d_e_weiser

I'm taking the exhaust off completely next week and throwing a set of Edlebrock long tubes on it and a custom exhaust. Its an 02 formula with completely stock pipes curious if anyone out there has some dos or don'ts they care to share about the removal.

Im keeping the EGR, discarding the Air Injection, no cats, tricking the rear 02's and have harness extensions for the upstream 02's....missing anything?

appreciate any insight guys

Cajun ELESS-ONE

iv done 2 installs so far. one ls one lt. spray the header bolts with pb blaster every day up until the install day. have at last 2 jacks and several jackstands. jack it up as high as possible. both headers will go in from the bottom. it will take some force, but they will. do your motor mounts while you are there. get the gm mls gaskets. dont use the ones that come with the headers. remove the spark plugs before you take the stock manifolds off. get a hold of a sawsall. its faster to cut the exhaust you dont need, then trying to unbolt the collector. it will be rusted on.

cali_bear2003

iTrader: (7)

The rust will be dependent upon where the car has lived it's life. I agree in that you will need the car up as high as possible. It's not a hard job, but rather a royal pain.

Toddoky

Is the car your daily driver? If so, have a contingency plan in place for transportation in case you discover broken exhaust manifold bolts or break one or two of them once you get into the removal of the manifolds. No matter how much penetrating oil you spray on the bolts beforehand, it's not guaranteed that you won't experience the dreaded broken manifold bolt fiasco and it will need to be dealt with if you do.

RevGTO

iTrader: (12)

Re-use your stock gaskets or get new GM ones. Don't use any that come with the headers unless they are GM. You may have to take the oil filter off to angle the driver's side up there, and/or grind off the casting lug on the block.

One thing I didn't do and wish I did was install header studs. Goodbye bolt issues.

Darth_V8r

iTrader: (4)

Recommend doing poly motor mounts while you're in there. And read the sticky -- it's very well done

Mazzenger

iTrader: (5)

Be safe first off. Yes and disconnect your battery.

Take your oil filter bypass housing off as well.
I would recommend taking your coil packs and brackets off too.

Depending on the gaskets you get, you may cut a small sliver out of the front and back bolt hole of the gasket that way you can slide it over the header bolts prior to tightening them.

Its not necessary, but a second set of hands to pull the header through is helpful.

The whole process is pretty straight forward and not hard.

Get it up in the air pretty stinking high too.

1bdbrd

iTrader: (12)

Buy a set of header studs on ebay. They are $25 and make the job 100 times easier. Also, get a pair of truck jack stands as you can get the car higher on those.

Also, fyi, your car being an 02 doesn't have EGR so you won't be able to keep that.

donman

Definitely read the Sticky above. There are a lot of good tips in there.

https://ls1tech.com/forums/generatio...otsa-pics.html

I guess I should add, if you are not doing the mounts skip that section. I took everyone's advice and did the poly motor mounts. At the time my car only had 29,000 miles on it and they were beginning to tear. PITA to do, but I am glad I took their advice.

Don

xleilvparc

The rust will be dependent upon where the car has lived it's life.

RollinSScamaro

iTrader: (25)

Just finished my speed engineering 1 7/8" headers last night. Still need to install the y-pipe but so far with the poly motor mounts and headers I have about 14 hours into it doing it myself. It would have been nice to have an extra hand once in a while, but it can be done with the right tools and patience. I would highly recommend poly mounts, they are way better quality and the rubber once wear out quick. I did not need to pull my oil filter but I did remove the coil packs so I had more space. The only pain is the passenger rear bolt on the coil pack and i honestly just left it out when I was done. Follow the write up for sure, lots of good pointers. I think my car was anndndbout 13-14" off the ground, which is way less than everyone recommends but I am a smaller guy, but it worked for me. I also agree with the eBay header studs, more clamping force than bolts, only problem was I couldn't put them in before hand on the passenger side because they hit the header when pulling it up to the motor. Good luck!