Anyone changed their headers themselves with the engine in?

Car in the air as high as you can get it.
Wheels off.
Inner wheel well lining out.
You may need to loosen a few things like the oil tank to get a little extra room.
Remove cats.
Unscrew retaining nuts.
Some Cirdu du Soleil of the headers, a few choice cuss words, and out they come.

 

My back aches just thinking about it.

 

Wait, I thought you said heads. Oops. Ha.

 

Car being just a few feet off ground was fine for me I sat in the fender well on a chair comfortably and loosened everything. Also didn't touch cats to remove, just loosen all flanges on that side. Also take off axle heat shields 2 10mm nuts or you will smash them.

Right side is fun because fan must be removed and big oil cooler hose moved to the side. Easy work with a big wrench for that fitting its huge.

I recommend offset 13mm 12pt box wrench for tops and long extension with a flex joint 13 for bottom 4 bolts.

 

I did mine last summer. You need to remove all liners, remove oil lines. and I needed to loosen the engine mounts and raise the engine two or three inches. I also removed both fans. Was pretty easy, but took awhile because your body is not in a comfortable position if you do not have a hoist. I got the Snap On wrench that someone recommended on FChat and that helped get the header bolts off.

 

I just cut the right side out , it was easier then removing lotsa stuff, fabspeeds fit in no problem.

 

Classic Coach charged me $800 labor to install my headers and change a CV boot and I have a lift. I did the cats myself but i think you need to choose your battles.

 

I changed mine over course of a week, working a little each day. I would say it took 7-8 hours and that is with the car on jack stands. Mine is a Snap On 13mm FHOM13B

 

I did mine on jackstands with nothing special but the 13mm snapon wrench mentioned above. Get the wrench.

 

I could not get my rite one out ,not enough clearance, so i decided to cut the right one in half and pulled it out that way since they where trash anyway ,but I was very careful with surrounding part, fabspeed headers are much smaller getting them in was a breez, just need some long extensions, worked pretty well for me.

 

I could not get my rite one out ,not enough clearance, so decided to cut it right one in half and pulled it out that way since they where trash anyway ,but I was very careful with surrounding part, fabspeed headers are much smaaller getting them in was a breez, just need some long extensions, worked pretty well for me.

 

It's in my garage, at home. Someone must have a picture handy of it.

 

Just go to the SnapOn web site enter FHOM13B and there is a picture

 

This is an easy diy job, all header bolts cooperate as long as your car hasn't been abused. Mine appear to be never removed, so from a 1998 car (97 build date) the bolts were not rotted A little pb blaster goes a long way.

 

Snap-on

Boom, that is it. You need it because the pivot point is narrow. A rachet is to fat to fit in the tight spaces. You need it because it neck can sit at a greater than 90 degree angle, which you will be using it as such. It is also long and narrow which helps with leverage.

 

We did goth's at FBB's on a lift about 5 feet up. Take ur time, no biggie. Fender liners out. Pass side oil reservoir disconnected for some wiggle room. Think we removed at least one cooling fan, not sure which side - maybe drivers - could have been both.

 

I used a small socket metric set plus hand wrenches to remove all the header nuts.
This takes a little time due to the tight area you have to work in ....especially the right side beside the oil tank.
I removed both fans (not really necessary on the left side) to open up the clearance.
On the right side I removed the oil tank mounting bolts to provide a little wiggle play.
The left oem header is removed with a right angle twist and out it comes.
The right oem header feels like it does not want to come out but it will (with out any cutting)....again just turn it 45 degrees and slide it out (this is where removing the fan makes a difference....that little extra clearance lets the header slide out).
Time to remove? with wheel, inner fender liners, loosen catalytic convertors (left loose-didnot remove from car)....going at leisurely pace probably took an 2.5 hours in total.

The re install is much easier.