What a pain in the ***. I'm happy with the results though. Open headers sounds unbelievable. Tomorrow the car goes to the muffler shop to get a custom ypipe and than it's off to the Vette Doctors for some tuning.

Joe

 

Way to go man! Mine are off to get coated. So what`s the hardest part of the install? Did you use the bolts supplied or did you buy some Stage 8`s or ARP`s?

 

I bought the Stage 8 bolts. I think the hardest part was getting the driverside header on. That was a pain in the a$$. I actually had to jack the engine up to fit it in.

Joe

 

Congrats. I've finally healed from my install <img border="0" title="" alt="[Razz]" src="gr_tounge.gif" /> Drivers side was the worst because you did HAVE to take off the steering shaft.

I'm waiting on my MAFT to get here to tune mine in too, I'm running really rich now.

 

I finished mine up about 2 weeks ago and absolutely love them. I am running a little rich but, i can still definately feel a SOTP difference. I re-used stock bolts with the lock washer's supplied from holley. The bolts that come with it are way too short IMHO. I dont think it was too tough, and i bet i could do it about twice as fast the second time around. I also think that it would be a ton easier without EGR and AIR.

Having no A/C also helps a lot. ( i decided to get rid of mine right when i started the header install <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="gr_stretch.gif" />

-Ryan

 

Congrats on the headers Joe, the Hookers are nice pieces too, enjoy. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="gr_grin.gif" /> <img border="0" alt="[Camaro]" title="" src="graemlins/camaro.gif" />

 

DO NOT use the bolts they supply you with. I partially stripped 2 of my heads because they are too damn short. I used the stock bolts and they worked fine.

 

I'm hopefully gonna tackle this in the coming weeks. How long would you all say it took you to do the install? I'm getting the y-pipe to. How high did you have to jack the car up? Any help and advice would be appreciated. I think my EGR is going to go bye-bye when install time comes around to <img border="0" alt="[devil]" title="" src="graemlins/gr_devil.gif" />

 

Here is what I wrote on another forum:
I installed the hookers on my car and helped a friend install the FLP's. The Hookers are definetly more involved time wise but not really hard. The steering link HAS to come out and the oil diverter valve HAS to come out, but after that- it's a walk in the park. The passenger side valve cover doesn't need to come off, but the coil pack does. Take everything in and out from the bottom. I put mine on rhino ramps at all four corners and then when I was ready to put the header in, I jacked up that one side REALLY HIGH. Once the header was in place, I lowered the car back down to the ramps. Use all of the proper gaskets, if you are going to reuse your old bolts, which is fine, I suggest buying a die to clean the threads. We did not do this when installing my friends FLP's and the first two bolt we did were a major pain in the ***. We almost cross thread one hole and had to use a tap to clean the threads and straighten them out to get the bolt all the way in. We started using a die on all the bolts before applying never sieze and the rest of the install went like dream. We could get all the bolts almost flush by hand. None of that 1/64 of a turn before dropping the wrench, scrapping knuckles, bend over, pick up the wrench, set it on the bolt, get 1/64 of a turn, drop wrench....
Make sure you set the pipes all the way up in the expanded outer pipe BEFORE you start tighteng down. Make certain that all are tight and NOT leaking. If the collector on either side is leaking you WILL get an SES light. After you get on the gas, a slight backflow occurs pulling fresh air in from that hole. That air screws up the o2 sensors and sends out an insufficient switching code. Same with the EGR and AIR tube connections.
I don't know what year car you have, but I have an '01 and I purchased the '98 AIR tubes for my install. They work on the flange end, but the rubber hose from the pump is then too short. I ended up bending mine. It was easier. Now I have to pay a restocking fee.
Make sure to buy or fab restrictor plates for both AIR tube flages. Thunder racing will sell you the stainless block off plates. They work perfectly.
Make sure to follow the directions, when finished- start the car up on the ramps, crawl around and check for leaks, take the car out and drive the sh%t out of it and let it sit and cool down, then go back and retighten everything. Enjoy. These headers kick ***.

 

What gaskets did everyone use for the headers? The paper ones that come with the headers; order new ones from GM; reuse the old ones; buy some Fel-Pro gaskets?

 

I always just reuse the stockers

 

I reused the stock bolts and purchased
new GM Gaskets, they are made for the heads.
The install was much easier than I could
have hoped. You will love the sound your
car will make.

 

how long did the install take? This is on a 98 TA

<small>[ August 08, 2002, 12:23 AM: Message edited by: 2QuikTA ]</small>

 

The install took about 12 hours or a course of two days. All the old stuff that had to come off took about 3 hours and the rest of time was spent trying to get the headers in. The passenger side went right in but the bolts were a pain in the *** to get in. The driverside on the other hand was a pain in the a$$. I had to unbolt the motor mount and jack the motor up to get it in. Once I did that it was fine the bolts were alot easier then the passenger side. After the it was just putting new plugs in and the wires. If I had to do it again I wouldn't have done it cause it was a pain in the a$$ but this was my first ever header install. All in all I'm happy with the results. Car sounds crazy.

Joe

 

it took me abotu an hour to remove all the old stuff and 2 to put everything back on. that was in the drive way with air tools. of course i had the help of a friend that had done them before but only on a lift.