i would actually have liked to do the install myself ive done most maintenance work on the vehicles in my family and have built a couple of small motors for motorcycles/ dirt bikes etc but i didnt have patience to wait till spring cause it has been really cold over here this winter and i have no garage to work out of so mine cost 700 for pacesetter longtubes installed and y pipe cut and welded, another 200 for catback all welded the sound is worth every penny

 

The trick is to find a group of people you trust, get to know them really well, then bribe them with lots of beer and burgers. Cam swaps, header installs, even engine rebuilds are alot easier.

 

Yea I would do it again. Like all the others said it's nothing HARD, just time consuming and a PITA. I've never really done anything mechanical to my car, so installing headers was a real learning experience. Removing the steering shaft, alt, starter, a/c lines, y-pipe, old manifolds, and motor mounts.....then putting it all back on is a great way to learn about your car

 

Only my hands go under the hood of my cars.

 

Another tip is try to plan to have the car down much longer than it should take. Even if you don't find a broken bolt or anything this gives you some time to walk away and relax should things start to get frustrating. ALWAYS better to walk away and come back clearheaded that to force something.

 

The thing about the header install is that it's very straight forward as far as what has to be done. The problems for me were the tight spaces and my lack of patients. Ideally I would get a good friend that will stick with you until the install is complete. There are many occations when you just have to have help.

Overall not tooo bad, but I will admit, at times it was a pain in the a*s.

 

I'd do it myself 'cause I can screw it up as bad as most shops will for a fraction of what they charge.

 

I've done like 5.. so uh, yah.

 

ive yet to do mine, but i am doing it myself. only prior experience is helping with a longtubes install on a '68 coronet with a 440... that wasnt much worse than an oil change

 

Do it yourself, and keep the following in mind:

The heads are ALUMINUM, dont CRANK them down, use a torque wrench where applicable.

You must remove the alternator, serp belt, coolant sensor in the head, and have it up REALLY REALLY high on jackstands, like high neough to sit under it upright and not hit your head, or unbolt the motor mounts to fish them up in there.

It is time consuming, it took me about 7 or 8 hours start to finish. A few days though as I needed to drive with open headers and pretend I was a 3rd gen mullet mobile driver.

One last thing: Take the spark plugs out once the old manifolds are off. Change the #2,#5,#6 plugs NOW, then install the headers, then put the other plugs in once they are fished up into place ( But not bolted in. Tigthen the plugs up, then tighten the headers ) It will be the easiest plug install you ever do in your entire life on this car.

Yes it is long, and can be a pain if its your daily driver. No, your hands will feel better a day after your done working on it. And yes it will sound way better than the amount of effort it takes to put them in.

For what its worth:

Putting headers on is 10X easier on the hands (And less stressful) then changing valve springs.

The amount of satisfaction you will get out of knowing that you are the one working on your car is definatly worth it.

Good luck

 

couldnt have said it better

 

You need to specify if you're putting in emission's legal longtube headers or non emission's headers. There is a big difference in the time and effort between the two. There's no way you can get the passenger side in from the top even with the motor jacked up, I tried. And you still need to unbolt the passenger side motor mount and slide it out of the way to come in from the bottom. Take your time to make sure all wires are tied back and safely wrapped to protect them from the heat. The EGR is a huge pain to get hooked up. I couldn't get the auto trans dipstick tube unbolted so I had to cut the bracket with a hacksaw blade by hand. Driver's side is pretty easy. I disconnected the steering shaft but left the coolant sensor in and had no problems. I love the headers now that it's all done so I probably would do it again. But I think now that I would unbolt the motor and lift the motor with a hoist(assuming emission's headers). It took my body about a month to recover from laying on my back so many nights on a cold garage floor.

 

DO IT YOURSELF!!! It's not that hard, even for someone who doesn't have that much knowledge about it. Get on this site, use search, find some threads and do some reading before doing it yourself. This was my first set of headers that I did all on my own on an F bod and they were cake. I took my time and everything turned out gravy.

 

The reason i suggest leaving it stock unless you know how to work on it is as you mod it more stuff seems to go wrong and if you don't know how to fix it thats just more money down the drain. If he blows a header gasket and is running rich as hell he might not know how to fix it or what the problem is. Then he has to go to another shop, etc. It gets worse when you go to heads and cam

 

Mwahaha... I'm about to do it again, I'm going Jet-hot long tubes this time non-emissions style. It's gonna be a Big B!### , but I love the sound. I took a year of Tech school and that still didn't prepare me for the Huge PITA that my header install was. That said I would do it all over again and help anyone that wants it done in my area! Big problems were the oil dipstick and reaching the last bolt on the passenger side. Don't go crazy if it seems like it's taking an insane amount of time, like it's been said on start up...it's all worth it