Welp, I quit my job today and the interwebz are working for the moment so I was able to upload everything. The header install really wasn't that bad. It took about 12 hours, but I was working by myself, was dicking around alot, spent a couple of hours at my neighbor's house before I fitted the y-pipe and there were a couple meals thrown in there. Keep in mind, I had true dual 2.5" pipe from the cats back so I had a little more cutting then some trucks.
Here's a list of required tools:
Sawzall with metal blade
Long ratchet
Short ratchet
Various extensions- shortest possible one up to 8"
Spark plug socket
Tape for driveshaft caps
11mm 1/4" drive socket- front driveshaft bolts
13mm socket- manifold bolts
15mm deepwell and 8" extension- manifold to downpipe bolts
15mm socket- dipstick bracket bolt
22mm wrench- o2 sensors
I ended up not putting the truck up on stands, I had enough room underneath to work and I'm too short to work in the engine bay with it on stands. First thing I did was start soaking the header bolts in PB blaster the night before. Did it again when I got up, before I left, drove to a couple parts stores giving it hell to get it good and hot. Then as soon as I pulled in the garage, I sprayed them one more time and got a wrench out and broke all the bolts loose. Didn't have any problems, they all came out just fine. The very back one on the driver's side already had the head broken off from before I bought the truck, I didn't bother with it, just left it as a stud and put a little extra RTV there. Then I ate lunch and let everything cool down some so I wouldn't get the shit burned out of me.
Then I started by cutting the exhaust on the driver's side right above the cat, but below the upstream o2 with a sawzall and a metal blade. Found out later, it probably woulda been easier to just unbolt it from the header flange.
Then I cut it about 6-8" past the trans crossmember. I had to use a floor jack to support the pipe so that it wouldn't shake so bad while cutting. If you have a friend, it'd work better to have him/her hold for you. I struggled with the jack trying to keep the pipe from shaking. Turns out, this was JUST enough room for the end of the y-pipe once you get it in if you don't cut out all the exhaust.
For the passenger side, I cut this pipe at the same spot as the other, 6-8" past the trans crossmember before I unbolted it, then supported it with the floor jack. Then I decided to try to unbolt it from the header flange. I hadn't soaked these cuz I didn't think about it. Just used a long ratchet so I had enough leverage to smoothly loosen them. They came off with no problem either.
**Don't forget to remove all the o2 sensors before you try to cut the pipes. I did and almost ripped all the wiring once I was ready to get the pipes from under the truck.
At this point, I moved on to removing the stock manifolds. Since I broke the bolts loose while the truck was extremely hot, I had no problem with this part. Remove all the spark plug wires AND THE SPARK PLUGS. This way you don't damage the plugs when you let the manifolds drop. I labeled a shop towel and put the plugs in order on it so they'd go back in the same holes. Just take all the bolts out, and grab the stock MLS gaskets once it pulls away from the head.
For the driver's side, pull the big wiring harness sleeve out of it's little clip so you can pull it forward and out of the way. It won't move far, but enough to be out of the way of your arms and the ratchet.
Here's what you're working with once it's pulled forward. I just unbolted it, and let it drop out the bottom.
Passenger side, you've got plenty of room. The dipstick tube needs to be removed, there's one bolt on the support bracket to the head, then it just pull it out toward the fender, up and out. For the manifold, I unbolted it and pulled it out the top since it wasn't still bolted to the downpipe.
Then I pulled the front driveshaft out. No pics of it in the truck, it's pretty self explanatory. Unbolt the Ujoint straps, then I use a medium length screwdriver to EASILY pry it toward the back of the truck to break it loose. Tape up the caps so they don't fall off. Then you must un-do the clip on the output shaft boot and slide the boot up and over the lip on the shaft. Then just slide it forward and out being careful not to drop it.
Here you can see the little collar up toward the Ujoint where the boot clamps to. That's what you have to slide the boot off of for it to come out of the tcase
Picture's kinda blurry, but you can see there's significantly less room on the driver's side to work with. I slid this one up from the bottom, again, you'll just have to wrestle with it to get it up in there. It's tight, and I had to remove the heat shield that's up against the firewall for some extra room.
