This weekend I replaced my valve stem seals to eliminate that embarrasing smoke cloud on start up, and found that I should have done them when I did the headers. If your car smokes on start up and you are thinking of doing headers, do the seals when you have the headers off. The #5 is damn near impossible to get the comp gauge hose into with the headers (I have Edelbrock TES) in place. Getting the hose into that hole took almost 20 minutes. G*ddamn. The other thing I noticed was getting the right valve cover off was a b!tch too. There is one emission line that comes up from the back of the head & over the V/C, it is just in the way and you have to pry it up/back to get the V/C out from under it. Other than the few problems getting the comp gauge hose into a few of the spark plug holes and getting the damn covers off, the actual process of changing the seals is very straight forward and only took about 30 minutes (not including the time it took to get the comp gauge hose into the holes). I found that the clamp-type spring compressor wouldn't work very well on #7 & #8, but the Snap-on lever-type compressor worked great on all of the cylinders.

 

I think part of your problem was simply the Edelbrock headers. I just took those off my motor and put on Hedmans. I compared the two, and I noticed that where the Edelbrocks just hug right up against the engine, the Hedmans give much more clearance.

 

That could very well be, but it was still a bitch. I am very impressed with the Edelbrocks in every other way. Aside from the fact that they make using a std length plug a bit tough (though not impossible), they look good (mine are coated), perform well, and were pretty easy to install. A lot of folks don't like them, but I can't complain (other than the clearance issue, that really pissed me off).

 

With the Edelbrocks on my engine, the only way I could change the plugs was either to get under the car with the help of somebody else, or with a lift, and there was still one plug (I think it was #5) that I ABSOLUTELY couldn't get to. It took me over 2 hours to do a plug change, with help.

 

The plugs arent too bad, of course I've always found it easier to do them from the under side (even with manifolds), with the exception of 2 or 3 of them. I found that you can cut the last 1/4" or so of a sparkplug socket off and get at all but one. On the #5, 7, 6 & 8 pluge use a wrench on the end of the socket instead of a rachet. On the #1 hole, you need to use a deep offset wrench from the bottom to make it easy. For the others, I just use my shortened socket and a 3" wobble extension on a 3/8" Snap-on rachet. No worries. I can do a complete tune up in about 45 minutes, and that includes putting the car on stands. After you've done it a few times (I've owned 5 of these cars now) it becomes second nature.