Its doable from what i've seen, you just gotta have your tools layed out and know exactly what you're doing, I'm betting I could do it in an hour myself, my next door neighbor I would be willing to bet could do it within 30 minutes easy. He slipped my starter out on an a4 in about 30 seconds without dropping the y pipe or disassembling anything. Some people are just much better at doing that kind of work and no matter how hard you try to copy them, its impossible. I don't see any way it would take 5 hours to do if you're experienced and have all the right tools. Part of the thing about being ready is also having the right tools, the cheater bars I mentioned as well as the right tools to remove stuck bolts when they break an impact gun and air ratchet wouldn't hurt either.

 

I guess I wouldn't completely dismiss the idea of someone doing an install in under a couple hours, but I would think they would have to have access to a lift, all the right tools, and the stock exhaust system itself would be fairly new or in rust free shape where it would come apart with complete ease. But I wouldn't make a speed contest out of it, the main thing is getting it done right the first time.

 

my exhaust system was full of rust and someone screwed up assembling it, I got the y-pipe off very fact anyway, the only thing that took me a while was getting the broken stud on the flange out (someone put the wrong size nut on, i broke it off) once i got some acetylene and found these bolt extractors it was a breeze to remove the broken stud, maybe once I get the money to do long tubes Il'l time myself to see how long it takes me at a leisurely pace. I will admit, I do cheat, my girlfriend is 5'1 and has very tiny hands and helps me sometimes when I'm having trouble with something.

 

If the engines out of the car and no unforseen problems occur this is possible. If engines in car this is bs. It will take 15 min to clean the heads up.

 

So if you've never done it do we consider this bench racing or bench wrenching???

 

I've done everything except put actual headers in, I have pulled my exhaust, was quite easy and the only hang up was when i broke a stud on the flange of the manifold due to someone putting a sae nut on a metric stud

 

Does your girlfriend help you work on the car too, or just when you're working on a little something-something? What does your wife think about that?

 

Hey man i'm not trying to bust your ***** or anything, all i'm saying is that just between putting the car up, pulling all the plugs, removing 02's, and pulling the downpipe you're already at an hour.

 

pulling what plugs? and if you're replacing the o2s when doing the header install (which is probably a good idea) theres a trick to get the o2s out much faster but it involves destroying them

 

Spark plugs.

 

I'm honestly not convinced you need to pull all 8 spark plugs to do a header install. The headers i've installed in the past on other vehicles didn't require it, I believe by pulling the long bolts out of the motor mounts and lifting the motor 2 inches you can save yourself from needing to pull all the spark plugs

 

Im pretty sure he means to change the plugs, because during header swap is a good time to change them regardless of the mileage on the current ones. May as well get a fresh set in there while its easy.

 

I dont thinks thats what he means, because if he does then hes not counting the time it takes to do a header install, hes counting how long it takes to do a header install and plug change.

 

I would consider unbolting the motor mounts and jacking the motor to be just as cumbersome, if not more, then removing the 8 spark plugs. And as mentioned, a header install is the best time to install a fresh set of plugs and wires. With my long tubes, I don't think I could have gotten the headers in without the plugs being removed. It would have even helped if I would have removed the coolant temp sensor from the drivers side head as well. That was a lesson learned the hard way.

 

I'm pretty sure thats what he meant, most of us try to do things the right way. That is why when most of us do header installs we do plugs, O2's and OTVC wires all at the same time.