Exhaust suggestions - stock/HO

[Stealthlead]

I ended up getting pissed off today and hack sawed the upper cat off right before it hit the Air injection port. Much to my dismay, it didn't make it so I could pull the upper portion of the exhaust out as well as the manifold... but it did give me just barely enough play to finally get that upper bolt loose. After about 40 minutes of 1 tick play, I was able to get a ratchet in there and get it out at about 6:30pm. Only thing left is to get that annoying O2 sensor off and then I'm good to get the headers on! I went ahead and stuffed shop towels in the passenger side exhaust manifold. I should be able to get the headers on this weekend and the car to the shop Monday.

Considering how relatively clean my exhaust ports are, I don't feel it very necessary to use a gasket scraper as there really is no gasket. I'm planning to rough it up a bit with relatively fine sandpaper, clean it off with a degreaseing solvent, put the gasket sealant on, and then the headers. Pics of my nude engine exhaust ports tomorrow :p

[johnunit]

IMO, don't mess with the 02 sensor if you can at all afford a new one. I just disconnected the old one at the harness and left it in the manifold. It's probably not that accurate right now, and it won't be any better after the assault it'll probably go through to be removed from the old manifold.

[Stealthlead]

IMO, don't mess with the 02 sensor if you can at all afford a new one. I just disconnected the old one at the harness and left it in the manifold. It's probably not that accurate right now, and it won't be any better after the assault it'll probably go through to be removed from the old manifold.

My other O2 sensor came out just fine, what's wrong with disconnecting it at the harness, getting the manifold out then pulling it out of the manifold?

[johnunit]

you must live in the south. Every in-manifold O2 sensor in an 80s vehicle around here would be a real pravneet to remove. If it's easy, and the car is relatively low mileage, go for it. On your average 100K 20 year old car though, I'd say it's not even worth the penetrating oil.

[Stealthlead]

you must live in the south. Every in-manifold O2 sensor in an 80s vehicle around here would be a real pravneet to remove. If it's easy, and the car is relatively low mileage, go for it. On your average 100K 20 year old car though, I'd say it's not even worth the penetrating oil.

ooh, got ya. Yea I'm in arizona. The one on the driver side was easy, I just can't reach the passenger side yet, but when I can I assume it will be just as easy. I've got 130k, but I'll take pics of there condition anyways.

[Stealthlead]

Alright guys, this is where I really need to know if I'm doing something wrong.

I got the manifolds/O2 sensors etc. all out today;


I then went on to install the header on the driver side. I see basically no way to let the oil dipstick tube be harnessed to the headers as they were to the manifolds before, but I doubt this will be a problem. What I ended up doing to clean off the surface was use a tiny chisel to work off all the old oil etc. by hand (I obviously didn't use a hammer or score the block up). I then went on to use some fine grit sandpaper (400 and 600) to clean the rest of it off. I didn't use any engine degreaser because the kind I had needed to be washed off after with water which I thought was a bad idea, so I carefully wiped off the ports etc. with shop towels. I made sure the surface was as clean as possible. I then went on to put the rtv on the gasket and headers, then on the reverse side of the gasket for the block. I also put anti seize on the bolts (I hate these Allen wrench bolts). I was very careful applying the gasket sealant, but a bit of it still bled out as seen here;

Here's an overall picture;


Let me know if that's a bit of a problem. I'm kind of annoyed it turned out fairly sloppy after applying it so carefully.

Also, like I said I made sure it was very clean, but let me know if should redo the driver side. Also, I noticed a small problem. The very end of the header flange is barely in contact with a portion of the block near the rear as seen here;


I'm hoping this isn't a problem for the shop... this is how the headers are made.

As you can see in my previous posts, the block on the passenger side has a bit of rust and corrosion and I think it will need more than what I did with the driver side. What should I use to clean it off without harming the exhaust ports? Should I do the same thing and sand it down? I'm very wary of using brake cleaner because as mentioned before it evaporates. I want to make sure I do this right and have NO leaks.

~Stealth

[86VickyLX]

for the dipstick, use original bolt and some washers and nut... I've never seen headers that contacted the block. Are those equal length headers or something?

