After completing the header install on my 2000 LX470 this weekend, I figured I might give my thoughts and opinions so that others who are considering this work can benefit from more discussion.
As a precursor, my LX has been a one owner, California vehicle all of its life as a pavement pounder, never been off-road and well maintained. I bought the vehicle with 101k miles and it had an exhaust leak when I bought it. I ordered the headers from DT, and 16 manifold nuts from C-Dan including the doughnut gaskets that go on either end of the cats. The rig now has 102,400 miles on it, I did the install in my driveway and yes, I used a signifcant amount of tools! Swivels, extensions, every length 14mm socket available and several different open end and ratcheting wrenches. Admittedly, I have a tool box that would rival a master mechanic, so tools are never a concern, but I was a little surprised at how many different ones I used.
The worst part of this install was the AHC... those lines make access to the nuts very, very difficult and hard to get your hands anywhere close. For that reason alone, I dont think I would recoomend doing this job on an LX, unless your exahust leak was very, very bad. There just isn't enough preformance improvment to make it worth while. It took me 9 hours to do this job start ot finish, with 20 minutes for lunch. I had zero problems breaking any of the nuts loose, nothing stripped or was otherwise problematic and I resused the factory exhaust manifold gaskets as they looked to be in great condition after hitting them with a little brake cleaner.
Now, on a Land Cruiser or a rig with its AHC removed, then that is a different story, I would probably have completed the job in 4-6 hours and felt that the effort was worth the outcome. Honeslty, the dreaded driver side isnt that bad at all... I did jack up the engine 1-2 inches and disconnected the steerring shaft, but removal of the old manifold was pretty easy... getting the header on was a different story. With the AHC lines and the tight bends of the tubing, a couple of the nuts were nrealy impossible to reinstall... I finally figured out that you have to drop the engine back down to slide your arm up past the CV to tighten those lower nuts... even then, you cant see them, its all by feel... and torque values??
DOnt worry about torquing these things down... there is no way you could ever get a torque wrench on most if any of the nuts, even if the engine was out of the rig.. so I just did my best to tighten things down and happy that after all was said and done, no leaks.
To sum up... would I do this job again? ... definately on an LC without AHC.. its not a bad job on a clean, rust free vehicle, probalby a little tougher and frustrateing if you a breaking off studs etc... but on an LX? I would think more than twice if its just a performance upgrade because I really dont think there is enough improvement to warrant all the work. The engine feels a bit smoother in all RPM's but I dont feel like I have gained any noticable power... On an LC, even if I was dreaming that my manifolds were leaking, I would do this job.. on an LX, it would have to be such a bad leak that I had other concerns, like exhaust getting into the cabin before I would do it again.
That is my feedback after completing my header install. If anyone would like more detail or tips and tricks, please post or PM me, I'll be happy to give you as much info as possible.
As a precursor, my LX has been a one owner, California vehicle all of its life as a pavement pounder, never been off-road and well maintained. I bought the vehicle with 101k miles and it had an exhaust leak when I bought it. I ordered the headers from DT, and 16 manifold nuts from C-Dan including the doughnut gaskets that go on either end of the cats. The rig now has 102,400 miles on it, I did the install in my driveway and yes, I used a signifcant amount of tools! Swivels, extensions, every length 14mm socket available and several different open end and ratcheting wrenches. Admittedly, I have a tool box that would rival a master mechanic, so tools are never a concern, but I was a little surprised at how many different ones I used.
The worst part of this install was the AHC... those lines make access to the nuts very, very difficult and hard to get your hands anywhere close. For that reason alone, I dont think I would recoomend doing this job on an LX, unless your exahust leak was very, very bad. There just isn't enough preformance improvment to make it worth while. It took me 9 hours to do this job start ot finish, with 20 minutes for lunch. I had zero problems breaking any of the nuts loose, nothing stripped or was otherwise problematic and I resused the factory exhaust manifold gaskets as they looked to be in great condition after hitting them with a little brake cleaner.
Now, on a Land Cruiser or a rig with its AHC removed, then that is a different story, I would probably have completed the job in 4-6 hours and felt that the effort was worth the outcome. Honeslty, the dreaded driver side isnt that bad at all... I did jack up the engine 1-2 inches and disconnected the steerring shaft, but removal of the old manifold was pretty easy... getting the header on was a different story. With the AHC lines and the tight bends of the tubing, a couple of the nuts were nrealy impossible to reinstall... I finally figured out that you have to drop the engine back down to slide your arm up past the CV to tighten those lower nuts... even then, you cant see them, its all by feel... and torque values??
DOnt worry about torquing these things down... there is no way you could ever get a torque wrench on most if any of the nuts, even if the engine was out of the rig.. so I just did my best to tighten things down and happy that after all was said and done, no leaks.To sum up... would I do this job again? ... definately on an LC without AHC.. its not a bad job on a clean, rust free vehicle, probalby a little tougher and frustrateing if you a breaking off studs etc... but on an LX? I would think more than twice if its just a performance upgrade because I really dont think there is enough improvement to warrant all the work. The engine feels a bit smoother in all RPM's but I dont feel like I have gained any noticable power... On an LC, even if I was dreaming that my manifolds were leaking, I would do this job.. on an LX, it would have to be such a bad leak that I had other concerns, like exhaust getting into the cabin before I would do it again.
That is my feedback after completing my header install. If anyone would like more detail or tips and tricks, please post or PM me, I'll be happy to give you as much info as possible.
