Hokie LX
SILVER Star
- Thread starter
- #21
Honestly...the hardest part of the driver side job today was getting the f**king oil dipstick tube retaining bolt back in! The DT header tube now goes right in front of it and it was honestly a huge pain in the butt since there's no room to place and manipulate it and it's at an odd angle to get a normal socket on it through the fender well. I finally got it with a swivel socket that I happened to find in my toolbox (lucky) and packing it full of grease so the bolt would stay in it while I fished it through the fender well.
Here are the wrenches I ordered. GearWrench swivel ratcheting wrenches. I bought stubby and normal length and used them both.
For the extraction sockets, I had some standard depth ones which weren't long enough to fully grip the bolts so I ordered some off Amazon. They worked great. Full discretion...I wouldn't have needed extraction sockets except I started off using spline sockets (as many threads in the 100 series forum suggested) and it rounded the first two bolts I tried it on. I went back to a good quality 6-pt socket for the other 14 bolts and had zero issues.
Amazon product ASIN B083FSBFQ6
Overall tips for the job- in no particular order
1. Soak everything in PB blaster for days ahead of time. My truck has minimal if any rust and I had a 1/2 breaker bar with the top of a jack handle for 12 of the 16 header bolts to crack them loose.
2. Take out the catalytic converter pipes for extra working space and to remove the driver side header easier.
3. You don't need to remove the steering link or heat shield on the driver side like some of the how to's tell you to. I took the shield out with the header and had no problems. I literally wasted 2 hours the other day trying to remove these two things and ended up not needing to remove them at all to do the job. There's 1 bolt the steering linkage is in the way of when installing the new header but I countered this by using my flex ratcheting wrenches instead from below.
4. RELEASE AND REROUTE THE 02 WIRING LOOM BRACKET ON THE PASSENGER SIDE AFTER YOU REMOVE THE HEADER AND BEFORE YOU PUT THE NEW HEADER BACK IN. Makes it WAY easier to undo since it's virtually unaccessible with the header in.
5. I used all of the extensions, swivels, reducers, ratchets, breaker bars, etc that I had. To get the jack handle and breaker bar outside of the fender to crack many of the bolts loose, I was using ~24-36" of extensions. Use good quality ones that don't flex or have a lot of slack. You need swivels or else you don't stand a chance.
6. Loosen (don't completely remove) the trans mount bolts to allow engine to flex up high enough to put in a 2x4. I couldn't get mine high enough to get a 2x4 in there without doing this. Loosen passenger side ones as well but don't remove them. Careful not to crack your rad fan shroud when jacking up the engine.
7. The swivel ratcheting sockets are a life saver. I can't believe I haven't had them before now. They made this job a lot easier.
8. Remove the airbox for easier access to some of the manifold bolts on the passenger side. I got a few of the top bolts through the top of the engine bay as it was easier. The airbox being removed allows for more space to cycle the ratchet/breaker bar.
9. Buy 16 new manifold studs and 16 new nuts. I pulled 9 of the 16 manifold bolts out with the nuts. I retorqued the ones that stayed and used the new ones I had. All new nuts.
10. I ended up using a "short" 1/2" 14mm socket for most of the manifold bolts due to it's perfect length for my case. Longer than a 3/8" standard socket to fit over the entire bolt and nut, but shorter than a deep 3/8" socket to allow for greater access.
I'll update this if I can think of any more...but that's a lot of what I learned.
Last edited:
....
