tools: 3/8" drive 10mm, 12mm, 13mm, 14mm (all short), 14mm long, u-joint, 1/2"-3/8" adapter, 2' breaker bar, 3/8" ratchet, 1/2" ratchet, 1/4" ratchet, 20" 3/8" extension, 12" 3/8" extension, cordless drill, vise grips, 14mm wrench, 14mm ratcheting wrench. also used a few things in 1/2" drive getting rid of the stock pipe. went through two cans of pb blaster, that stuff is indispensible.
here's what i did...it was a combo of the 10 pages of info available via the search function. i did not take the wheels off, and i did take the motor mounts off. i probably saved several hours of cursing that way, not to mention it would have been impossible otherwise. dont even bother trying to break anything loose with a wrench if your manifolds are rusty. plus, its safer to leave the truck on the wheels when you also have the engine on the floor jack and are hauling on the side of the engine with a breaker bar.
disconnect battery. drop skid plates. pick up front of the truck with a floor jack by the steering rack crossmember and set down again (this gives a little more height, i explain it somewhere in another thread). soak everything you can see with blaster. dont forget the 3-bolt flanges, and do what you can to hit the two nuts behind the motor mounts.
move towards the rear. i like to use the breaker bar, it saves time and energy...attack resonator/muffler clamp with breaker bar and remove. crawl out from under truck and rehose exhaust manifolds with blaster. duck under again and deal with 2-bolt flanges with breaker bar. on each flange, only one bolt came out...one flange i twisted off the head of the bolt.the other refused to come out and i refused to !@#$ with it. the flange with the sheared bolt actually separated, this was to the drivers side.
come up for air and re-soak/blast everything with the rust eater.
moving forward, 20" extension and 14mm deep socket attached to breaker bar with adapter, deal with 3-bolt flanges. these took a good crank, but all came loose. they are the same setup as the manifold studs, exactly the same actually. on the drivers side, one stud came out with the nut. i removed the passenger side cat and resonator as a unit as they would not separate, this includes the y-pipe. pull and wiggle backwards, it came out easy. did something similar with the driver side. watch out for sensor wires when doing this.
take a break and re-blast the manifolds. it is imperative that you soak everything, esp. the manifold nuts, with a very good rust eater like pb blaster, or things will break, sieze, gall, etc on the way out. all the manifold nuts which i was able to thoroughly soak through the day came out without the studs. the two lower inside nuts, the ones behind the motor mounts, did not receive as much blaster as the rest, consequently on the passenger side both came out with the stud, on the drivers side one came out with the stud. if you are installing shorties, do what you can to address those two nuts. im replacing the studs and nuts anyway, so i removed everything, but if you have a relatively rust-free truck and dont need to remove the studs, save yourself the headache. a wrench would not have been able to break the lower inside nuts loose, as all the nuts were initially rust-welded to the studs and to the exhaust manifold assembly. i could hear and feel them break loose when i got on them with the breaker bar. had i not used so much blaster, its possible i could have sheared something off as i did with the two-bolt flanges upstream of the y-pipe.
as much as everyone has touted the benefits of the ratcheting wrenches, the only place i used them *so far* has been when i needed to double up on 14mms to get the frame-side motor mount bolts out...a solid on the bottom, ratchet on the top. a long 14mm is really handy for this, and if you dont have a ratcheting 14mm a shorty will work as well...but for the price, get the set of 7 metric 180 degree swivel head ratchet wrenches...so much handier than the flat ratchet wrenches (they would not have worked nearly as well) and the same price (in the kit) as buying a single 14mm non-swivel wrench. i am hoping to install the headers same way i removed the exhaust manifolds, but i dont know if the motor mounts will go back in with the new headers in place (my guess is no), if im correct the ratchet wrench will be necessary for installing those two lower inside nuts.
