Hooker longtube headers touching body of car
Thread Starter
Staging Lane
Joined: Feb 2013
Posts: 56
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Hooker longtube headers touching body of car Hello, last summer I installed some hooker longtube headers on my 2002 z28. It took me about a full weekend to do. I was eager to get everything done so I once I start getting things going, I never really took the time to check clearance. Well I got everything installed, and got a street tune done by a local tuner. After a little while I noticed a vibration and figured my header was probably touching something. Here is a picture of my drivers side header
As you can see its touching the lip of that black part (k member?) and also its resting on the top of it. Is there anything I can do to fix this without having to remove the header? Someone told me that if I change out my motor mounts it should fix the problem because my old mounts are probably sagging and new mounts would bring the engine up a little bit? I know doing mounts would require me to remove the headers.
So is there anything I can do without removing the header? If not, will doing motor mounts fix this for sure?
As you can see its touching the lip of that black part (k member?) and also its resting on the top of it. Is there anything I can do to fix this without having to remove the header? Someone told me that if I change out my motor mounts it should fix the problem because my old mounts are probably sagging and new mounts would bring the engine up a little bit? I know doing mounts would require me to remove the headers.
So is there anything I can do without removing the header? If not, will doing motor mounts fix this for sure?
Thread Starter
Staging Lane
Joined: Feb 2013
Posts: 56
Likes: 0
Thread Starter
Staging Lane
Joined: Feb 2013
Posts: 56
Likes: 0
I have run both 1 3/4 and 1 7/8 Hooker Super comps. I had to notch that part of the k-member. After that I had no problem with stock mounts. I have since changed to poly, I don't think they will fix your problem since my stock mounts were good when I pulled them and no matter what, that arear needed ground / notched.
edit: just realized that you said driver side. I had to do that only to the pass side. and only to the .5" lip. Never touched the top. Check you mounts like others have said.
edit: just realized that you said driver side. I had to do that only to the pass side. and only to the .5" lip. Never touched the top. Check you mounts like others have said.
Thread Starter
Staging Lane
Joined: Feb 2013
Posts: 56
Likes: 0
I have run both 1 3/4 and 1 7/8 Hooker Super comps. I had to notch that part of the k-member. After that I had no problem with stock mounts. I have since changed to poly, I don't think they will fix your problem since my stock mounts were good when I pulled them and no matter what, that arear needed ground / notched.
edit: just realized that you said driver side. I had to do that only to the pass side. and only to the .5" lip. Never touched the top. Check you mounts like others have said.
edit: just realized that you said driver side. I had to do that only to the pass side. and only to the .5" lip. Never touched the top. Check you mounts like others have said.
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I'll tell ya right now if I had to do it again i would think long and hard about not doing the job for 300 lol. And you could try rocking the motor back and forth but mainly the rubber just sags with age dropping the engine. Mine had 100k on them and were 8 years old. The polys raised the motor up a good bit and mine didnt look or show any signs of being worn ut the headers hit and the y pipe banged on the floor. After poly's no more issues
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Staging Lane
Joined: Feb 2013
Posts: 56
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I'll tell ya right now if I had to do it again i would think long and hard about not doing the job for 300 lol. And you could try rocking the motor back and forth but mainly the rubber just sags with age dropping the engine. Mine had 100k on them and were 8 years old. The polys raised the motor up a good bit and mine didnt look or show any signs of being worn ut the headers hit and the y pipe banged on the floor. After poly's no more issues
Would there be a way to measure from the top of my intake to the bottom of the firewall, or whatever that area is that overhangs over the intake? Could someone give me a measurement as to how close their intake is to that firewall overhang above the intake so I can compare with my stock mounts? I know there is some play there, I can put a board under my oil pan and jack the engine up slightly. Not sure if mounts really will bring it up or not.
Another question I had was do any manufactures sell poly mounts that are already inside the clamshell? My garage won't drill the rivets out of my clamshell to put poly mounts in, they just want to replace the mounts with new factory mounts. They said they can give me the clamshells to put the polys in myself and return them to be reinstalled, but would make things much quicker if there are polymounts already inside the clamshell ready to go.
If you decide to do the mounts yourself... You can put the car on jack stands, support the engine with a cherry picker and lower the k member down far enough to pull the mounts out. 6 bolts for the k member, the sway bar bracket bolts, and the bottom stands for the motor mounts. then you can get a wrench up there to take off the top bolts.
notch that k member too while its lowered just to be sure.
notch that k member too while its lowered just to be sure.
if you are an a4, have a buddy sit in the car with his foot on the brake and shift through each gear. You will see a lot of movement with your motor. You can also shine a light and look for tears, or use a pry bar and block of wood to avoid damaging anything and see if you can get it to rock.
if they are original, it's time to do them anyways.
if they are original, it's time to do them anyways.
Thread Starter
Staging Lane
Joined: Feb 2013
Posts: 56
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Could anyone with poly mounts or solid mounts do a measurement like this to compare with mine? The top of my intake is about 3 inches below that overhang. That is from the very top of the rib on the intake. If you could take a picture like that, or just report back how much space is between that gap would help me a bunch here. I am about to order mounts but want to make sure I am making the right decision.
I changed to poly while doing my TSP 1-7/8 install and it still touches there... going to heat it up and bend it out of the way or notch it... on my car at least if u pry it gives u enough clearance to take care of it without removing the headers
11 Second Club
Joined: Mar 2012
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From: South Florida
The first picture is exactly how my hooker 1 3/4" headers contacted the subframe. I didn't have to remove the headers to replace my motor mounts. Maybe he's talking about doing it from the top? I put Spohn solid motor mounts in & that was one of the best things about it. It made the headers tuck up awesome & no more contact. I can't run a strut tower brace anymore as it will hit the intake manifold.
I had the same problem with my 1 3/4" Hooker LT's.. had to take a dremel and shave some of the K-member and then it was fine.
Not trying to start anything or discourage you, just speaking from recent experience.. Hooker headers are complete garbage for our cars IMO. The fitment, the quality, everything. I recently took out the (literally) rusted out 3 year old Hooker headers from my T/A and dropped in some Speed Engineering 1 7/8".. even with the tubes being bigger the fitment is 100x better. They went in SO much easier and nothing is even close to touching. Quality and design is light years ahead of the Hookers too. Just my $.02 from having had both sets; the SE Headers are extremely affordable and stainless steel as well.
Not trying to start anything or discourage you, just speaking from recent experience.. Hooker headers are complete garbage for our cars IMO. The fitment, the quality, everything. I recently took out the (literally) rusted out 3 year old Hooker headers from my T/A and dropped in some Speed Engineering 1 7/8".. even with the tubes being bigger the fitment is 100x better. They went in SO much easier and nothing is even close to touching. Quality and design is light years ahead of the Hookers too. Just my $.02 from having had both sets; the SE Headers are extremely affordable and stainless steel as well.