Holy God these are a pain to install!!!!

Change step one of the install to: Drive to exhaust shop and have them cut the flex pipe and put a coupler system on. The way it is currently designed I simply see no way to install them without doing this. I am actually pretty sure mine weren't welded correctly and there is an angle problem. I'm going to try to get a picture of this up here later. I even tried "massaging" the down pipe and it still won't fit. And by massage, I mean take a friggin sledge hammer and cave in the downpipe about 1/2 inch. Not good at all. Even then I can't clear the valve covers at the top. If I have this whole chunk cut out it will slide in and bolt in easily. An automechanic neighbor and I spent 4 hours giving it all and still no go - his wife called him home and he agreed it would be much easier just to cut the fuggin downpipe off and install. I'm going to get this done tomorrow and post a pic as well.

Big number 2. To really make this job easier than the directions say, remove all spark plug wires and plugs right way. This gives you a ton more room.

Tilt the engine forward, we were able to get almost an extra 6 inches in the back, once again I will try to get a picture up here.

Well my arms are completly dead from holding them above my head for almost 4 hours so I'm going to leave it at this for now, but get those pics up tomorrow hopefully.

 

man makes me glad i didnt ahve to put them in LOL
I still would not mind gettign some but not at the price they wwant fo rthem. im to cheap LOL

 

Here is a picture of the clearance issue with the downpipe during install. The header cannot fit from the bottom due to no clearance in the bell housing. You need to go through the top but as you can see the top of the pipe hits the bellhousing of the firewall and the bottom hits the steering equipment (the gold bar).

 

Here is a picture of the rear header and downpipe. Right below the silver header is the flex joint. As you can see below the flex joint the pipe bends down and comes back up. Unfortunately this angle is too sharp and needs to be straightend out a bit or cut. I attemped to "massage" it, but after totally beating on it I decide to have an exhast shop just build me a new piece and I will cut this at home... probably below the flex joint.

 

Here is a picture of the massage work. Not the clearest, but you can really tell I had issues trying to get this installed. You can even see scratches on the header itself from all the twisting I tried.

 

Here is a picture of how much travel in front the motor pulled. I wish I had the dogbone in there, but its about 3 inches away from the front. Lots of room behind the engine now!!!

 

Here is a picture of the manifold as we try to get it up from the backside. It can't be brought through the bottom bellhousing because of the trany dipstick.... that's the black bar at the top to the left of the manifold. I also pulledthe alternatator and top alternator bracket. That allowed a ton of clearance to get at the sparkplugs and manifold. I know how to do it easy in the future.

 

Pacesetters are good too and pretty cheap. I just got a good deal on these. What gets me was mine were used and I have no idea how the previous person made clearance!!!

 

Here is a picture of the exhaust system for reference.

 

Here is a picture of the Random Tech Downpipe I have and am replacing with the SLP one... Once the headers are installed it will be up for sale.