head to the drivers side. remove the battery, unhook the fuse box connections, take off the dipstick (cover the hole with something), remove bolt holding shift line to the fender, remove vacuum lines from charcoal canister, remove bolt holding tow package stuff. tuck everything out of the way. i zip tied one of the fuel lines (return line maybe? iono) to something else to keep it out of the way. at this point only thing in the way is a single fuel line, leaving room for the 14mm deep socket linked to a 3/8"-1/2" adapter and the 2' breaker bar. remove the top four manifold nuts and the forward and rearward lower nuts with the breaker bar. use the last of the blaster on the other side, and squirt the motor mounts on both sides.
put something stable and kinda tall on the floor jack. i used a piece of 2x6, a few small solid bricks (not the kind with holes, and very small) and a piece of cardboard to make a stable tower, and took the weight of the engine off the motor mounts. make sure not to put the jack under the drain bolt. now remove the motor mount, it's 4x14mm bolts on the block, if they came out easy on my rig theyll be extremely easy on yours. i dont know if the bolts are galvanized or stainless, but they were completely rust free, and did not appear to be treated with anything (including threadlock) from the factory. drivers side motor mount has two items attached, a small heat shield and a hanger bracket...remove these from the mount first. there are two 14mm nut and bolt combos on each side of the motor mount where it attaches to the frame, take these out first, then completely remove the four 14mm bolts going in to the block. as i did not know i would be removing the mounts, i had not adequately blasted these bolts, fortunately they didnt give me any trouble. you can break the nut (on top) loose with a u-joint and 14mm socket, then get them out with a pair of 14mm wrenches. move the engine up a few mils, weight off the mount, and wiggle the mount out from the top of the engine bay, taking care not to catch wires, hoses or pipes. the drivers side is easier to maneuver out towards the front of the truck, the passenger side is easier going toward the back. both must be rotated and angled to get them out, kind of like those metal puzzles with the interlocking rings and whatnot. now deal with the two remaining manifold bolts with the breaker bar etc...pop the oxygen sensor clip loose and slide the manifold out from the bottom. !@#$ POS looks like wreckage from the titanic (ryan's observation) or like 100 year old farm equipment (my assessment). whoever decided to use that particular metal for these parts should be slapped, nothing else on my truck is this rusted. they could probably be "rust dated" for crissakes. while youre down there and the engine mount is out of the way, get the head studs out. i used the vise grips to start them until they were loose enough to turn by hand or with the 9/32 socket, which didnt always fit since the bolts were so rusty. mostly i used the vise grips but *only on the tips* of the studs. wheeee, drivers side is completely out. put the engine mount back in with at least two block bolts and at least one frame bolt.
passenger side, remove the airbox and take the nuts off the power steering reservoir so you can move it around, deal with the manifold nuts same as with the other side, remove motor mount, get the last two nuts, let the manifold hang from the oxygen sensor while you reach up from the bottom and unhook the clip. mine was too much of a pita, so i clipped the lines to the sensor--i have new sensors to install, and the old sensors are a rust-integrated part of the old exhaust system anyway at this point, not to mention really cruddy looking. engine probably running rich or something, iono. i'll be coming back to that piece tomorrow. anyway, remove the manifold. remark on how disgusting it is. remove head studs same as the other side, also note at this point its really easy to get them from the bottom as well.
wash self multiple times in buddy's shower. wash the shower. wash self again. use lemon-scented dish soap, because regular hand soap doesnt cut grease well enough. eat half a pizza and go to bed.
lessons learned: everyones truck has a different amount of rust. ratcheting wrenches are nice but a two foot breaker bar is better. ingenuity is better than brute strength. socket wrenches are great but an 18v cordless drill with a 3/8" and 1/2" drive adapter and about 3' of extensions and a u-joint is much, much faster, i broke the nuts loose from the top with the bar and spun them out through the wheel wells or from under the truck. sheetz has good sub sandwiches. the idea of removing the motor mounts causes starfish the first time you consider it, but it's really easy and really helpful. ingenuity combined with brute strength (provided by the breaker bar, because i am a skinny 160lbs) beats four years of rusted-arse exhaust manifolds and exhaust pipe. the motor mount bolts and head studs did not appear to have any factory anti-sieze on them. friends with gatorade who let you use their garage are the best kind of friends (thanks ryan ). wear eye protection! put a set of wraparoud chemistry-style goggles on before you even start spraying the rust eater. so much crud came off the truck every time i broke a bolt loose if i hadnt had goggles on i wouldve got stuff in my eyes every time.
ed, if/when you merge with thread somewheres, please hit me with a pm where it went since i want to add to it--thx.
