anyone else ever want to sell there car after starting a header install? now ive never done a header install, and I fully expected it would take some time as doing new **** usually does, but wtf
apparently i didnt read up enough because it sounded relatively straight forward, but come to find your going to end up dissasembling most everything in your engine bay anyways.. i mean holy sh*t had i relized this I wouldve took the extra 30 minutes and just pulled the whole motor, theres a few reasons id like todo that anyways

am I just too oafy or is some of this **** impossible to get to?! i have my entire set of sockets, wrenches, breaker bars etc spread out all over the garage floor
I think I already pretty much stripped one of the nuts holding the passenger side manifold on, so now that ive had my rant.. i think im going to go pull the motor

 

Took me a few hours to do long tubes, and thats with generous breaks. What's so difficult about it? Are you using penetrating oil?

 

Didnt take long on my 350 TPI. Biggest thing I had to do was jack the passenger side of the motor up a bit. Which took around 10 minutes to do.

 

Wow what are you having problems with? A 4th gen is way harder to do headers on than a 3rd gen, and I had 10 hours into my long tubes with lots and lots of breaks - so maybe 6-7 hours of actually working on it.

This isn't an easy job, just relax and take a day's break from it, and come back with a fresh point of view.

From all my time working as a mechanic, I realized that if you take the time before starting a job, to take a second and visualize the car back together and running after you've worked on it - it makes the job a LOT easier. It's all frame of mind, relax and you'll be fine.

 

these guys are right....take your time, im not a mechanic. i did it, just took my time.

 

I was venting.. i read way too many "did this in 3 hours" kind of posts, was going in blind
I hate breaking **** so i end up spending time trying to figure out how to save, some unsaveable peices, while having the pleasure of working around wonderful GM design, on a stupid 89 firebird that ive put more hours into then I could count, thats probably worth the same as I bought it for a few years ago, and is still packing a whopping 170hp ;0

i have 2 other project cars that need love, and I could curl up in there engine bays and take a nap in between working on them if i wanted to

i honestly didnt give a crap to install headers on my L03, but i had a little exhaust leak turn into a big exhaust leak, and I already had the headers laying around, when this is done im going to be out another $100 and have a hotter engine bay and possibly a poorer running tbi ;0
hence my frustration

 

alright so I stopped crying about it and went out there to handle some business.. in short intervals as not to smash something ;0

every single bolt on the passenger side has given me trouble, except the front one, had 2 left so I decided to hit driver side, got that manifold off in about 10 minutes.. that was almost fun even

came back to passenger side, tryed getting 2nd to last bolt off with a wrench since I cant fit a socket in between it and my a/c box.. stripped it immidiately (yes its been pb blasted, and yes it was right size wrench ;0)

cryed a little, got the vice grips, put them on so tight i think i pulled muscles in both hands, took nearly as much force to get them off afterwords... anyhow, the vicegrips just ate the nut some more, i had to use a cheater bar to even get it started turning and yet still it just ate the nut... so my hands hurt to much todo much else right now

im really hoping that last bolt will give me less trouble, perhaps if that other one is frozen to the heat shield, after removing the last bolt I can spin the manifold a bit and maybe break it free?

 

I'm glad to hear you stopped crying.......(I'm about to start on some LT's so we will see who's crying then).... ............you may have to use a chisle on that nut/ bolt....also have you tried a little heat?.....another thing to try is tap it with a hammer........when I say tap it I mean like a man not like my grandmaw.The hammer works good as well for getting vice grips off / if you get the nut/ bolt out with the vice grips and you cant get them off.....drop them on the ground.......the shock will open them.Good luck,
Mike

 

i had to use a cutting torch to get the manifolds off of my old 305... youre lucky

 

oh im well on my way to the cutting torch method, still havent got passenger side off
i cant even try removing the very last bolt since i can only get a wrench on it, except I cant turn the wrench until the stud ahead of it is off and out of my way, classic

im trying to cut the heat shield away so I can get to the (stud head??) behind it, something fresh to work with, not that I except better results out of it though ;0

 

Suck to hear about all that trouble man, i hope things turn out for the better, I too plan on doing long tubes in the future and really hope things go good. Keep us posted on your progress man.

 

day 2:
im tired, dirty, and hungry..
my driver decides to take a crap 1 day after I dismantle the exhaust on the firebird..
im hearing voices telling me to grab the sledgehammer and hurt something

anyone ever rock one header and one mainfold? might be cool

 

i feel your pain trying to remove the old stuff
it takes time
relax #1

#2 i had that same bolt issue
i somehow was able to break that shielding
and use a 14mm wrench on the stud and remove it
yup
it took a long time to do it
i jacked that side of the motor up for more room
PB blaster is your friend
let it soak
and soak
and ummmm soak

try getting in there with some snips to break that shield

i don't know if you can use a "bolt-out" like from sears, not sure if there is enough room

i used the SLP's and they have been a little challanging to get it, but it's going

 

sometime earlier this morning I was going at it with the vice grips and a torch, and i had the little bit of shield that is left (less then whats in that picture) spinning
whether or not i was just mangling the shield somehow with the vicegrips or the actual stud was turning I couldnt tell, i didnt feel that satisfying pop you get when you break this stuff loose though... my hands and arms are shot so had to call it a day
after a friend ran me to napa so I could fix the damn intrepid ;0

 

I know it is frustrating (sp)......I think you may want to try some more penitrating oil on that stud......it looks very dry........don't use WD 40 it's better than nothing but penitrating oil will work it's way into the threads.If you still can't get it off after letting it soak I'd take an air chisel to it and break it off.........remove the manifold then spray the crap out of the stud left in the head and use vice grips (a good pair) to remove it.If you were closer I'd come by and help out.I'm sure there is someone close by that can stop over and help you out.
Mike

 

thanks for the suggestions, yes i emptied my can of pb blaster on this manifold, ive used heat etc.. dont have an air chisel or id give that a go.. my vice grips are good however the remaining stud/nut is not strong enough, it just gets eat up

lesson learned, header install on a 3rd gen with A/C, thats probably never had its manifolds removed, bzzzt wrong answer

oh well i guess ill have the oppurtunity to fix that pickup tube, and maybe do a cam swap while its out ;0

 

where abouts in connecticut are you located in.

 

waterbury area

appreciate the offer but ive already decided to take the engine out now, was unplanned for though and i have no money to spend on upgrades so im out for the summer, i could just repair and replace but i hate doing things twice so

end result driver side manifold literally came off in ~10 minutes, if i didnt have ac i couldve climbed in there and taken the thing off.. i know the amount of working space in non a/c cars.. that wouldve been great, for some reason though this side is on there with a passion... even if i could've used a socket in the back i dont think it would help, used a socket on one of the front ones and it didnt much like it and broke off clean in the head.. shrug

it'll probably end up with different heads now too, but.. not for awhile