Here's the initial look once I got it wrestled up and just mock bolted up. As you can see, it hits the steering shaft. I had to beat in the front primary tube to clear. Use a sharpie to kind of mark around the area the shaft is hitting so you'll have a guide to go off of
And here you can see that they interfere with the front Dshaft. They're not even close to clearing. I tried using a ratchet strap around the frame to the header to try and pull it away, but that didn't work. The only way I can see is to take it out, cut off the flange and re-angle them toward the frame more. It wasn't worth it to me, I'm just leaving the Dshaft out for now. I don't use 4x4 much anymore anyway. IF YOU'RE LIFTED, there won't be any interference, except the y-pipe. That will be MUCH easier to modify. I'll wait till I'm lifted and just throw the shaft in then and cut the y-pipe.
Again, I'd have to dent 2 of the primaries just before they come into the collector almost half closed and the collector would have to be near destroyed too. Not worth it to me, plus it'd probably cost a grand to get that header modified (I don't know how to weld
) so I'll just buy a lift down the road instead
Now, back to the steering shaft. I used a ball peen hammer to dent it in, probably a 5lb one. There's about an 1/8" of clearance here. It needs a little more, the shaft still rubs a little bit, I can feel it in the steering. So beat it in more than I did. I'll either pull that header back out or just dent it in more when I replace the steering shaft
Here's the driver's after final bolt up
Here's the pass mating surface. Be sure to clean both sides on the engine and also the new headers. I just scraped the ones on the block with a razor blade lightly and wiped them down with laquer thinner on a rag
Here's the passenger side now that the manifold is gone. I ended up needing to slide the header in from the top, letting it sit and then get under the truck and kind of wrestle it down through the gap from the frame to the engine. How you do it is really up to you. There's no real trick, I just wrestled with it till it dropped
I also took off the intake tube, un-did the hose that goes into the radiator overflow tank, and took off the bracket that holds the heater hoses, just so I could move them as I needed
Again, I dropped them in from up top, between the heater hoses and the main A/C hose
Here you can see how close it is from the lines running along side the block/starter and the frame
Driver's collector
Here's a list of required tools:
Sawzall with metal blade
Long ratchet
Short ratchet
Various extensions- shortest possible one up to 8"
Spark plug socket
Tape for driveshaft caps
11mm 1/4" drive socket- front driveshaft bolts
13mm socket- manifold bolts
15mm deepwell and 8" extension- manifold to downpipe bolts
15mm socket- dipstick bracket bolt
22mm wrench- o2 sensors
I ended up not putting the truck up on stands, I had enough room underneath to work and I'm too short to work in the engine bay with it on stands. First thing I did was start soaking the header bolts in PB blaster the night before. Did it again when I got up, before I left, drove to a couple parts stores giving it hell to get it good and hot. Then as soon as I pulled in the garage, I sprayed them one more time and got a wrench out and broke all the bolts loose. Didn't have any problems, they all came out just fine. The very back one on the driver's side already had the head broken off from before I bought the truck, I didn't bother with it, just left it as a stud and put a little extra RTV there. Then I ate lunch and let everything cool down some so I wouldn't get the shit burned out of me.
Then I started by cutting the exhaust on the driver's side right above the cat, but below the upstream o2 with a sawzall and a metal blade. Found out later, it probably woulda been easier to just unbolt it from the header flange.
Then I cut it about 6-8" past the trans crossmember. I had to use a floor jack to support the pipe so that it wouldn't shake so bad while cutting. If you have a friend, it'd work better to have him/her hold for you. I struggled with the jack trying to keep the pipe from shaking. Turns out, this was JUST enough room for the end of the y-pipe once you get it in if you don't cut out all the exhaust.
For the passenger side, I cut this pipe at the same spot as the other, 6-8" past the trans crossmember before I unbolted it, then supported it with the floor jack. Then I decided to try to unbolt it from the header flange. I hadn't soaked these cuz I didn't think about it. Just used a long ratchet so I had enough leverage to smoothly loosen them. They came off with no problem either.
