I just got done putting in my Hooker Super Competition Long tube headers in the car. What a PITA! So many problems I ran into, let me tel you! Had to take the starter out(which I knew already) and when I went to put it back in it don't fit. I'm using a CVR Protorque starter that has the two allen bolts so you can pivot the starter main body. Had to seperate the two pieces and wiggle them around the header to get them in. The gaskets were a pain too cause I was using the ones from Mr. Gasket. They are the embossed copper ones that are suposedly blowproof. Anyway you put the two outer header bolt in lightly and then the gasket slips down over the bolts(which is a nice feature by the way). After I got all the bolts in and tightened down, the header is still about 1/8 inch away from the head and on the outer bolts you can still see threads of the bolt even though they are tightend all the way. I just hope that they seal. Anyway, back to the real question, I had to remove the slave cylinder/heat shield to get enough room to put the driver's side header in. Now that the header is in and tight, the heat shield will not go back on. I can't get it to clear around the header collector flange so now I have no clutch. The only thing that I can think of is the fact that I am using the slave cylinder/heat shield from a V6 car(this car was a V6 before I did the swap). Could the V6 heat shield be too large to work with these headers or do I have to get rid of it completelyand just put the bolts throuhg the slave/bellhousing and puts nuts on the end of them? Is the V8 slave cylinder heat shield smaller or in a different location? I am leaning towards the heat shield because even with no headers in, the heat shield was hitting against the floorboard. Thanks, Paul Moore

 

Ok, I had to get a ittle creative on this one so here is what I did. I used a piece of factory heat shielding from my 98 Trans Am(I put the Dynatech Systemaxx exhaust system on it and some of heat shielding had to go for clearance purposes). I made a template of the old slave cylinder bracket and transferred the shape to the heat shield, cut it out, drilled two holes, and then bent it down the middle so it resembled the shape of a V. I took the newly fabbed shield and sandwiched it between the bellhousing and the slave cylinder, put the botls through, and then found two nuts and tightened it down. Works like a charm. Just thought I would let everyone know that I got it figured out.