My original plan was to tow this to a shop and have them do it all for me, but I ended up getting stuck at home dogsitting so I decided, why not try to tackle this solo?
I'm taking my time and stopping to rest, a lot, so I don't do serious damage to my pissed off back. Friday night I got the car as high as possible on jackstands, removed the top half of the header nuts and some other misc stuff, soaked the h-pipe nuts in WD40 and went to bed.
By Saturday night I had the K out, bumper off, heat exchanger out, reservoirs out, pretty much anything getting replaced that was in the way. Soaked the rest of the header nuts in WD40 and went to bed.
Sunday morning I had the factory manifolds out in 15 minutes, spent 2 hours looking for the ARP hardware the headers came with (never found them), spent another hour trying to stabilize the motor..the Harbor Freight engine support bar kept rocking forward off the strut towers; I ended up crushing a hard coolant line on the sway bar because it wouldn't cooperate, so I get to drain the entire coolant system now to fix that. Yay! Finally relocated the bolts for the engine support from the front cover (where I've always bolted it) onto the GD blower, directly under the support bar (did NOT want to do that, but with nothing holding the engine up but a jackstand under the trans I figured it was better than nothing). Got back under the car and had the driver side header up and on the studs in 15 seconds. Didn't even pull the steering linkage or a single stud. Was able to reuse all the factory hardware but one nut, on the lower front stud; the nut is too big to fit over the stud, pipe's in the way. Gotta order some smaller nuts I guess. I tried to put the passenger side on but I got caught between a random stud sticking out of the fender and the EGR tube, and after nearly dropping it on my face a couple of times I gave up as my strength pretty much gave out.
BMR tubular K ships out today so I'm not in a HUGE rush, but I only have 4 days before I go on vacation, and a day or two when I get back, then I'm supposed to run the car at two events the same weekend. Here's hoping I can get it buttoned up this week. My bro came back last night so I'll have him help me tonight. Hopefully tonight we can get the pass side on and the starter back in. Then tomorrow we can work on the cooling system - put the new H/E in, try to fix that kinked hardline. I need to order a t-stat I guess, since I'm draining it all anyways. Might tow it to the dealer for a "flush" so I don't have to try to bleed it LOL
I'm taking my time and stopping to rest, a lot, so I don't do serious damage to my pissed off back. Friday night I got the car as high as possible on jackstands, removed the top half of the header nuts and some other misc stuff, soaked the h-pipe nuts in WD40 and went to bed.
By Saturday night I had the K out, bumper off, heat exchanger out, reservoirs out, pretty much anything getting replaced that was in the way. Soaked the rest of the header nuts in WD40 and went to bed.
Sunday morning I had the factory manifolds out in 15 minutes, spent 2 hours looking for the ARP hardware the headers came with (never found them), spent another hour trying to stabilize the motor..the Harbor Freight engine support bar kept rocking forward off the strut towers; I ended up crushing a hard coolant line on the sway bar because it wouldn't cooperate, so I get to drain the entire coolant system now to fix that. Yay! Finally relocated the bolts for the engine support from the front cover (where I've always bolted it) onto the GD blower, directly under the support bar (did NOT want to do that, but with nothing holding the engine up but a jackstand under the trans I figured it was better than nothing). Got back under the car and had the driver side header up and on the studs in 15 seconds. Didn't even pull the steering linkage or a single stud. Was able to reuse all the factory hardware but one nut, on the lower front stud; the nut is too big to fit over the stud, pipe's in the way. Gotta order some smaller nuts I guess. I tried to put the passenger side on but I got caught between a random stud sticking out of the fender and the EGR tube, and after nearly dropping it on my face a couple of times I gave up as my strength pretty much gave out.
BMR tubular K ships out today so I'm not in a HUGE rush, but I only have 4 days before I go on vacation, and a day or two when I get back, then I'm supposed to run the car at two events the same weekend. Here's hoping I can get it buttoned up this week. My bro came back last night so I'll have him help me tonight. Hopefully tonight we can get the pass side on and the starter back in. Then tomorrow we can work on the cooling system - put the new H/E in, try to fix that kinked hardline. I need to order a t-stat I guess, since I'm draining it all anyways. Might tow it to the dealer for a "flush" so I don't have to try to bleed it LOL