That's excellent! It sounds like every header install on every vehicle I've ever done. Big pita but worth the effort. I'm slowly toying with the idea for the truck. Enjoy the ride.
__________________
2003 SR5 V8 4x4 Access Cab; SS Autochrome intake with AEM dryflow; Truxedo cover; Rhino lining; 255/85/16 Cooper Discoverer S/T's; 16x8 Black Steel Wheelers; Ram Air; breather extensions; Viair 380COBA; Donahoe coilovers; Deaver 3leaf AAL; homemade bed rack; 21 gallon water tank, front Hidden Hitch w/Superwinch...
Excellent post great detail and tips! That said you also convinced me that I will NEVER NEVER do this mod! Not that I'm not capable enough to do it , but it is a big job that I don't have the time to devote. From what I have been reading here lately headers really seem to give you the most power for your buck. I have been monitoring the Unichip thread and from some of the results found by those guys headers seam a great choice. I would imagine that having JBA Or TRD headers installed must be close to a 10 hour job by the Stealer. IMO if you have time headers are the way to go!
Your description of removing the old headers is very accurate and almost made me ill just thinking about doing it again. Just wanted to add one thing - the motor mounts will go back on after you have installed the headers and I didn't completely remove the mount, I just slid them over to the side while I removed and/or tightened bolts. This is not a job for the faint of heart or someone who is trying to hurry through it. It takes a lot of time and patience. One final note: I decided after doing mine that at least some of the TS members who have already done the install and reported taking only a few hours to do it, are probably not driving 4X4's. There is a lot of extra stuff in your way that you have to work around on a 4X4.
Enjoy your headers!
__________________ Factory:Leather, Tow Pkg., Tundra Floor Mats, RS 3000 Security, Six Disc In-dash CD Changer, TRD Off Road Package, Toyota bed extender, auto-dimming mirror, and running boards Add-ons: INYATI bed liner, Lund hood deflector, Stainless Billet grille, Full tint, Tundra Door sill protectors, Putco s/s bed caps, Delta polished aluminum tool box, Whelen four-way strobe, Bridgestone Dueler A/T Revos 275/70/16's, Throttle Body and Relay/Fuse Billet Covers Performance: True Flow intake and air filter, 20% Underdrive pulley, Jet Hot SS Autochrome Headers, Power Stop Cross-drilled Rotors & Maxxis Pads, Flowmaster cat-back dual exhaust. Audio: Alpine V12 amp, Kicker two-way front speakers, Rockford-Fosgate two-way rear speakers, Boston Rally Neo 3r tweets, Phoenix Gold 500.1 sub amp, Twin Rockford-Fosgate 8's in a Q Logic sub enclosure, sound deadening, XM SKYFi2 Satellite Radio Suspension: Revtek 2.5" suspension lift ,1.5" rear leveling block, Hellwig anti-sway bar w/ ADDCO end links, TRD Red/Blue shocks, TRD Add-a-leafs Mods: Rear seat angle, Dome/ Dash/Fog/DRL and Cargo Light Mods,Under carriage lights, Ignition Key and Open Door Chime Mods, Silverstar head and fog lamps, Power tailgate lock
Umm... when did headers become part of Handling, Suspension & Brakes?
