Mr. Pink

hmm if you have good luck with this i may get one for the ZJ.

Basslicks

Would've started the install today, but I got called in to work.

Basslicks

Whew.... lots of things going on.

My parents were in town the last week of December. That kept me pretty busy. Then, once they left, I started cleaning/organizing my garage. It's still not perfectly organized, but it's MILES ahead of what it was.

What it started out as....


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In the process....


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Forgot to get an after shot before I put my Jeep in.... but here's how everything sits now...


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So with enough room in the garage to pull the Jeep in and work on it, I did just that. Tore everything down for an exhaust manifold removal and header install... what I didn't plan on was a broken stud at the back of the head.


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Dadgummit....


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You could tell by looking at both parts of the stud that it had broken before I ever put a wrench to it though. Which would explain why the Jeep had been running so poorly and so much heat was pouring into the engine bay.

So a friend came by with a 90* drill attachment and a couple of easy outs. It was hard to get to, hard to see, and by the time we noticed the drill was walking on us, it was too late....


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****!!!! That's right... ****!

So I had to pull the head and drill it out... which was a process. I took a piece of 1/2" oak and dilled it to match the manifold gasket pattern, then I took a couple pieces of thick sheet metal and sandwiched the board between them. Since I didn't have a drill press, this was the only way I could think of to keep the bit going straight down. Started with a small bit, and worked my way up....

it was successful.


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The bit I finished with was just smaller than the original hole. So it drilled out the broken stud and left the threads intact.


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As you can see, there was still a bit of a crater where we gacked up the hole.... to remedy this, I put some anti-seize on the threads of the new stud, threaded it in, then filled in the gap with JB Weld. I allowed it to cure for about 20 hours, then removed the stud and chased the threads. It works MINT! The repaired hole is holding torque perfectly.

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And here's the situation now.... the dreaded clearance issue. I was going to try and finish her up yesterday before work, but between the donut gasket not wanting to go on the header's flange and then having a clearance problem with the header and intake manifold, I had to call it quits. Gonna start back on it tonight when I get home from work.... figure a dent in the #6 exhaust runner and a little grinding on the intake runner and it'll be good to go.


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Hopefully I'll get 'er all back together tonight! I love driving the M and all, it's really comfy, but I miss my Jeep!

cleenrob

bashing the header a bit will likely do almost nothing to kill power

Basslicks

lol... yeah I saw that episode when it came out.

Trust me, NO FEAR of bashing the header....


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And that's all it took to clear the intake. Didn't have to grind a single flake of metal on the intake.

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Didn't even really change the "volume" of that runner either.


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Anyway, got it all buttoned back up and finally started her up at about 0130 this morning.... ran into a couple of snags like first forgetting to put the thermostat back in, and then it not seating in the head correctly.... lots of fun when you put coolant in and watch it come pouring out after a head job.... I freaked out a little. Then I realized it was the thermostat housing.

Torquing the bolts on the header was a major PITA.... I could barely get my hand in there with a boxed wrench, sockets won't fit... so I don't know how you're supposed to "torque spec" anything.

But, I got it all back together and she fired right up. Spitted and sputtered for a few seconds just getting all the air out of the fuel rail... smoked like crazy while the coating on the header burned off, but sounds great and runs great. Only thing that ground my gears is the stupid pulley bearing squeek is still there after replacing the hub bearing. So that brings me back to the BRAND NEW MOPAR water pump that I just installed. Apparently the bearing is bad in it.

Yaaaayyyyy MOAR work!


ETA: BTW, the head you see in the pictures above is a spare that I have. Worked great to use as a mock-up surface on my workbench.

TFitzPat87

Ahhh, they can't ever be easy! Turned out good though. What header did you go with?

Basslicks

This one raatcheaaa

Basslicks

SO I took the Jeep out at lunch for some experimentation. Still doing the same thing it's been doing.

BUT..... I think I figured out why now. When it started doing it's cylinder cut out, rough idle, and eventual stahl, I opened the hood to feel underhood temps. Still hot, as usual... but I thought I noticed some smoke coming from somewhere. Turns out it wasn't smoke at all, it was vaporized fuel... and it was coming from a pinhole leak on the supply line. You could literally see it go from vapor to liquid as the temps under the hood started to decline.

SO, I'll change out that line and we'll go from there. I just GOTTA get this thing runnin' right. I'm tired of the "heat soak" symptoms.

TFitzPat87

Hope that's what it is! Once you get that thing running top notch again, let us know how you like the header. I'm sure I'll need to replace mine here in a little bit.

Basslicks

I like it. It sounds great. I'm sure with a muffler with more resonance in it, it will make a huge difference in sound.

Performance, not really going to be able to tell until I get the way it's running fixed.

Ease of install..... forget it. OEM manifold wins on that hands down. I'd rather install 100 OEM manifolds versus this thing.

In case you didn't know, this header, the APN header, and pretty much every cheapy EBAY header are all knock-offs of the Banks Torque Tubes header.... so they're pretty much all gonna fit and install the same way.

cbs_24

I had a hell of a time installing my APN. Similar issues to what you experienced. Exhaust leak, fitment issues, bad seal. If I ever have to replace mine again I'm gonna just go Gibson or something else high quality. Hopefully you're able to figure yours out.

Basslicks

Thanks man.

Well, everything seems to be going well with the header. No exhaust leaks or anything.

I replaced the fuel line today. Seemed to run a little better, but still did the same thing similar to heat soak. But I noticed something that struck a chord with me. It was starting up just fine, but it would spit, sputter, act like it couldn't stay running, then die. I popped the hood, pulled the leads off the ballast resistor and jumpered them together. Started right up and ran fine. Hopefully all my rough running woes are through.

Also swapped the map sensor out cause I was still running the old one.

Dumajones

I would never bash my header like that and put a big old dent in it.

I made my son do it..lol






I had an old beat up 69 Chevelle ss real rough body but had a motor from hell.. It had headers that hung down too low and I hit everything in the road from speed bumps, coming out of parking lots so on.

It had dents all over it, didn't seem to do anything to performance .. one day I hit something and it kinda sounded better for a few days. Then I hit a bump and back to the Tow truck without an exhaust sound..lol

I was a kid,,and didn't know better,, Rolled the car the butt end on them are heavy, that's all I can say..hahaha



Looking good..Fun times

LACK

Man you're going to lose so much horsepower with that massive dent in your header.


I kid I kid, glad you got that broken stud out and all fixed up.

Basslicks

69 Chevelle SS... man.... and I thought it was a heart breaker when my '70 Nova got nailed in the rear quarter just 3 days after getting the exhaust done. 69 Chevelle SS will pull a MINT nowadays. Is your *** still sore from kickin' yourself?!?!?!

Yeah, after seeing the engine masters turn a set of headers into scrap metal and still put out arguably the same amount of power and torque - I wasn't worried about it.

But did putting a dent into a brand new header still hurt my feelings?

Yes. Yes it did.