dont strip them.

 

That sucks! I dropped the driver side manifold last night and will be doing the passenger side tonight. So far none of my bolts have been stuck. In fact they were almost too easy.

 

you'll need penetrant like pb blaster, a pipe to fit over your ratchets for leverage, an exhaust pipe cutter, an exhaust piece to connect your ypipe and catback, tape up the strut towers so they don't get scratched when you're putting the headers in, tape the fenders so they don't get scratched when you're leaning over them for hours.

 

im in the middle of my header swap and i broke off 2 bolts connecting header to downpipe on pass side, and broke 1 off the drivers and got one off, theyre rusted to ****, and to top it off stripped the last bolt so now i hav to try to punch it out or something.. i threw some wrenches ha, needed a cigarette and a beer after that

 

Here is a private message to a fellow member who asked about the oil dipstick and the steering knuckle. Here is my personal write up.

REMOVAL FOR STEERING LINKAGE

I am doing pretty good. The LT's were a bit of a pain, it just takes time. The steering linkage, is connected with two bolts. The first bolt is up at the top by your master cylinder (the big saucer looking thing). There will be a shroud plastic cover over the bolt. Just take the bolt out and you are almost done. The second bolt is located right under the knuckle that is in the middle of the steering linkage. The bolt comes right before where the steering linkage connects to the rack and pinion. So you take out the top bolt and the bottom bolt. I believe the bottom bolt is a mertric and the top is a standard. Once you remove these two bolts take your hand and grap the portion below the steering knuckle, and push up and back, so that the top part of the steering shaft slides over the part that the top bolt bolted into. Then I took a rubber malte a took the top of it and lightly hit it on the knuckle part of the steering linkage. You will see the top part of the steering linkage slide over the top where the bolt was bolted. After this is done, and you have removed the bottom part (the steering linkage is no more attached to the rack and pinion then grab the bottom portion of the steering linkage which is under the knuckle and pull down, this will cause the top now to slide do and out. Just remeber to put the steering linkage on the way you took it off, I tighted my bolts on both really tight when I put m steering linkage back on.

REMOVAL FOR OIL DIPSTICK

The oil dipstick is located on the passanger side of course. You will need to remove you A.I.R connections on your passagner side, the rubber tubes, and then your set. The dipstick is a little tricky. What I did was I jacked up my car and put jackstand on the front of the car. Then i got my friend to grab the DS. There is a bolt which is located up up along the oil dipstick. I would find the dipstick it is in the block some, and follow that up, you will hit like a little bracket / brace thing that is bolted to the block. It is actually more of a flang that anything. Take that bolt out I believe it is a 1/8 in bolt, or metric (something in that size range). Once you take that bolt up, take your hand on the flange part that you just unbolted, and have a friend up top to menueve the DS out. I would grab that flange and slightly pull up and wiggle genelty (VERY GENTLY) left to right, you will see the DS start to move it's way out of the block. Keep on wiggling the DS till it is completely out of then block, then have your friend grab the DS and pull it completely out of the car. Make sure that you do not bend the DS. The DS will go in a lot easier than it came out trust me. If you cannot get the DS out, b/c you cannot grip it, take some vise grips and lightly get as close as you can to where the DS meets the block, and clamp onto the DS, and then slightly pull up and wiggle left to right just like before until it comes out.

If you need anymore help at all, I will help in anyway I can. Ask if you have questions or concerns on anything during this header install or any car problem.


Later,
Devin