Anyway, glad you got them installed
my bad, i was pretty tired at the time. as to the headers, im not currently sure im glad theyre installed. anyway, i'm still tired, and i'm pissed as well, the kind of emotionally drained and angy that only an $819.00 potential waste can make a guy.
yanno how ken has that tag line, "you get what you inspect, not what you expect"? i now have on my truck the embodiment of that statement. my lack of careful inspection hooked me up with what i am afraid may have been a colossal waste of time and money, and even if it works out, i wouldn't recommend installing any set of headers unless the particular set youve purchased and are about to be shipped have been double-checked for true flanges at the head and collector. even when you get them, double check yourself. perhaps the heat of operation, and the sequential tightening will eventually make them true enough, however it seems ludicrous to me to begin with a product that hasn't had the proper q/c when it shipped--just because it *looks* true at a passing glance doesnt mean it really *is* true upon closer inspection. i believe someone who purchased jba headers had a story like this, with misdrilled or misaligned holes and untrue flanges, and a q/a department that really didnt care. i sincerely hope s&s will be more helpful than with the jba scenario, i left a message with loren, hopefully he'll call me back monday.
awright, so here's the problem. the head flanges have a slight twist to them, maybe a millimeter or so. i was told by another member this was ok, they'll crank down fine. ok, i hope so...ive only retightened once after letting the engine idle for a few minutes, just got back from a test drive and will retighten again, hopefully they will seal better. moving to the other end of the headers, the three-bolt flanges are concave. hold your forearm out, wrist flexed upward, fingers out like you were holding a tennis ball. your forearm is the header, your hand and fingers are the flange. thats what it looks like. the cats have a ground face, and are extremely true. there is at least a 1mm gap between the copper collector gasket and the cat, the gasket flexed with the header flange. both header flanges suffer from this to some degree, the passenger side more than the drivers side. the y-pipe flanges are the same, but fortunately the drivers side flange was warped convex, so theoretically it is more likely to seal between the bolts rather than just at the bolts. the cats are not straight, ie the 3-bolt flange was welded at a slight angle. it would have been helpful if it had been bent in a direction to make the y-pipe more likely to line up with the stock exhaust; it's not. in addition, the driver's side cat cannot be installed with the heat shield facing the cab, it interferes with the transfer case. great job picking cats . there's a reason tundras have small, round cats...i only paid 800 bucks, maybe i can get a cat that fits properly? anyway, i chose to install the drivers side cat with the heat shield pointing at the t-case, since it's so close. i do not know if these cats only flow in one direction, or if all cats can flow in either direction, at any rate if the cat is bidirectional it could maybe at least be mounted with the heat shield pointing up and at the t-case, rather than more toward the ground. anyone that knows the answer to this cat question please post.
at this point i am waiting for the truck to cool down so i can crank down all the bolts a little more. the bolts at the collectors wont crank any farther, im a little worried theyll shear if i crank harder, anyone know? they will not seal properly, and leak audibly. i need a semi-flexible seal, the copper gaskets will not properly seal to the concave 3-bolt flanges on the headers.
i was not aware of the degree to which the oxygen sensors need to be tightened down. i was able to retighten them about a quarter turn after letting the engine idle for a bit, ill see what theyre like after the test drive in a little while, when the engine is cooler. both sides spit a little antisieze during the warmup and the test drive.
right now, every join leaks audibly (except the donut gasket, which probably doesnt have enough pressure at this point to bother leaking). my old exhaust manifolds had a very light tick under load. these have an audible "pfft" noise from the wheel wells at idle, after the test drive...someone please tell me this leaking is normal and will go away after the next round of tightening.
finally, when the engine is first started, the coating (or something, that's just a guess) makes a funny smell and produces some vapor or smoke or something. i jumped for the key and the fire extinguisher, and after a few checks couldnt find anything wrong, assumed it was leftover rust penetrant boiling off, and after talking to okctundra found out he experienced the same thing. anyone else notice this? im assuming its normal. if not, somebody say something.
