Header

[insomniac391]

Can i remove the headers without lifting the engine? Don't laugh if this is stupid but Ive never seen headers put on or taken off a car while the engine was under the hood.

[85crownHPP]

You sure can... plenty of room in there in boxes.

[insomniac391]

You sure can... plenty of room in there in boxes.

good cause i need to put new header gaskets on my Caprice, I've got almost no compression, still hauls ass though.

[85crownHPP]

A leaking header gasket isnt going to affect engine compression. Are you talking about a head gasket?

[insomniac391]

A leaking header gasket isnt going to affect engine compression. Are you talking about a head gasket?

shit, i just made noobish statement. It is the header gaskets, my car sounds like a damn Harley on the inside. I took the car out for a ride after Christmas cause i try not to let it sit to long, and i floored it and the header gaskets ripped apart, you can see big chunks missing now.

[Archangel]

You may not be able to entirely remove the headers (for instance in my old Chevy I had to pull the engine out if I wanted the longtubes off the rest of the exhaust), but you can certainly unbolt them from the heads and spread them apart far enough to where you have enough space to yank the old gaskets out and slip new gaskets in. When you're done make sure you retighten the header bolts every so often, they are known to loosen up which reduces clamping force on the gaskets and eventually causes them to blow out.

[insomniac391]

You may not be able to entirely remove the headers (for instance in my old Chevy I had to pull the engine out if I wanted the longtubes off the rest of the exhaust), but you can certainly unbolt them from the heads and spread them apart far enough to where you have enough space to yank the old gaskets out and slip new gaskets in. When you're done make sure you retighten the header bolts every so often, they are known to loosen up which reduces clamping force on the gaskets and eventually causes them to blow out.

thanks

[Lincolnmania]

you should be able to unbolt the headers from the heads and get enough room to change the gaskets.......make sure you use some quality gaskets, summit should have good ones......the ones they sell in the parts stores are crap

[Pesty351]

Assuming the old gaskets come off there nice and neat. Ive had some exhuast manifold gaskets that I swore were welded on.

[gadget73]

If you keep blowing gaskets, I'd go so far as to say your headers are the problem. If the flanges are warped, the bolts will keep coming loose, and you'll pop header gaskets regularly. I used to have those problems. A $20 bill to the machine shop to have them stuck on the milling machine fixed all that. No more loose bolts, no more blown gaskets.

[insomniac391]

the ones i have right now are from Summit I believe, and the headers are Hooker. What are the effects of driving with a lot of your exhaust being dumped right off the engine?

[Archangel]

I had that on my 350 SBC, longtube headers and dumps right after them, it was very loud and got shit for fuel economy. Next paycheck I went with 2.5" midpipes into 2.5" Summit Turbo mufflers and then dumps in front of the rear axle, sound quality was light years ahead and not only was I now capable of 20 mpg on the freeway, but overall power improved some as well. Exhaust leaks are like vacuum leaks, they can mess up an otherwise good working engine, and so you do not want them.

[gadget73]

screws up the exhaust scavenging and costs you power. In an extreme case it could burn valves, but thats not super likely. Mostly it will just sound like crap and have no balls. It will also screw up the carb tune, though thats mostly because you lose the scavenging effect, not because it has any direct affect on the carb.

[85MercPark]

http://www.grandmarq.net/vb/showthread.php?t=33362