A collection of header install tips
 

Okay, so while preparing to do my BBK long tube headers install i got a lot of great advice from members on here so i thought i would try and repay the Camaro5 community with a with a collection of the great advice that was given to me along with my experience of the installation of any type of headers install.

First and foremost, rtcat600man did a much better write up than i could ever do with great pictures, so if anyone is looking to do a headers install, i'd read his write up first. http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showth...&highlight=obx

Also, here is a great video that TekScrew made. This will give you a great idea of the install. http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=134161

-Air tools would defiantly be ideal, but if you have some long extenders for your wrenches you can get the job done just fine. At some points i would be using 3 extensions making my wrench sticking out about 18" from the bolts. It helped a lot. About half of the bolts are easier to get from underneath the car.

-Get some anti seize from an auto store for the Oxygen sensors and headers bolts.

-Dont worry about getting RTV silicone for the headers gasket. It will just melt out. Also, the stock OEM gaskets are the best. Just reuse those and the factory bolts. Some members bought new ones from the dealership, i just reused the ones on my car. Your call.

-Lots of people have a hard time with the passenger side and talk about removing the alternator to get to two of the really tough bolts. I had no trouble with them at all. From my experience, to get the two tough bolts next to the alternator, i stood in front of the bumper, wrapped my left arm down on the right side of the alternator and used that hand to steady the wrench (cranking with my right hand) with the 13mm attachment (with no extensions) and got both bolts off in a matter of minutes. It will be a nightmare if you try and get them from another angle or from underneath.

-Connecting the ends of the headers underneath the car. K, so on the driver side stock piping underneath the car where you will either be hooking up the high flow cats (BBK) or other cat replacements there was a nub i had to grind off. Again, this is on the stock piping underneath that the headers cats will be connecting to. Now you can avoid the grinding of this nub if you connect the CAT or CAT replacement and slide on the stock connector that you reuse before you bolt up the headers (because once the headers are installed there isn't enough room to then install the CAT or CAT replacement AND slide the stock connector that connects the two together. For some reason the passenger side didn't have the nub so it wasn't a problem, but once i got to the drivers side and had installed the header, i wasn't even going to consider taking off the header again and putting the CAT on it before tightening all the bolts. So again, i just grinned it off.

(That might've gotten really confusing so feel free to asking me for more details or a better explanation if you'd like)

-BBK headers do come with two Oxygen sensor extenders but you need a 3rd. So unless they fix this, you'll need a "square" extension for the very bottom driver side one. Others have found away to extend it without buying an extender, so hopefully someone chimes in on here and gives another option for future installers.

You can buy an extender at this link http://www.racetronix.biz/index.asp?...FromFeatured=1

-Oxygen sensor removal. Lots of people had problems removing them and gave the advice to heat them up before trying to get them off. Personally i had no trouble with them whatsoever. I just removed them once the stock cats were off the car with a wrench and a sweet hammer to that wrench.

If you have more advice, disagree with anything, more questions, or more tips defiantly feel free to post in here. Hopefully this will help someone out!:thumbup:

On the oxygen sensors. 3 of mine came out no problems, of course the 4th was a b*tch. It broke loose fine, but after about 1/4 turn it was done. Couldn't budge it anymore. Squirted it with wd40, and using a 7/8" open ended wrench started just wiggling back and forth. As it got a little bit looser, more wd40. This approach had it out in about a minute or so. Had to clean up the threads, but it went back in no problem (with anti-sieze).

I didn't need a third O2 extender. The plugs on the extenders I got were slightly wrong and were fixed with an x-acto knife. Some have said the extenders were too short but once others told them to pull some slack from the harness they were able to connect them without issue. My BBK's were shipped in a box and each header had a thin foam bag that kept them from getting scratched in shipment. I kept the foam on the header loosely to feed it up into the engine bay to again, keep it from being scratched. Prior to start, make sure you wipe any fingerprints and grease off the headers, as they will become permanent when the header comes up to it's first heat-cycle.
And my favorite advice. Enjoy them.

USA1Camaro1969, What did you do with very bottom o2 sensor under the driver side that i was talking about?? the square one that come out from on top of the transmission?? I haven't ordered an extension yet, so if there is still away to get it, i'll edit my original post and thank you for saving me 25 bucks.

Really good advice, I would think between the write-up you did and the one I did we have 95 % of the things covered. Thanks for taking the time to create the story.

http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showth...&highlight=obx

YES rtcat600man. If you even knew how many time i read your write up before i installed mine haha. I'm going to add your link into the main post, yours has a lot more detail than mine. I meant to do that but was trying to multitask at work and forgot that part.

I don't recall which one you're talking about. There's 4 O2 sensors and 2 didn't need extensions as the harness had enough slack to plug them right back in. Are you not able to pull the slack up and route it to the O2 sensor?

not on the last one on the drivers side (the one closest to the resonators, not the one that goes up into the engine.

It's about 6 inches too short. I'm going to get under my car again today and if i can't figure it out i'll put up a pic.

The only one I had an issue with was the passenger side rear and I got it to reach by cutting the tie wrap at the back of the engine and gaining the extra couple of inches needed. Looking at other peoples install pics it seems different length wires have been used during manufacturing. Different years auto manual etc.