Finally got them in my car and got it running. Sound great, even without the full catback on there (but will be going on soon).

Just thought I'd share my experience with you guys who have done or are thinking about undertaking this project.

First thing was getting the old manifolds off. That was the hardest part of the whole installation. The driver side came off fairly easy since there was plenty of room most of the time to get sockets on the bolts and extensions if I needed them. Passanger side was a bit different. The last bolt near the firewall was a PITA to get out due to the fact that the A/C box didn't give me enough room to even get a socket down there. Finally came loose after I contorted to about four different positions to get a short socket around it with just enough room left for the rachet. From there I worked it out with an open ended wrench.

The second bolt from the front of the car was also a pain because it somehow got rounded off. It was pretty much impossible to see so I probably rounded it off just trying to get the socket on it. There were also tabs on the first and last two bolts on each side, which made it that much more difficult to unscrew. One of my friends finally got it loose by wedging a thin pipe between the car and the rachet which kept enough pressure on the bolt to keep it from slipping off.

The headers went in almost effortlessly with my engine. I was pretty surprised at the fact since I have heard so many stories of cramped fits and having to jack up the engine. The bolts were somewhat of a pain to put on because most of my sockets and wrenches would not fit onto the bolt due to the header pipe being so close. I slowly tightened each bolt with an open ended wrench.

Probably the biggest pain of the whole installation was a screw up on my part. I was trying to unbolt the starter from the car to get more room to work from underneath. Unfortunately, after 20 years of abuse under the car, my starter pretty much fell to peices, and all the screws that held on the wires to the starter were rusted to hell. So I ended up cutting one of the starter wires and had to solder it back on to connect it to a new start that I bought. My friend actually used two adjustable wrenches to get the positive battery cable off of the bolt (which happened to break off the start as soon as I removed it from the engine). That was definately not fun.

I haven't had the chance to test drive the car yet because the power steering pump and A/C compressor still need to be reattached, as well as some wires tightened up and put out of the way of the headers. I did start it up a few times and it sounds great.

Pics

1. Old manifolds, catalytic convertor and "t-pipe".

 

2. Passenger header installed

 

3. Driver's side header

 

good job! my 2055's were not to bad just the passenger side i had to jack the motor about an inch to finish the job. o and those dam heat shields that might have been the hardest part for me.

 

Yeah, the heat shields were a pain. I pretty much ripped those things off right from the beginning though. They are easily bendable with a small pair of pliers.

 

Bah, you're gay! After all that help I gave you, I was only mentioned twice as "my friend...." Heh, see if I ever work on your car again PUNK!

It is a good thing we got all that junk put on there. It did sound pretty wicked with the open headers. If you have time tomorrow, you could bring it by the shop and I could weld on the cat to the I-pipe so you have alittle bit of muffling. Or are you still having issues mounting the AC back together? Those pics do look pretty good and the headers cleaned up your engine bay a ton. Starting to look much better.

How about this. Give me MAD props in this thread for helping you out, then give me a hand putting the T56 in my car, and I won't sell your organs on ebay. Deal? Or you could just let me burn a little rubber when we get the rest of the exhaust on....whichever! Can't wait to hear that thing once it's done man.

 

How long did the whole procedure take you? Im going to order a full exhaust with some 2055s and ive heard that they sometimes take awhile to get done. Also be sure to post after you test drive it, bc i got the LG4 also. Godd job on the installation

 

I guess I'll chime in for him since he's at work forever. I believe he started late Monday and finally got everything mostly together and started it Thurs evening. The big issue I saw, and that we had, was the driver's side brackets. AC, PS, etc are a PITA to get to with nothing but limited hand tools. Disassembly was probably the biggest pain since he has 20+years of grime and rust to break free to get off the old y-pipe and manifolds. Air tools would've been lovely, but he managed a lot without my help. As stated, we didn't have to do anything to get the headers in....just slid right into place without having to jack the engine up or anything like that.

DEFINITELY go with the y-pipe for the 2055's. I'm a hedman guy, and I can honestly say that I was more than impressed with the fit and finish of the hookers. The y-pipe fit as snugly as stock and was definitely a very good investment. I'll be going with the 2210's if I ever change my exhaust. And yes Nate, they will be ceramic coated.

 

Whatever floats your boat, man.

 

Oh yeah, forgot to mention that I finally had it in drivable condition today. Bad part of the day is that LEWIS found a pinhole in the top of the header where the A.I.R. tubes were cut off and the hole welded shut. It's backfiring like crazy and it seems to be eating into my gas milage pretty bad. And although I did a good job of keeping the spark plug wires out of the way of the headers, the remains of the A.I.R. electrical connector are burnt all over one of the header pipes.

Fortunately, the good outweighs the bad. I only took it for a short cruise around my block while flooring it when there was a short section of woods and it was awesome! The car seems to have a lot more pulling power, which is especially noticable in the higher RPM range. When the manifolds were on, the car always seemed to fall flat at anything about ~3500 RPM. Now it seems to have more power throughout the entire RPM band, although how much I am not sure.

Anyway, if you have the patience and the tools required to do this mod, I'd definately recommend it. It was a chore and took about five days doing six hours of work per day. However, the end result is well worth the hard work and the appreciation of saying you worked on your own car and picked up quite a bit of power along the way.

 

Now we need to tune your carb and get that intake on. I bet your little LG4 is starting to gain ground on my detuned L98!

 

Can you fix that pinhole?

 

Yup, might have to sand off a little bit of coating for it to weld right, but it will be fixed.

 

Cool, thanks for the response

 

No problem.