Kooks header "uninstall"

[ellis4]

I'm currently trying to get these things out of my car. I have been working on the drivers side for about 5 hours trying to get it in. I can't drop the k member, so I am having a ton of issues. I took the motor mount completely out of the car and now I can't get it back in without taking the headers out.

I am hoping that someone has a trick to take the slip fit apart easier. Someone had to stand on the collector and wriggle the first primary out.. I can't do that with them in the car, and they won't come back out with it on there..

I tried heating up the slip fit with a torch a little bit but the thing just won't come apart. I'm also paying $5 an hour for the lift, and it sat here overnight. So if someone could help me out sooner rather than later that would save me a bunch of time/money and the fact I need to drive this thing to work tomorrow...

 

[IronTerp]

Why can't you remove the K member? Really really tough job with that still in there. With that removed, (and it's actually not that hard to do), it makes the job much easier.

 

[sassafras]

I don't see how you can take them off with the k-member still on there, especially if it's still a stock one, especially on the the passengers side. Drop the k-member down and things will be much much easier for you.

 

[racebronco2]

Have you removed the steering shaft for more clearance, try lifting the motor more. I would think you need to bolt them up before you try removing the collector.

 

[ellis4]

I have them in there, I couldn't drop the k at the time because I couldn't get the motor mount back in. Now it's just trying to get the bolts back into the heads, the car is on a drive on lift with tranny jacks holding the motor up out of the car for more clearance.

As it's sitting right now we got the motor mount back in the car, but not attached to the k. So I could possibly lower the motor back onto the k, and move the car over to a 4-pt lift. But I still can't get the dang headers out of the car because of the flipping slip fit shit on the first primary.

I need to get this thing done fairly soon. Anybody have a link to dropping the k member?the search function is a little tricky on my phone.

 

[sassafras]

I have them in there, I couldn't drop the k at the time because I couldn't get the motor mount back in. Now it's just trying to get the bolts back into the heads, the car is on a drive on lift with tranny jacks holding the motor up out of the car for more clearance.

As it's sitting right now we got the motor mount back in the car, but not attached to the k. So I could possibly lower the motor back onto the k, and move the car over to a 4-pt lift. But I still can't get the dang headers out of the car because of the flipping slip fit shit on the first primary.

I need to get this thing done fairly soon. Anybody have a link to dropping the k member?the search function is a little tricky on my phone.

- Dropping the K-member involves first support the motor from up top via an engine lift or a cross bar.
- Unbolt the steering shaft from the steering rack
- Unbolt the steering rack from the k-member and support it with some zipties

- Take off tires
- Unbolt brake caliper and ziptie out of the way
- Unbolt ABS and bracket
- Unbolt Tierod
- Get a spring compressor and compress the spring (or you can live life dangerously and try it without this)
- Unbolt swaybar
- If you are using a spring compressor at this point you can remove the bolts that connect the strut to the knuckle and simply lower the A-arm down and pull out the spring.
- If you don't have a spring compressor support the lower A-arm with a jack at this point and remove the bolts that connect the strut to the knuckle and slowly lower the jack so that it removes the pressure this spring is under. This is dangerous and the spring can come flying out at any point, so be careful.

- Repeat above steps on other side
- Unbolt motor motor mount nuts from the k-member (should be 1 nut per side)
- There are 8 bolts holding the k-member to the frame now, 4 in the rear which are 15mm and four up front which should be 18mm. Unbolt these and lower the K down with a jack.

- If your Kook's headers are anything like mine you need to remove the steering shaft completely by unbolting the top of the shaft from inside the car under the dash.
- The drivers side can be a little tricky because the dip stick goes inbetween the header tubes and behind the motor mount, so what you have to do is the following:
+ Unbolt the dipstick
+ Completely unbolt the headers on the drivers side so you can get to the back motor mount bolt
+ Once the motor mount is off you can pull the dipstick out of the block and drop the header down at the same time as the dipstick. Your's maybe a little different in this process but that's the version of headers I have from Kook's.

I forgot how much adjustment is in the stock k-member (I took mine out for a PSR one) but it may not go back up just as you had it thus prompting the need for an alignment.

Good luck with everything and I hope you're not up too late tonight.

 

[IronTerp]

I need to get this thing done fairly soon. Anybody have a link to dropping the k member?the search function is a little tricky on my phone.

Yeah, you need to try and get that K out of the way temporarily. Here's a good writeup:

Welcome to FnSweet.com

 

[CobraBob]

Kudos to you guys for helping him out with the info he needed relative to removing the K-member. This is what I love about this forum! :thumbsup:

 

[ellis4]

Thanks so much for the help. I ended up not finishing before the place I was working at closed again. So now I'm going to go back when I can and work on dropping the k member. We got the drivers side most of the way done with the k in there, but I don't want to fight anymore and I can't get to some of the bolts and I just want to get this done right.

Funny story as to how well this has gone for me.. We were moving the car off the drive on lift (pushing it as the starter is out and the batt is disconnected) and we had forgotten to put the bolt in the steering shaft by the rack, and when we jacked it back up to put the bolt in it started raining on me, windows were down and it was just like an extra slap in the face.

I'm not going to let this beat me, haha.

 

[FlaSeaDude]

I put headers on my car back in Jan and I can't imaging trying to do it with the k-member still in place....:nonono:

 

[ellis4]

Well.. I can finally update this thread.

The auto shop on base is closed weds and thurs so I couldn't finish my car.. But everything is in, and running well. I need a new alignment but I am happy that I decided to drop the k. There is not a fat chance in hell I would hav been able to get the pass side kooks in there.

I am shocked as to how much the sound of the car changed, it went from a friendly burble/roar to a decievingly quiet car below 2k rpms to a raging animal above 2.5-3k. I have only gotten on it once because the car needs a retune but it sounds pretty much amazing. After I get it retuned I'll try and take some videos.

Would be nice to hit that 600rwhp on 91 Cali pump .