Im not saying that I didn't curse a couple of times, scrath my head and say WTF but it is not like changing the fuel pump(You will be in a straight jacket if headers are kickin your butt).

Remove all the brackets that are in the way.
Pull the plugs
Disconnect steering shaft(its 1 bolt)
CAREFULLY bend brake lines away
Also when you try to put header in watch the flange it rotates and their are 2 bolt holes on opposite sites of the flange which makes it oblong. This can get hung up and cause a problem.

Also what do you think is hanging up?

 

The tubes at the roundest point is hitting the steering shaft where it pivots where the big 'knuckle' is......

 

Gotta remove that bolt/slide shaft out of way and it should drop in.

 

well well well, ..started at 10 am and STILL aint done, its 3 now, but of course ive been moving REAL slowly, taking my time, ...scratching my head, as well as my ***. <damn itchy pavement> finding correct tools, ratchets, extentions and bars to attain torque, ........the removal and installation on drivers side was a BREEZE, ......i was kind anervous about the whole having to disconnect steering arm, whatever is called, ...but remembered someone saying remove the valve cover, ...with about the entirety of 3 minutes trying different angles, dropped right in, no problems what-so-ever, ....must the the angle of the heads on a 92 are at a less degree than those of a 88 or less, ....im not sure, ..all i know is, ....i was nervous as hell, and for no reason, ...about that one side, ...the passenger side however......lets just say theres crap layin around my car and i dunni wtf it does and not sure if itll go back on lol. HOW DO I GET THE NEW HEADERS IN WITHOUT REMOVING THE A/C CONDENSER!!!! at least i think thats what it is, ....silver tube looking thing, hoses going in and out of it. about the size of a 2 liter i guess. anyways, ill worry about that when and IF i can get the rear bolts off the stock manifold/...ANY SUGGESTIONS ON THE REMOVAL OF THE REAR BOLTS???????

 

THE STEERING SHAFT DOES NOT HAVE TO BE REMOVED. i promise, ..you just gotta drop the front of the headers in then bring down the back, ...make sure you drop the front of the headers down below those two tubes running behind the altenator. oh yeah, and watch out for anti-freeze and rust if you are under the car, ...my eyes are needless to say in PAIN due to the first incident. i now use goggles. takes mistakes to learn i guess.

 

Steering shaft is in my way, lol I'll have to remove it to get the headers in...

 

Pics

This is how I'm dropping it in..angled like that.

 

2nd pic....

F*CKING steering shaft is in the way...

 

Thats how much clearance I need...

 

thats how much i needed, i got BOTH headers in without having to move anything major, other than valve covers, ....im serious, ...drop the front in at a harsher angle, and jam that bitch down there!! it took me brute forse, and accidently letting all my anti freeze out of the passenger side right below the exhaust manifold <damn that li temp sensor, never knew wtf it did until now .......anyways......just tilt it and wiggle and tilt and wiggle and make it BE your bitch, it SHALL go in, ....it took me 14 different sockets and wrenches to get my very back bolt off the pass. side manifold, ...and i ended up using VISE grips and it worked like a charm. seriously, itll work,. if you have an 88 you have the same head angle as i do "i think" and it SHOULD fit.

 

59 replies (when I started typing, anyway), and NOT ONE person said anything about what the instructions say to do (unless I missed it trying to go through all those posts).

My Hooker instructions said to remove the motor mount bolt from one side, lift engine slightly, put in header on that side, let engine down, reinstall mount bolt. Repeat on other side. May be easier to access from underneath the car. That was after jacking the car up for at least 1-1/2 ft of clearance to the floor, securely supporting on jack stands, removing spark plugs, etc., etc., etc. That's what I remember, I don't have them in front of me.

I've always been under the impression that the instructions for EVERY brand say the very same thing.

Of course, I bolted mine on while the engine was on the engine stand...

 

edelbrocks do not say anything about jacking up the motor.

 

I'm afraid to shove it down there too hard, but I guess I'll try again tonight using some bruce F'in force like you said, lol I am AIM = Heckhole

Use that and I suppose we won't clutter the boards with our lack of knowledge eh?

 

Really?

I seem to recall many saying that's what they did (but they say the memory is the 2nd thing to go, I forget what's 1st).

Perhaps another reason not to get TES - poor instructions.

Sure seems like jacking it up would help in this case. I'd much rather try that before a BFH.

 

BFH? (Big f*cking hammer)?? haha

 

nope instructions dont state you removine much of anything cept a few braces and hoses, ...does say you have to disconnect the steering shaft though. however i didnt, mine are in. all i took off was a couple braces, *** of hoses, and two valve covers, ..oh yeah and spark plugs....guess now is a prime time to do a sparkplug swap as well as new wires.....ah well, ...not EVERYTHING is done..i have 3 bolts left on the pass manifold to bolt on, and gotta put the piping on underneath. is this going to be a tricky part?

 

passenger side of the y pipe is a real fun one. Use a swivel socket

 

All these posts are making me laugh because I can picture myself getting pist off trying to do it. My dad does not want me to put headers on because he says that it is a royal pain in the ***. I have a 92 RS with a 305. I want to put headers in, is it as bad as you guys are making it seem. If it is just the stuck boly I am not worried but if you have to take half the car apart to get them in I would second guess the whole think!!! Are dynomax headers any good and if so are they any different to put in???