on the passenger side, there are two power steering brackets that can be bent slightly to move the lines away from the headers. the lower bracket near the sway bar just needs to be straightened a little, make sure the ends stay parallel tho. the upper bracket (just above the previous one) can be bent downwards a little. both bends require removing the brackets from the truck.
the forwardmost drivers side heat shield--the small one mounted to the engine and engine mount--is a pain to get back in place with the headers on. dont remove it unless you have to. the one attached to the shift line is easy to deal with.
the large heat shield under the drivers side comes off, slides back a little and rests on the crossmember and a fuel line. the large heat shield on the passenger side can just come off and be replaced when the header is installed.
both headers rest on the motor mounts. the drivers side rests on the lower rear portion of the mount...i could not pass a piece of paper between the mount and the header, i have not tried dental floss but i suspect the result would be the same. perhaps i will get to grinding this down some day, at least the passenger side is clear. fortunately the mount and the header will move together, the flexible portion of the mount is between the mount and the frame, not the mount and the engine.
the shift cable bracket i just bent down and toward the firewall.
the drivers side rear oxygen sensor extension can be zip tied to one of the lines near the top of the transfer case, this keeps it from hanging near the exhaust pipe.
the drivers side forward oxygen sensor extension can be routed under what iirc are the breather lines, across to the frame, down the fuel lines with zip ties at every important link. this way clears the headers and the steering shaft. the passenger side did something similar, i dont remember at this point.
i had to use a floor jack under the end of the y-pipe to hold it in place so i could mount the donut gasket properly to the muffler. wtf, i thought this "issue" had been dealt with? this was something brandon found and mentioned during the first test install. there is currently a great deal of forced deformation in the system, from the head to the end of the tail pipe, as the muffler moved somewhat to accomodate the angle of the y-pipe. it is caused in part by the slightly off-angle 3-bolt flanges on the headers and cats, tho it could be fixed by intentionally angling them up a little.
i would really like to know if anyone else experienced any of this, noticed any of this, and so forth. granted for all this, there's more power than when i drove out here (im at ryan's, in pa right now), but its certainly not what i was expecting as far as power, not to mention workmanship. yeah, theyre pretty, yeah, they have 36 inch primaries, but they dont fit together properly.
i could really use some ideas or helpful hints. i am long past the point where a beer would help. if you have my phone number, feel free to use it til roughly midnight EST, at that point i'll either be asleep (at ryans) or on the road (with a leaking exhaust system, headed back to dayton).
thanks everyone for reading/listening/putting up with my griping and f-bombs, particularly okctundra and imdone.
somebody please tell me this is all recoverable. i was hoping to be extremely happy right now with a great high quality aftermarket product, however i currently have mod burnout and a serious case of mistrust for anything i didnt do myself. dont waste your time or money with something like this unless you have a rust-free truck, a lot of time, and thoroughly second-guess the quality control of whatever it is you purchased. hell, at this point if i had time (and if it would go back together) i would put the stock exhaust system back on the truck, send these back for my money back, and leave it alone.
my bad, i was pretty tired at the time. as to the headers, im not currently sure im glad theyre installed. anyway, i'm still tired, and i'm pissed as well, the kind of emotionally drained and angy that only an $819.00 potential waste can make a guy.
yanno how ken has that tag line, "you get what you inspect, not what you expect"? i now have on my truck the embodiment of that statement. my lack of careful inspection hooked me up with what i am afraid may have been a colossal waste of time and money, and even if it works out, i wouldn't recommend installing any set of headers unless the particular set youve purchased and are about to be shipped have been double-checked for true flanges at the head and collector. even when you get them, double check yourself. perhaps the heat of operation, and the sequential tightening will eventually make them true enough, however it seems ludicrous to me to begin with a product that hasn't had the proper q/c when it shipped--just because it *looks* true at a passing glance doesnt mean it really *is* true upon closer inspection.
-sean
Wow Dev....sorry to hear of all the damn issues with your headers. I would have gone with the long tubes also, except I had custom dual run up to the cats, and factory y removed....didn't want to mess with new exhaust, so opted for the shorties. Also...payed the $300.00 and gave the headache to someone else.
