First off. I cant even get the all the stock stuff off. I can't get the passeger side manifold and Cat out. (they are still connected). I can't even get the clamp bolts disconnected from the Cat without mashing the header against the head. If I put a couple of bolts back in the manifold then I won't be able reach the clamp bolts so I am stuck. I mean the drivers side slide right out once the car was high enough without even disconnecting the Cat piece from the manifold but the passenger side dosen't want to come out no matter what height and angle. We must have tried 10 different jack, stand and ramp combinations and the car was scary high. Should I cut the pipe in hallf with a salz all and just pull it out like that?

Secondly, so when we gave up on this, we tried to just get the driver side header in and couldn't do it. The car was high enough because I could stand the damn pass. header almost vertical. Took the oil filter out, and still no. It looks like primary #3 is hitting the K member. What should I do? I've heard of people grinding the K member but I am not sure of how or if I want to do that. At this rate I really don't see how the the pass. side can slide right in.
I also don't want to do whatever to the K member and then run into more problems with the steering shaft. My buddy and I are getting really nervous with the car up that high and us getting no where.

Third, how and where exactly do you jack it up for a header install. I mean changing oil was no prob but this is crazy. I jacked one side up to get it on a ramp, get both sides on ramps, jacked the car at the K member some more and maxed out my jack and jack stands. I know I can put the jack and stnads on wood blocks but I am not comfortable with going any higher. I had the jacks stands on the ends of the K member but then tried them behind the front wheels on the body. I keeped the rear on the ground because I thought with both ends in the air it would be more prone the tip. I really don't know what to do. We are wasting too much time with the pass. manifold and not gettin the driver header in. Any advice would be greatly appreciated

 

justs rip the old **** off anyway you can if you dont plan to ever re-use them. my cat to manifold bolts broke when i was removing mine. is the Y pipe at least off? i've never heard of many kooks install problems but you can remove the steering shaft and the drivers side will go up fine. the passanger side should be no problem at all either, just gotta play with it till it slides up. i had my rears on ramps and the my jack (16.5") up on a 4x4 piece of wood and that was enough clearance.

 

Just did this, you need to get some penetrating oil on the bolts use an extension with a swivel and maybe a breaker bar you CAN get them all off. IF all else fails you can sawzall I guess. But it is possible with the right tools. I think all I used is a deep well 15mm 6pt socket and a 6 inch extension with a swivel end.

As far as getting the drivers side in they don't "just slide in" you have to manuver it a bit twist it around try it at different angles (always straight up) also I had to remove the middle two spark plugs because it would hit those. But yeah after the oil filter comes off they do go in with some twisting after you get it you'll be like Oh **** that wasn't so bad

Make sure someone is holding the header while you get the bolts in don't be a dumbass like me and cross thread the bolts

 

i got the Y pipe off. Took some blood sweet and fire and broke to bolts off in my socket but wasn't bad at all.

I have got all the plugs out and even took my valvue covers off. My arms won't fit otherwise and it is only 8 bolt. I've got my buddy and bungee cords holding the stuff as well.

Tried that but no go. What di ou mean by always straight up? It seems that the curved piece of metal on the drivers side is in the way (part of K memeber?)

How high can you jack by the K member? I have a 3.5 ton jack under here and I had it maxed out. I definately had enough room just couldn't get the
one header in and the other manifold out

I read an install on Ls1camaro.net it and said something about dropiping the tranny mount but I don't know how to do that.

I will try again tomarrow. I think I will have to take a half day at work. Thanks for the replies. Hopefully there will be more.

 

have you tried the steering shaft removal. with that out of the way its easy as pie to get the header in since you can change the angle very easy and just put it up.

and dont fret, took me 3.5 days to install my jet hots

 

Actually I think your problem is the car is not high enough. I had to put my rear on ramps then the front on big jackstands as High as my 3.5 ton jack could go. I tried it the way you are doing and just couldn't get it in because of the angle. The tranny thing might work without the crossmember the tranny will come down quite a bit although on a 2002 I'm not sure how stiff the motor mounts will be (maybe its a non factor).

Once the car is up like that you put the header straight up IN FRONT of the k member where the oil filter was (thats why you have to take it off) You have to put it like 90 degrees different then it would seem then twist as it goes up and in. Get the car up and experiment. IF you K member was off then you'd have other issues. There is a tab there on the block but I cleared it BY A MILE so I don't see it being a problem for you. SOAK Those cat and manifold bolts down!

Hope that helps. If it doesn't and you get DESPERATE if I have time tommorow I'll try to get the car all the way up and put the header where it needs to be and take a picture my car has the heads off now for a cam and head swap (a result of my cross threading maybe it was intentional subconsiously ) But I'm not sure if I will have time tomorrow... Let me know.

Bobby

 

Actually JRP mine didn't come close the steering knuckle either. I know the part he is talking about its the K-member he is haveing a hard time getting past, you have to twist it up there almost 180 degrees. It the bulk of the header has to go in front of the kmember so that is the angle he needs. Plus I think the rear needs to be up. This was actually a joke of an install, not a slam against you Blaster but after working on LT1's and installing header a hundred times on those the Kooks install was a piece of cake, Hah of course I never did get it finished.....

