.
Plugs I used a company online called www.sparkplugs.com They saved me a ton of money for irriduim plugs for my motorcycle. They run about $13 ea and I got them for the same price as a std platium plug. You could call them and see if they have a plug to suit your needs.
