Removing headers

[slowgti]

hey guys, is there any special trick to getting the header pipes between the bottom of the firewall and the steering rack? by 'special trick' i mean is there any way apart from removing the steering rack..

Thanks.

[cняis]

perhaps change the thread title to "Removing manifold" as we dont use the phrase "headers" over here 

i wouldnt know about removing one though...

[danny_p]

the stock downpipe come out,   it takes a bit of giggeling the   iirc its eayest to lift car 3+ foot and remove from below

[Ben Lessani]

I was going to (try to) answer this when I saw it, but wasn't sure what headers meant!

On mine, there's the block > manifold > downpipe union > centre pipe > midbox > backbox.

The manifold is a pig to take off, if it hasn't been done for a while because 2 of the nuts are quite inaccessible. There's 8 studs in total, with 2 buried under the manifold, and its tough to get a decent grip on the rusted nuts. I removed mine with the engine out, and it still took some angle grinding to get the old nuts off, and a stud extractor to remove the old snapped studs!

I couldn't remove my downpipe from the manifold for love nor money, the bolts were completely round and rusted to high heaven, so it was a non-option for me. Given the bolts were sprung, I didn't want to grind them off, because assembling would be a pig. I've never done it in the engine bay, but I seriously doubt it would be easily done if it was in the same condition as mine.

As said, if you can get access to those two sprung bolts, which I couldn't from below or above without using an angle adaptor on my socket extension and simply losing grip, then getting the car high, undoing the centre joint, it should slip down and out.

[danny_p]

if it's a 4-1   tubular  some of them can be a right b!tch,     usually the all out performance ones where they considerd performance and not fitting when desinging i.  but there not that common  they tend to feed down into the engine bay.   

as with manifold and downpipe the 6 bolts can be a bit of a b!tch but i have allways managed to get them undone the worst one i've ever had i ended up welding an old socket to what remaioned of the nut / stud,  and giveing it some stick with knuckel bar   if the weld is any good it's a binary condition the stud ether unscrews from the manifold or snaps.  the other option is to leave it attached and feed it out with the manifold still on it