I know where your hanging up its just hard to explain it how to get around it

 

best advice is get some rest, sleep on it. and when you have a chance to be refreshed and try again tomorrow im sure it will go a little more smoothly, atleast i hope lol caus eon friday im doing a lt install with headers of lesser quality than kooks. but im gonna grind down the k member before hand, remove the steering shaft and spark plugs cause i gotta change em anyways. just try to be patient, if its gonna take you a few days, take a few days. once they are in, you'll have this experience to laugh about over some beers with whomever is helping you. and you'll have a sweet *** sound and a decent amount more power to be worth every shed tear and drop of blood the install caused. Best of luck
a motto i live by, if at first i dont succeed, go have sex with a fat chick, have some drinks, sleep it off then go at it again tomorrow when you have a clear head free from anxiety.
T

 

You should drink THEN go have sex with the fat chick

 

oh yes i did get that bass ackwards didn't i

 

Yes, definitely jack up both the front AND the rear of the car to get it completely level. Put it up on four jackstands and put those jackstands on the very highest notch. If you have some good ones (my 3 and a half ton Craftsman jackstands worked just fine) your car ain't going anywhere.

For safety sake though, put the jack under the rear differential and just put your ramps back under the front tires and put some blocks of wood on top of the ramps so if for some reason the jackstands do fail, the car might fall a half an inch.

If you're having trouble with the driver's side header, just pull off the steering linkage like someone else suggested... that's what we did on my header install and they got up there just fine after that. Also, go ahead and thread up the header bolts once the header is in place and tighten them some so you can see if the header is going to bang against the k-member. Mine looked ok at first, but then when we tightened it, the header was actually up against the k-member... so we ended up using a sawzall to cut about an inch of clearance for it.

To get the passenger side exhaust stuff out, just use some penetrating lube (Liquid Wrench works wonders) and those bolts will come off... if you break something on those pipes, no biggie... you're not putting that stuff on again anyhow. Once you have everything out, the passenger side will slide in no problem.

Hope that helps, good luck!

 

[QUOTE=jrp]have you tried the steering shaft removal. with that out of the way its easy as pie to get the header in since you can change the angle very easy and just put it up.
QUOTE]

I haven't even gotten to that point. The header (pimary number #3) just gets stuck on the round K member part. I think I will remove the steering shaft just in case and maybe cut the round part abit. maybe I can sawz-all it. I don't want to get it past there somehow and find out when I tighten the bolts, it hits.

I have the sears 3.5 ton jack stands and rolling jack. I am confident in their strenght but I am unsure about the strength of where I place them under the front and rear. If I jack the rear up, can I leave the jacks on a lower setting? Won't that put stress on the rear jacks making them more prone to tip? Instal U t says to put the paws of the front on the subframe rail. Itseems that the paws don't sit in the crevese and only the tips touch. I had the front jacks and jack maxed out.

I just want to get the header in quick and then lower the car to a safer height (also so I can reach) to tighen the header bolts.

 

Got the headers on 5 out of 6 bolts on each. The passenger side was cake. The car was more then adequately lreaised. We grinded the driver's side K member a bit, removed the oil filter before hand but then I got stuck on the drain plug, so, needless to say, the car is getting an oil change. The worst part was the anticipation of success because I had to sit and wait for like 20 minutes while it drained until I found out the outcome, LOL.

Question, I reused my stock gasket should should I have put anything on it (sealer?). I just put the gasket on and used antiseaze with the header bolts. Thanks for all the help.

 

No sealer necessary for the header gaskets

 

I had the exact same issue with the round pinch on the k member . Once I ground that and pulled the oil filter / plug they slipped right it . It was a pita

 

I took my rear O2s out and just have the plugs exposed. (Off road pipe) What did you guys do to plug them up? I was thinking Electrical tape to protect the connectors and zip ties to secure them. Any suggestions?

I also took off the one bolt for the stering linkage but never had to pull it.
Any one know the torqu spec for that?

Also, when I was taking off my manifolds some of the bolts where a PITA to get out. They felt tight all the way while getiing them out even while taking the stress off of them (i.e lifting up on the manifold). When putting the headers in, I was very careful not to cross thread the head with the header bolts (had a buddy hold them until I got most of the bolts on). Put some Antiseeze on all of them and they all went in easy except the first and last bolt on the drivers side. I worked the front one in and out and the antiseze seemed to loosen it up in the threads each time, until I I was able to screw it all the way in without a prob. The last one, however was a BIG PITA . Just wondering if any one else had this trouble. Thanks.

Oh, for more of a helpful future reference to others, this config. provided me with more than adequate room.

For the rear end, I used the the lowest setting of the 3.5 ton jack stands under the rear inner sub frame rail and a 2 ton jack under the differential.
For the front I had the other two stands under the front subframe rail on notch four and the 3.5 jack (with a 1"x2" on the paw) under the K m ember.

 

Congrats have to change your sig now

 

Doing a header install and this would help. Thanks y'all!

 

If you are doing Kooks that would be alot of extra work! But if you want to do it anyways just look at it there are a couple of bolts to take out then it comes apart.