A box from Jet-Hot was waiting for me when I got home this afternoon. Not too bad of a turn-around, I shipped them February 25th.

After unpacking:




Coated inside and out.



I see one of their media beads is still in the collector - didn't notice that when I took the pic.




I had to remove the steering shaft from the top on the driver's side and install from the top (I think, maybe it was from the bottom - wow, I don't even remember now. . .).




The passenger side wouldn't go in from the top because of the AC box (and may not even if it wasn't there). So, I had to take out the mount bolt (the most time-consuming part of the operation) and jack the engine up about an inch. Starter was already off.




The driver's side comes really close to the frame rail. I'll have to move the fuel and brake lines away from there. Not sure yet how I'm going to do that, that'll be next on the agenda. And, the clutch hose is right on top of the tubes; the through-the-passenger-compartment approach seems much more reasonable now.

As tight as everything is, I'm really glad I went ahead and had them coated.

Took about 2-1/2 hours to install, including talking to the neighbor kid ('91 3.1 Camaro) for almost half an hour (didn't do much while he was over).

 

looks good. havent even ordered my headers yet. BTW, what did jet charge to coat them if you dont mind me asking?

 

Those look pretty good. Brighter than the bare stainless. I thought about polishing mine...but I have no idea how Ide keep up with them. haha.

I couldnt get my passenger side header out when I re-did my exhaust. I thought it was because of my custom HVAC box. I was too lazy to pull my motor mount bolt to get it out though. haha.

J.

 

Those look nice

when I put my passenger side in from the top, I had to pull the valve cover

Drivers side dropped right in too

After I get the exhaust finished up, I'll get everything coated as its a bit too close to the fuel/brake lines for my comfort. I still plan on wrapping the lines in that firesleeve stuff, to include the clutch line

-jason

 

Hey, those headers look really nice, & that's not a bad turn-around timeframe at all! If memory serves, I think that I had a couple of beads left in my SLP shorties (when they returned from Jet-Hot) as well!

Nice progress you're making too.

 

They turned out great, now you just have to get the rest of the motor all cleaned up and/or painted to match them

 

I was a little surprised to see the box sitting there when I got home. They told me my credit card wouldn't be charged until they shipped, and I saw the charge show up this past weekend. So, it was a pleasant surprise (for a change).

I believe you plan on rerouting the clutch hose as well. I need to research that now.

Clean-up has been difficult lately. The weather has been cold right up to the time I got the engine stabbed. Now that it's in the car, the car has been up on jack stands w/o suspension for almost a year. It's to the point now that I could put tires on and drop it to the ground, but I don't have brakes yet - so it would have to be chocked. I already did one roll out of the garage w/o power, and our driveway slopes down from the garage - last thing I need is a runaway project!

 

Now that I'm a little more awake, yes, I did drop the driver's side in from the top. But, the #3 tube wouldn't clear the steering shaft knuckle, so I had to move the shaft out of the way. Just a part of an inch, but it just wasn't going to happen.

I thought about sleeving the clutch line, but it would be better to just move it out of the way. The fuel and brake line are basically rubbing against the header tubes, they've got to be moved. I've got an idea about how to do the fuel line, running it up through the frame rail. But, doing the brake line that way would be much more difficult since it's steel.

Could get interesting. I won't be able to work on it tonight. Wednesday, we'll get back out there.

 

That's the same problem that I had with my SLP shorties. In my case, I used a "flame wrench" (acetylene torch) to heat that primary tube & bend it in just a little bit for clearance - and I'd just gotten 'em from Jet-Hot too..

Ask Justin (ghettocruiser) about that - the fact that he tried it, & still decided to run the line inside the pass. compartment on his 2nd build spoke volumes to me. After looking at the area you're talking about (with the block sitting there) I'd also pretty much decided to re-route my fuel & brake lines. Just too bloomin' crowded right there...

The sanctioning body for one of the events that I want to run specifies that the fuel line needs to go through an additional steel tube/pipe when passing through the area of the clutch/flywheel, so I figured I'd do 'em one better & (maybe!) route it on the outside of the frame rail as well. Inside the frame rail is also a possibility, but less-preferred simply because of the hassle.

Hmmm. After thinking about it some more, I MIGHT just decide to build a small channel to run the brake & fuel lines through, and bring them up roughly 8"-12" ahead of the firewall, to avoid the majority of the heat... Will have to go back out there, & look at it, think about it some more...

(Edit below)
I've actually gotten that part of it done - here's a link to that post...

 

Rerouted the clutch hose.

The part in the engine compartment:



Inside the car:




And, from underneath:




How I punched the holes (thanks to Tim - V8Rumble, for turning me on to this tool):



Used the smallest punch for these. The large one will be employed for the PCM harness:

 

I tried to get a shot of the driver's side and the frame rail. Note I rerouted the fuel and brake line to the bottom of the frame rail. I hope to fabricate a guard out of angle iron to protect the lines.




I had trouble getting a good exposure with the camera, but here's a look from underneath looking forward:

 

Nice, you guys are making it real easy for us future LSx swappers.

As an aside, make sure you seal that hole really well, I had a slight gap at the top of my shifter boot and rainwater filled the rear drivers side footwell about a 1/4 in deep.. it was surprising that a tiny gap brought in that much water with just a brief rain storm and that hole is much lower than the tranny tunnel. It literally formed a little rivulet down under the carpet back to the footwell.

 

Forgot to mention that I'll be sealing the hose to the grommet with RTV.

 

lookin' good!

just a quick fyi, the headers will both go in from the top while running no ac box. mine go in with the plugs in and the starter on, but the coils gotta come off. i also had no interference with the steering shaft.

 

I had the power steering pump on as well, which may have affected my ability to get that side in without taking the steering shaft off.

 

tell us a little bit more about the punch tool......

 

First, you drill a pilot hole. For the smaller one, 7/16" will do. Stick the bottom part shown through the hole. From the other side, thread the cutter onto the shaft. Then start turning the 1" nut from the first side (impact or ratchet or wrench), the cutter starts digging into the metal while the die on the nut side holds the metal. The cutter comes through, the punched out metal (the wavy pieces shown on the right in the picture) is trapped in the die. And, you have yourself a nicely punched, round hole.



I haven't measured the large shaft, I suspect using the small punch for the pilot hole might be the easiest approach there.

The tool was $16 on sale at Harbor Freight this past weekend, normally $29.

We broke V8Rumble's Saturday. The small shaft had a defect through half the diameter that popped while we were trying to punch the 2nd hole for his clutch hose. Hopefully they will exchange it.

 

could u look in the box or reciept and post the harbor frieght part #.

Also was the headers a hawks-stainless steel works piece ? Just wndering why u had jet-hot coated it ? wasnt it pretty to begin with ?

 

Here ya go this is the Harborfreight part#91201-5VGA $15.99

And the link for it online.

http://search.harborfreight.com/cpis...etal+punch+kit

 

i think he had them jet-hot coated for the real reason jet-hot coating exists: to lower overall underhood temperatures, not just because it's pretty.

personally, i prefer the look of discolored stainless and didn't want to shell out any more money for already expensive headers. mine are staying raw.

 

I am absolutely a function-over-form guy. There is no way I would shell out over $300 to make them look "pretty". The primary purpose of the coating is to keep the heat in the exhaust gases. This certainly helps prevent cooking things close to them. This is not a track-only car, I expect it to get a lot of street miles.

The headers were purchased used (but only slightly). They are the Hawks/Stainless Works 3rd gen LS1 swap headers.