Help! Doing headers. 305 TBI
what is that box on the left side of the engine. It has heater lines going to it and 2 electric things with 4 electric wires coming out? Its not the heater valve it some other thing. Is it a smog thing?
thanks

 

Yea, thats your smog thing. It bolts to the back of your smog pump and I think there is a screw on the bottom side of it. Take those off and it'll come out. The hoses should slide right out with a little twisting. Its so useless I wanted to vomit when I took mine off.

 

I believe it's the AIR diverter valve you are referring to. And yes get rid of it.

 

ya I kinda figured it out when I saw the line to the smog pump. O2BQIK confirmed it for me. THANKS! I thought they were coolant lines before but they didn't have clamps on them. We got everything off so far except the passanger side rear bolt and the Y pipe. Any tips on that one? This was MUCH easier than I thought it would be so far. Its just time consuming.

 

Comes right out man, don't worry about it. Goes bye bye with the rest of the AIR system.

Heres where it used to be:

 

I think I'm gonna leave it in. I have to get it smogged in Feb.

 

HrdRockA4305: if you wanna clean that area up a little more, you can bypass that heater control valve thingy. JPrevost has a good write up on how to do it on his site.

 

you think its fun getting that stuff out. Just wait until you put those headers back in there . It took me 2 hrs to get all of that stuff out and a day and half to get the headers back in there. Much less the 3 sets of spark wires that I burned up before I got a set that was tough enough and routed well enough to withstand the headers.

 

I'm with brharris...

It didn't take me as long to put my headers back in but it is a pain. The last bolt on the passenger side is a pain...the only thing I could squeeze back there was a stubby open end and did some hammering on it to break it free. You can use a standerd size open end to get it snug again after the headers get installed.

The Y pipe...just cut it out. You are going to have to have it welded back together so you might as well not try to break eleven years of rust. If you feel up to a work out you can use the old hacksaw...but an exhaust pipe cutter is alot easier.

When installing the driver's side header, take the rocker cover off, unbolt the joint in the steering shaft, and wedge it in....and that's the easy side

good luck!

 

Yeah, I was sitting here staring at the picture thinking about it last night. I should check it out, I haven't been to his site for a long time.

 

update:
my friend and I were doing them all day and we're almost done. The drivers side went in like butter. NO problems there. The pass side was satan himself. We had to move the ac, the freon or whatever it is burst out, had to drop the starter, had to take the steel heater line out, the last bolt on that side wouldn't come out. I finally had the idea to put some nuts on the stud to get it more distance away from the manifold so it could be gotten out better. They gave us the wrong gaskets and bolts in the Hooker 2055 box. They were bolts for some s-10 v8 swap headers or something. The locktite spilled on 2 of the header bolts and dried solid so we had to go get new bolts...............

we should have taken out the oil dipstick too. Anyone know how I should do that?

 

you unbolt the dipstick tube from the block and lift it out of the side of the block.

I think I forgot to put the bolt back in. last year.

 

Umm the dipstick gets bolted to one of the exhuast manifold bolts. When ya take that bolt out, the dip stick should just flop arround. Just pull up on it and it will come outta the block. It is just pressed fitted into it .

Kat

 

update
all done. I think I need more fuel pressure or something. Its not as big a differance as I thought it would be. Maybe the cat needs to break in.

 

Gee Tas, sorry i read this late. I could have maybe saved you some time. I found out the easiest way to put the passenger side header on was to loosen the motor mount bolts, put a piece of wood between the oil pan and a floor jack and lift the motor up and fit it up from underneath. Wasn't to bad, was still a pain but worked effectively. I think it took me like 6 or 7 hours to get mine completely on.

 

ya the instrutions said to do that but that seemed more dangerous than taking out the starter and moving the AC. Think I should put the bracket back on the front of the starter that goes to the block?

 

Are you sure there's no exhaust leaks? If so, it might make the 02 sensor sending a low voltage reading to the computer; increasing fuel delivery.

 

come on...u guys are slow. my header install took 10 minutes...literally. its much easier with the motor removed

 

When I put my headers on, I put them on after I dropped the engine in because I didn't want to bash them up when dropping the engine in. Took me 20 min to put them on and Y-pipe.

 

only a mod could get away with an exhaust post in the TBI board

 

So an exaust leak could make it run too rich? Ya I guess it could be flooding. hmm.....

Driving it with the radio off just now I think I heard some ticking from possibe exaust leaks. Could the noise be from the less muffled engine sounds since the header pipes are way thinner than the manifolds making it easer to hear? Would exaust leaks kill major power? I'm gonna copy this to the exaust board too. I thought when I was done it would be more TBI related from the added power.

 

its could also be that ur hearing ur lifters tapping.i know i can hear them on mineand i dont have headers and i also have a small exuast leak from that cap thing they put on the cat's air tube.

 

I had a lot of fun putting those same headers into my GTA as well. Drivers side was cake. I had to remove the passenger side valve cover as well in addition to all the stuff you had to remove to get that header in. AND EVEN THEN, the header still wouldn't go in because the header flange was getting caught up on the lip of the head. I ended up taking a mallet and forcing them in there. THey ain't coming out now short of yanking the whole motor. But they fit well and have no clearance issues. Only problem is that they have the oxygen sensor facing the other way which means you will have to make an extension because the stock harness won't reach. I had to keep all my AIR crap because i live in CA.........

Of course Mr. Murphy himself threw the book at me on this one. I figured i might as well use some good gaskets since i did this much work so bought these aluminum header gaskets that supposedly "seal 4 good", and they suck major *****. First the square port gaskets i got were some cookie-cutter universal type that had ports that were way too big. Hello! I have stock heads not some ****ing AFR 210's! I asked them if it would still be ok and they said yeah. Forty dollars later I had the most irritating exhaust leakage. Car definately runs harder and sounds better but the exhaust leak(s) were so annoying (especially going up the hill to my house) that i went back, took everything back out, unbolted the headers, and put the paper gaskets hooker sent with it in, and put it all back together, and voila i have no exhaust leaks. Sometimes you don't get you pay for....

 

my edelcrap headers where alot easier to get in because they made no provisions for getting sparkplugs in or leaving enough room for the boots. The primaries get really close to everything. I noticed the hedmans primaries have alot more room for the plugs and boots than my tes headers but i guess thats the price to pay for easy instalation.

 

I really really really didn't wana take off the valve cover. I bet yours got stuck on that steel heater line near the frame rail too. I would have taken off the AC mounting bracket before the valve cover. I'll try to take a pic of the mess I made next week for everyone

 

wow... sounds like you guys had fun... The only thing i had to do was put a little heat wrap around the primary that passes in front of the brake line. Other than that my tes' just slid right in. That pos donught gasket leaks already, though.. The ticking sound from that is drving me nuts.