[Stealthlead]

As you can see in the picture, the dipstick bracket would have to connect with the bolt on the left (where it was originally connected). That bolt is blocked by the header tube, and was, just by itself, a pain. This is also why I cannot use the original bolt. And no, these are just Pypes headers (not equal length) as I posted numerous times prior to buying them;

http://www.latemodelrestoration.com/item/PYP-HDR50S/86-93-Ford-Mustang-50L-Pypes-Shorty-Headers

[Stealthlead]

I am pretty sure this is not going to work, I took some more pics to help;




I also thought maybe I got the wrong set of headers... I double checked they were HDR50S on the box. And more, I loosely bolted in the passenger side and it fit fine as you can see, free of any contact;


After searching I found this thread

http://www.grandmarq.net/vb/showthread.php?46175-Used-Headers&highlight=pypes

Before buying my hdr50s', I posted on page 3 exactly what I was getting and sxcpotatoes replied those are the same ones. But in reality it looks like he installed hdr52s according to that thread above..... facebrick....
Also the more I look at the HDR52S the more I realize they seem to branch out a bit more... probably to not contact exactly what my hdr50s are contacting........

Beginning to suspect I've been f**ked

btw, 100th post
~Stealth

[84merc951]

maybe cut the ear off on the trans. use a grinder. ive done that on a th400 trans. not sure if this would work tho. sorry man

[Stealthlead]

maybe cut the ear off on the trans. use a grinder. ive done that on a th400 trans. not sure if this would work tho. sorry man

Yep I could dremel it off but would that affect anything?

I just checked, I can't get a return on these either. Already threw a brick through my window.

[sxcpotatoes]

Okay, after looking online, installed the exact same HDR50Ses as you. Mine *do not* have that air tube or Oxygen sensor bung in them like the HDR52Ses do.

I still don't have a transmission at all in the car, so I didn't really notice that it was close to the block. I can still get my fingers in between the block & header collecter/flange.

I don't really know if they're equal length.

My oil dipstick is bent all funky (that's how it came, so instead of mounting to the header I was able to use 2 zip-ties and attach it to the metal bracket looking piece above the shock tower (my dad wants to call it an "A frame." It's bottom-center of this pic http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/n...M/P1020859.jpg

[Stealthlead]

Okay, after looking online, installed the exact same HDR50Ses as you. Mine *do not* have that air tube or Oxygen sensor bung in them like the HDR52Ses do.

I still don't have a transmission at all in the car, so I didn't really notice that it was close to the block. I can still get my fingers in between the block & header collecter/flange.

I don't really know if they're equal length.

My oil dipstick is bent all funky (that's how it came, so instead of mounting to the header I was able to use 2 zip-ties and attach it to the metal bracket looking piece above the shock tower (my dad wants to call it an "A frame." It's bottom-center of this pic http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/n...M/P1020859.jpg

Well then, it seems we are both in a bad situation then, I feel better now lol. And that's my mistake... from the thread I dug up that you created (which by the way was pretty much the only pypes headers thread I could find) I was led to believe they were the HDR52S you had installed and you had recommended the HDR50S to me.

From your netbook photos I also was suspecting you didn't have a transmission in. I know for a fact these are not equal length, but they seem to 'look' more equal than BBK's. And yes, same here; my oil dipstick is on its own not supported by the bracket but I don't see this to be a problem. I plan on dremeling off the now useless bracket as it only gets in the way of the spark plugs.

However this still leaves the problem at hand unsolved.. that little transmission bracket thing there. Like I said, I'm willing to dremel it off which I think would leave enough room for the exhaust, but I don't know what the ramifications would be of doing this. Can someone please confirm exactly what its for? What purpose does it serve and will I need it in the future? Even if it is dremeled off, the pipe will have to be bent just perfect so that it does not put any excess stress on the headers and block.

Also, since its been brought up now, would the HDR52S be a better install?

~Stealth

[Stealthlead]

Good news, I contacted the seller and he will exchange it out for me if I need. However I just called Pypes and they said the HDR52S will absolutely not fit. So, as soon as someone can verify what that little block is I think I'm just going to dremel it out.

[zoomie]

Good news, I contacted the seller and he will exchange it out for me if I need. However I just called Pypes and they said the HDR52S will absolutely not fit. So, as soon as someone can verify what that little block is I think I'm just going to dremel it out.

eeeeh you got yourself into a headache i see, i would get the other headers first. 2d why get headers with an o2 sensor, the offroad pipes that have them are uesally a better and easier placement for sure. i need to get some pics of my shtuff and post it up.