 

Are you in??
hehehee
Okay hopefully you are not of in the corner of the garage weeping into a greasy rag. With TES headers stuck in the windshield and urine on the seats. There were times during the install where I had to take a break and form a new attack plan. I shoved those things in there. Is there a possibility that one engine mount is broken, what about a large pry bar to move things around. I have alot of clerance on mine, 88 IROC 305 TPI( drivers side).
Keep us updated and don't hurt yourself

 

sam, plan on spending about at LEAST a whole day installing the headers, and being extremly creative with various tools that have no purpose doing wht you are trying to do "but they are the only tools tht WILL work" i have a 92 rs, and i can tell by my experiance today, i prolly would have rather just spent 150 bucks and gotton them installed by someone else....but wheres the damn fun in that?! on the pain in the *** scale, i give it an 8, . is it easy? not very. but not extremly hard either, ...just gotta take out about 30 damn bolts in various places.

 

Mine never said anything about jacking up the motor, only removing the one screw to break apart the steering shaft

 

yeah mine said break apart the steering shaft, ...but i just took the valve covers off and it fell right on....the pass side however was a bitch. getting in and putting on.....no room to work, ..a/c condensor in your way, smog crap everywhere.....still trying to get the very back bolt in the pass side, ...oh yeah and i cant seem to get my damn dip stick in lol

 

Okay looking at your pic I can just visualize it falling in, wish i lived near you I'd do it Sit the flange on the lip of the head slide the header down as far as you can till its in the right angle but sitting on the head now push the bottom of the header toward the block and push it down. It will go man. Im with you in spirit

 

Oil dipstick: Seat it in as much by hand as you can, cover the top opening with some tape. I placed a small wood block on the top and tapped the dipstick in with a rubber mallet. Also get some sand paper and clean the seating portion of the dip stick. Also I think I had to slightly bend the retaining tab on the dipstick(flat metal for the bolt) It has to be a tight fit or you will have a leak
Use caution around the fan sensor in the pass head, easy to break it when you are fighting with the headers.

 

headers in , everything put back on, ..yet another problem. BACCKFIRING THROUGH TBI!!!!!!! wtf , wtf caused this, why is it doing this and how do i stop it?????????????????????

 

So pretty much, I'll be standing on the driverside..duh So just pull back and push down pretty damn hard???

 

pretty much

 

Well, I finally got it to fit. I wasn't forceful with the whole process, I was afraid of breaking something...

But I got mad tonight and shoved that mother F'er in there and it went it easily...took about 6 hours of trying 2 days ago..and about 20 minutes today, dammit I hate life!

BTW, I'm using edelbrocks, and I have yet to mess with my passenger side, I'm going to be removing ALL of my smog equipment & the AC equipment as it doesn't work...it looks like it'll easily drop in from the top, how well does the passenger side match up to the stock y-pipe?

I'm trying to retain the majority of the y-pipe, why you ask? I don't know, I'm doing this project on an extremely small budget ($50 or so??), and I cut about 6-8 inches off the driver side, and I'll just have a small pipe welded back in place....and I'm hoping the passenger side will bolt right in???

 

SLOWMARO> I bet you have the spark plug wires on wrong, took me 3 tries to get it right..I had the headers on and got in to expect this new thrill. I was rewarded with back-firing and bucking. Look or feel for cold header tubes while it is running.

88> The passenger side needs to go in from the bottom, WITH FORCE!!

 

Looks like I gotta cut the whole y-pipe then eh??

 

good job man

 

By the way, what is the sensor in the header's collector? I'm assuming it's for smog? I have no smog equipment...

 

heh i got mine in from the top, wasnt easy...at ALL ....took me about an hour, had to remove valve covers, ....could i have gotton somthing in the valve covers that would cause it to backfire?????????????

 

Dripping sweat won't make it backfire

 

If I were to put headers on would it be smog legal or would I have to take them off every time I go get it smogged.

 

edelbrocks TES header system is smog compliant in 50 states. you are safe with those

 

After reading all this, and laughing, and crying, and laughing some more, I feel compelled to tell my adventure with the Edelbrock TES. I began on a Friday night @ 7 PM. The project wasn't all that bad, except for me taking short cuts. It all began when I decided that I didn't need to take out ALL the spark plugs, so I left a few in the heads. Well stupid me snapped one off, and later that night, about 3:30 AM, I realized that I had no extra plugs laying around. I was determined to fire the bastard up, so thankfully Wal Mart was open 24 hours. Only people in there at 3:30 AM are drunks and stupid car guys, or stupid drunk car guys...

I unbolted and seperated the steering shaft to get the driver's side in, and the header went in fine. However, after I bolted on the header, I took a break (for the Wal Mart run). When I came back, I decided to clean up the garage a little bit before finishing. Well stupid me threw the steering shaft bolt away. there I was at 4AM crawling through the dumpster out back trying to find it. I did find it, by the way.

I also snapped off the vacuum connection to the MAP sensor, tore off about 4 knuckles, broke my favorite snap on ratchet, cut a brand new 7/16 wrench in two pieces, and slept in the front of my truck that night. But hell it was fun, and the camaro sure sounded nice at 5:00 AM....

 

I have never had a problem getting headers on my car. Ive been through two sets so far. Probably about to switch again. I havent decided what I want to do yet.

 

this post should DEFINATLY go in the books, ...i still wonder why it took me two whole damn days to get mine on, prolly cause i took a break every 2 hours to go scream ina pillow and to watch movies so i wouldnt kill somthing. ah well, all that matters is they are in and running.

 

No offense guys, but i did my headers, cat and cat back exhaust laying in the street at my house. with my cars on ramps with a good floor jack to raise the engine. dont b**** about it being hard if you arent doing it the right way. right way being to raise the engine and slip the headers in. damn easy.