On flange flatness. My Autochromes were blanchard ground flat flanges BEFORE welding took place. The problem is...you start with flat flanges...weld all the tubes on, and it draws the ends up. I checked mine before sending out to the ceramic / chromex plater. They required ALOT of trueing up. We have a 24" flat disc grinder at work, I spent 1 1/2 hours trueing mine back from weld warp. Mine were warped with ends pulled up about .030-.050. Likely this would have pulled out during installation...but with the thick flanges, I didn't want to preload my manifold studs that much to seal.
The end flanges weren't all to bad...but still took some work. I half expected this for the price I payed ($155.00)...so it was no big...but the cost of the long tubes...you should expect better. Sorry you found out the hard way...best to keep tightening and see if you can eliminate the leaks at this point.
Just a thought here because I know you're at your wits end with this install. What kind of gaskets did you use? If you used the ones that came with the headers and you still have the Toyota gaskets, they might seal better. They seem to have a little more "crush factor" to them and might make up a little of the space you have and seal better. Sorry things didn't go better.
__________________ Factory:Leather, Tow Pkg., Tundra Floor Mats, RS 3000 Security, Six Disc In-dash CD Changer, TRD Off Road Package, Toyota bed extender, auto-dimming mirror, and running boards Add-ons: INYATI bed liner, Lund hood deflector, Stainless Billet grille, Full tint, Tundra Door sill protectors, Putco s/s bed caps, Delta polished aluminum tool box, Whelen four-way strobe, Bridgestone Dueler A/T Revos 275/70/16's, Throttle Body and Relay/Fuse Billet Covers Performance: True Flow intake and air filter, 20% Underdrive pulley, Jet Hot SS Autochrome Headers, Power Stop Cross-drilled Rotors & Maxxis Pads, Flowmaster cat-back dual exhaust. Audio: Alpine V12 amp, Kicker two-way front speakers, Rockford-Fosgate two-way rear speakers, Boston Rally Neo 3r tweets, Phoenix Gold 500.1 sub amp, Twin Rockford-Fosgate 8's in a Q Logic sub enclosure, sound deadening, XM SKYFi2 Satellite Radio Suspension: Revtek 2.5" suspension lift ,1.5" rear leveling block, Hellwig anti-sway bar w/ ADDCO end links, TRD Red/Blue shocks, TRD Add-a-leafs Mods: Rear seat angle, Dome/ Dash/Fog/DRL and Cargo Light Mods,Under carriage lights, Ignition Key and Open Door Chime Mods, Silverstar head and fog lamps, Power tailgate lock
i did use the toyota gaskets at the head, you can hear them compress when you tighten the nuts.
as kevin said, there is no doubt the flanges were true prior to assembly, even with my meager time holding a mig gun ive seen post-weld deformation. i was pleased to see the cats were obviously ground after being welded, however the collector flanges and head flange obviously were not, same with the y-pipe flanges. grind the flanges true, double check the angles, and these really would be the perfect headers. unfortunately, without that treatment, my truck sounds like it's steam driven.
i talked for a while with brandon last night. his suspicion is these were a test set, never meant to be shipped, and somehow i wound up with them. he actually said he would talk to loren and betty today as well, i am really hoping for some sort of a good resolution, brandon thanks i really appreciate it.
i will keep y'all posted. i am apparently the only person who's had these problems with these headers, either that or i really f-d something up. i wont be able to talk to loren for a few hours, hopefully i'll still get a chance to run s&s long tubes, maybe i'll wind up doing this again the coming weekend (it's a lot easier when youve dealt with it before, and now i know what to take apart first). i just really hope i can get the new locking nuts off the studs with the same wrench i used to put them on, since at this point theyre as tight as i could possibly get them. good thing i was liberal with the antisieze.
if for any reason s&s declines to replace this set, i will need someone's original OEM exhaust system, everything between the engine and the muffler, must be in good to excellent condition, oxygen sensors not required as i bought new sensors for this project and will reuse them in whatever gets installed.
well, loren at least gave me a return number...of course, the problem is what will i run in the mean time...the talks continue.
at least i didnt lose MUCH mileage, im just hoping the leaks at the head wont damage the aluminum head! because its going to be a few weeks (at least!) before i have another set of (hopefully s&s) something to install.
does anyone have their old exhaust system laying around? y-pipe, resonator, manifolds, downtubes and cats...all of it. i might need it .