**Don't forget to remove all the o2 sensors before you try to cut the pipes. I did and almost ripped all the wiring once I was ready to get the pipes from under the truck.
At this point, I moved on to removing the stock manifolds. Since I broke the bolts loose while the truck was extremely hot, I had no problem with this part. Remove all the spark plug wires AND THE SPARK PLUGS. This way you don't damage the plugs when you let the manifolds drop. I labeled a shop towel and put the plugs in order on it so they'd go back in the same holes. Just take all the bolts out, and grab the stock MLS gaskets once it pulls away from the head.
For the driver's side, pull the big wiring harness sleeve out of it's little clip so you can pull it forward and out of the way. It won't move far, but enough to be out of the way of your arms and the ratchet.
Here's what you're working with once it's pulled forward. I just unbolted it, and let it drop out the bottom.
Passenger side, you've got plenty of room. The dipstick tube needs to be removed, there's one bolt on the support bracket to the head, then it just pull it out toward the fender, up and out. For the manifold, I unbolted it and pulled it out the top since it wasn't still bolted to the downpipe.
Then I pulled the front driveshaft out. No pics of it in the truck, it's pretty self explanatory. Unbolt the Ujoint straps, then I use a medium length screwdriver to EASILY pry it toward the back of the truck to break it loose. Tape up the caps so they don't fall off. Then you must un-do the clip on the output shaft boot and slide the boot up and over the lip on the shaft. Then just slide it forward and out being careful not to drop it.
Here you can see the little collar up toward the Ujoint where the boot clamps to. That's what you have to slide the boot off of for it to come out of the tcase
Picture's kinda blurry, but you can see there's significantly less room on the driver's side to work with. I slid this one up from the bottom, again, you'll just have to wrestle with it to get it up in there. It's tight, and I had to remove the heat shield that's up against the firewall for some extra room.
Here's the initial look once I got it wrestled up and just mock bolted up. As you can see, it hits the steering shaft. I had to beat in the front primary tube to clear. Use a sharpie to kind of mark around the area the shaft is hitting so you'll have a guide to go off of
And here you can see that they interfere with the front Dshaft. They're not even close to clearing. I tried using a ratchet strap around the frame to the header to try and pull it away, but that didn't work. The only way I can see is to take it out, cut off the flange and re-angle them toward the frame more. It wasn't worth it to me, I'm just leaving the Dshaft out for now. I don't use 4x4 much anymore anyway. IF YOU'RE LIFTED, there won't be any interference, except the y-pipe. That will be MUCH easier to modify. I'll wait till I'm lifted and just throw the shaft in then and cut the y-pipe.
Again, I'd have to dent 2 of the primaries just before they come into the collector almost half closed and the collector would have to be near destroyed too. Not worth it to me, plus it'd probably cost a grand to get that header modified (I don't know how to weld
) so I'll just buy a lift down the road insteadNow, back to the steering shaft. I used a ball peen hammer to dent it in, probably a 5lb one. There's about an 1/8" of clearance here. It needs a little more, the shaft still rubs a little bit, I can feel it in the steering. So beat it in more than I did. I'll either pull that header back out or just dent it in more when I replace the steering shaft
Here's the driver's after final bolt up
Here's the pass mating surface. Be sure to clean both sides on the engine and also the new headers. I just scraped the ones on the block with a razor blade lightly and wiped them down with laquer thinner on a rag
Here's the passenger side now that the manifold is gone. I ended up needing to slide the header in from the top, letting it sit and then get under the truck and kind of wrestle it down through the gap from the frame to the engine. How you do it is really up to you. There's no real trick, I just wrestled with it till it dropped
I also took off the intake tube, un-did the hose that goes into the radiator overflow tank, and took off the bracket that holds the heater hoses, just so I could move them as I needed
Again, I dropped them in from up top, between the heater hoses and the main A/C hose
Here you can see how close it is from the lines running along side the block/starter and the frame
Driver's collector
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