got a set of headers the other day from a guy down the road..they are hooker super comp with the 3" collector..my prob is i can't get them to fit down in the slot where they go to..they came off his 86 maro..i have an 88 bird..could the headers be warp,do i need to bend them let me know how to fix this please ..



on pass side they hit the firewall.....drivers side they hit the tranny bellhousing

 

are they longtube headers or shorties?

 

3" collector, I'm guessing long tubes. Probably need to unbolt the motor mounts and lift the motor up to get them in, although I've never installed long tubes on a third gen so this is just a guess.

 

they are short tube .the collector just goes past the motor

 

Try to put them in from the bottom. Like someone previously stated, you might have to lift the motor up a few inches to get them in.

 

Yeah what he said lol when ever ive put headers in a thirdgen ive had to put them in through either the botom or drom them in from the top while having the motor jacked up. My 82 has had my hedman longtubes and the hooker shortys your using and i just jacked it up and dropped them in but going from the bottom may be easier if you dont have a hoist.

 

how high do i need to go up with the motor..sense tranny is bolted into place already

 

just take the nut off the transmission mount and take cap off distributer and then jack/hoist the motor up till the transmisson hits the tunnel and where it will not let it go up any farther. or do that and keep trying to drop them in as you jack/hoist it up.

 

ok gonna try tomorrow..better fit or i'm gonna be upset..already got the old manifolds off..

 

will they bend into place if they need to? once i lower the motor back down

 

Pretty much kind hold them in place while droping down the motor.this works best with a buddy present. Removing starter may help on the passenger side too.

 

i'll be doing this by myself any thoughts

 

just have at it it aint too bad. maybe get some twine or rope and kinda tie them up. i swaped out my tq converter today with the car on ramps and jackstands bymyself in two hours and had it back on the road.

 

With my hooker shorty headers(2460) I didnt have to jack the engine up or anything like that.I thought it might have helped if I moved the starter so I did but once I figured it out It may not have been needed to be removed.I had to try various angles and finally got it.IIRC,The angle that got it was to have the collecter pointed almost straight to the front of the car with the front primary pointed at the hood.I pushed the collecter down past where it was hitting and just rotated the headers clockwise and they went right into place.
Of course this was on the passenger side.Driverside was a breeze.Also,I dont have any a/c stuff or emmisions under the hood so that may have made it easier,but you can remove most of it to get them in and hook it back up when you`re finished.

 

well i haven't had time to put the headers in yet..been in and out of hospital over the weekend from my ankle hurting me..come to find out i have gout in it..so i won't be doing anything to the car till i can stand on my foot..thanks for the info on how to put the headers in..

 

hey, i have a 89 iroc and i just put some hedman logtubes in through the bottom. i didnt lift the engine up or anything. they just slipped in there. i dont know if itll make a difference because theyre hookers but just try putting them underneath.

 

I put in my 2055's last week, the driver's side slides in no problem, just remove the two rear spark plugs to let it slide in.

The passenger's side is a different story, I now have no dip stick because it is bent almost horizontally now and any way I try to rig it the stick won't go all the way in so I guess I'll be changing my oil every two or three months from now on.

I had to remove all of the AIR stuff prior to the removal of the manifolds so you'll have to do that, I had to remove the A/C canister (the silver bullet looking thing), and to do that you have to disconnect two or three lines (WARNING! in order to do this you are relieving the pressure from the system which is #1 dangerous if you have a working A/C system that blows cold air and obviously has some "juice" left in it, and #2 illegal to vent it into the atmostphere) I knew that there was nothing more than a tiny bit of refrigerant in the system because my car hasn't blown cold air in forever.

I also had to remove the positive cable from the starter, it was inhibiting the collector from sliding down. I then slid it in from the top.

Out of all the components removed the A/C canister helped the most when removed, it allows about five or six inches of extra movement for both the header to slide in and for your arm/fingers to negotiate the bolt movement to secure the header.

It took almost no time to reconnect everything, I would take a picture of the AIR stuff before you remove it, there are a couple of connections that could easily be mistaken and wrongly connected.

 

the above mentioned tricks all work well, but you shouldnt be having issues with the shorty headers.
on long tubes you can take off the valve covers and turn the steering shaft to the thin side to gain some clearance.
with a tube k member, i could slide my headers in from the top.

 

well i got to lookin at some pics of other headers and mine are not super comp l;ike i thought here is a pic of them though and here is anotherso what kind are these..are they too big..

 

those may be flowtechs. you should have no issues getting those headers in place.

 

I jacked the drivers side engine on mine up about 1 inch and that was all I needed. I took 1 motor mount bolt off, and VIOLA. worked great. I think mine are hedman shorties..

Brian

 

i have a 84 firebird im dropping a 402 bbc not a 396 bored but true 402 i want to put a set of long tube headers in whats the difficulty of doing this any fabrication involved?

 

those are not 3rd gen specific headers, they are headers for these applications
67-81 Camaro
will not fit Camaro 67-69 with A/C.
64-87 Chevelle.
68-82 Corvettes.
64-87 El Camino.
64-87 Malibu.
70-87 Monte Carlo.
68-79 Nova.

Its possible the guy lied to you, or he did some modifications you dont know about to get them to fit.

 

anybody want to buy some headers

 

well can i bend in where they are hitting,,which is by the firewall where the tranny goes is where i am having problems at..or if i raised the motor high enough and put the headers on the motor and lower it back in would it bend what needs to be bent