I'm still three weeks from my install, but I can tell you that the cats are not directional, Loren had the long end toward the rear and don't try to hang them with the air tubes. Heat shield goes toward the truck.
mileage went down about 20 miles on a tank, depending how i drive. the less i use the skinny pedal, the less mileage suffers...ok, that's intuitive, what's unfortunate is that prior to the install i didn't think twice about flooring the pedal when merging or dealing with traffic, now i really have to granny up to speed. more pedal = more leak = less mileage.
ned, take a look at your flanges at the head and collector. if they are angled, try and measure by how much, and let loren know. he might have a fix, even if it's a larger, thicker, squishier gasket.
as of yesterday, loren sez the heat shield on the cats go down toward the ground so as to prevent brush fires, the cab already has a heat shield. i thought that was a little odd, considering if the heat shield isn't up, it's angled off to the side. on my 4x4, if the driver's side cat has the heat shield horizontal, it contacts the transfer case.
i get the feeling there are a bunch of minor problems with some of these sets, same sort of thing i've seen, and nobody has queried for an explanation or a fix. i could have paid 300 bucks and gotten a decent set of headers, instead i held out for what i thought was "the best", and received a set of headaches for 800 bucks (ok, 900, once gaskets, studs and nuts were here).
at this point i am going to try the suggestion of another member with s&s long tube headers (again, these are different from ss autochrome, at least in length ) and switch/double up some gaskets...i'm going to try the s&s-supplied gaskets rather than the toyota gaskets, as the s&s gaskets are thicker and appear more ductile, and double the s&s gaskets at the collector and y-pipe flanges.
hopefully one of these solutions will work . i am about ready to put a fist through a wall, i surprised myself by not getting frustrated with any part of the installation (until i saw the condition of the flanges), i sincerely hope i do not have to reinstall a stock exhaust system.
any tips regarding gaskets, gasket sources, materials and so forth would be greatly appreciated.
ned, if you need any tips on installing the headers (other than dealing with f!@#ed up flanges), hit me up, i can recount the procedure in detail...my install was actually extremely smooth aside from the current problem.
thanks,
sean
*edit* the maf sensor...right. what ryan is referring to is my forgetting to plug the maf back in after getting it outta the way for the post-warmup tightening round (as you might imagine i was pretty...distracted...at that point). as glenn pointed out a while back, two consecutive errors and the cel comes on, two consecutive start cycles without the error and it goes off (ie it goes off the third time you start the engine). the engine doesnt start without the maf plugged in .
more header install notes (s&s)
). wear eye protection! put a set of wraparoud chemistry-style goggles on before you even start spraying the rust eater. so much crud came off the truck every time i broke a bolt loose if i hadnt had goggles on i wouldve got stuff in my eyes every time.
Not that I'm not capable enough to do it , but it is a big job that I don't have the time to devote. From what I have been reading here lately headers really seem to give you the most power for your buck. I have been monitoring the Unichip thread and from some of the results found by those guys headers seam a great choice. I would imagine that having JBA Or TRD headers installed must be close to a 10 hour job by the Stealer. IMO if you have time headers are the way to go!
Please keep us all updated on your outcome! May the Force be with you 
.
) and switch/double up some gaskets...i'm going to try the s&s-supplied gaskets rather than the toyota gaskets, as the s&s gaskets are thicker and appear more ductile, and double the s&s gaskets at the collector and y-pipe flanges.
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