Jba - 50%

[BobM]

Ok, I am man enough to take some heat. My son and I installed the JBA header for the passeger side on my 2003 Tundra 4x4. Thanks to lots of reading and re-reading of installation posts as well as prepping, we were able to accomplish this yesterday afternoon. Today was to be the driver's side. It looked a bit more daunting, but we set out. Removed wheel, removed dip stick, removed heat shield bolts (via wheel well), removed O2 sensor; went to remove motor mounts as we did on passenger side - ugh -could not strategize enough to remove it - some bolts easy to get to some "Good grief" lost in a maze of hoses, etc. Looked at our collection of ratchet wrenches, ratchets, breaker bars, sockets, swivels, air ratchet, compressor, jack stands, yadda, yadda: ran out of "gas" thinking about it. Sooo instead of ruining the rest of monday's holiday, we re-installed, the heat shields, O2 sensor, dip stick ,wheel, yadda, yadda. How about a note of encouragement from someone. More to the point, can someone tell me the best weay to remove the motor mount. Seems to me, similar to the passenger side, once the motor mount is out, all should be good to go.
On a second note: it has been years since i had a ride with an exhaust leak. should i assume it would be obvious, tick tick tick is how i remember them. Passenger side seems fine. Original studs, nuts ,new OE gaskets. Thanks for the help - oh 61 years old enjoying time with his son.

[stan01]

If you were able get the passenger side of the driver side should be the same 3 or 4 bolts on the block and 2 on the frame but on my 05 diddnt have much hoses in the way. Try and remove the hose brackets so you can have some slack on the hoses so you can move the hoses around to get to the motor mounts bolts.

[BobM]

thanks for the words. it is the same bolts, maybe too pooped, but they see much more difficult to get then the passenger side. wil try again

[Picasso]

Originally Posted by BobM

went to remove motor mounts as we did on passenger side - ugh -could not strategize enough to remove it - some bolts easy to get to some "Good grief" lost in a maze of hoses, etc.... can someone tell me the best weay to remove the motor mount.

When I installed my headers, I accessed the motor mount bolts from below. I simply used a breaker bar and a 6" extension for the bolts that hold the mount to the block and then a short ratchet wrench for the two bolts that hold the mount to the frame. The driver's side install will go much easier with all of the vacuum hoses detached at one end and put aside, and removing the battery and fuse box.

Originally Posted by BobM

On a second note: it has been years since i had a ride with an exhaust leak. should i assume it would be obvious, tick tick tick is how i remember them. Passenger side seems fine. Original studs, nuts ,new OE gaskets. Thanks for the help - oh 61 years old enjoying time with his son.

That would be it for a leak near or at one of the primaries. A leak at the collector might not have such a distinct ticking sound.

Good luck Bob,


Paul

[BobM]

thanks Paul. We looked at removing the battery and fuse box. never got that far today. been hesitant to remove the vacuum lines, but i can see how that would make things easier. i guess the point is, easy does, with patience. we must have had no desire today, could not even figure how to access all the motor mounts bolts.
Bob

[HotRod8]

I didn't remove the motor mounts when I did mine. I seem to recall I used the 14mm "Flex Socket", it's a socket with a built in universal joint. I put about 2 feet of extensions and a ratchet from outside of the wheel well area, worked great. I found the Flex Socket and the hinged ratchet wrench worth their weight in gold on this project.

[dezert_rida]

Originally Posted by BobM

Ok, I am man enough to take some heat. My son and I installed the JBA header for the passeger side on my 2003 Tundra 4x4. Thanks to lots of reading and re-reading of installation posts as well as prepping, we were able to accomplish this yesterday afternoon. Today was to be the driver's side. It looked a bit more daunting, but we set out. Removed wheel, removed dip stick, removed heat shield bolts (via wheel well), removed O2 sensor; went to remove motor mounts as we did on passenger side - ugh -could not strategize enough to remove it - some bolts easy to get to some "Good grief" lost in a maze of hoses, etc. Looked at our collection of ratchet wrenches, ratchets, breaker bars, sockets, swivels, air ratchet, compressor, jack stands, yadda, yadda: ran out of "gas" thinking about it. Sooo instead of ruining the rest of monday's holiday, we re-installed, the heat shields, O2 sensor, dip stick ,wheel, yadda, yadda. How about a note of encouragement from someone. More to the point, can someone tell me the best weay to remove the motor mount. Seems to me, similar to the passenger side, once the motor mount is out, all should be good to go.
On a second note: it has been years since i had a ride with an exhaust leak. should i assume it would be obvious, tick tick tick is how i remember them. Passenger side seems fine. Original studs, nuts ,new OE gaskets. Thanks for the help - oh 61 years old enjoying time with his son.

Get underneath the truck with an extension and impact gun and a swivel 14mm impact socket. Take out the 4 bolts that go to the block. There is another small bolt with a 10mm head that holds the wiring to the mount. Once those bolts are out, just jack up the motor a few inches and you should have plenty of access without removing the mount entirely. If you were installing Downey headers, I could see removing it entirely.

Once you get this far, test fit the header before you put the gasket on. Make sure the forward most port flange clears the AC. Some JBAs need to have the flange ground to fit, some do not. Its sporadic, but it does happen. Once you confirm its clear and tighten the studs in the head, just put the gasket and header on. Tighten evenly from the center out.

[BobM]

thank you everyone for the helps! I'll post the progress this saturday. not only are the righht misture of extensions, flex sockets, etc invaluable, so is this board

[Agent WD-40]

I got some gear wrenches with flexible ends. That really saved the day. I also used one of those flex joints like was posted below. I had better luck with the gear wrench though. The flexible head and the fact it was thin and could drop down between the header and block was great. Mine were a pain in the butt and totally worth it (as long as I don't have to do it again).

I didn't have to remove the motor mounts either.

[BobM]

thank you - i have received very good feedback. The best part is the fact people have done this with success

[N10S]

I just completed the "other" 50% (drivers side) last night so I can comment on the things I ran into. I chose that side because I had heard that it was slightly more difficult and I figured I should do it while I had the best attitude and most energy/strength. Although an impact wrench can speed-up certain parts of the job like removing the three collector nuts on each side, you just have to pay the piper and resort to the right tools and strategy to remove the manifold to head nuts.

I did not mess with my motor mount, but instead used a cut-down deep-well 14mm to get into the two lower nuts located in the center. I tried cutting it down by using a hacksaw, but the material is extremely hard and I resorted to having my neighbor who happens to be a machinist, cut it down for me using a hand band saw, and then smoothing things out on his lathe. This custom tool did the trick and I was able to use the combination of that cut-down 3/8 deep well 14mm, a craftsman wobble connector, and a 3/8 breaker bar with no extension to break loose the rear-most of the two bolts. Although I could get the same wrench combo on the front nut, I could not get it to pop. At that point I connected a craftsman universal swivel to my cut-down socket, and then a 20" 3/8 extension out the wheel well where I connected it via a 1/2 to 3/8 converter to my very large breaker bar. Finally after putting some major strain the beast popped and things were good.

Thats my drivers side story so far...hope it helps a bit.

Jeff

[BobM]

Thanks Jeff. I am going back to the well this Saturday!!