TobyZ28

A friend and I are putting both our Mac's in. We got started tonight and will work part of tomorrow and sat/sun if neccessary We'll post a full report w/ pics once were done.

So far I have to say that the best things to have or to do to make the install go smoothly are the following (in order):

1. Mechanics gloves - We picked these up just before starting and I've gotta say that I should have bought these YEARS ago! Your hands feel way less tired, they don't get all greasy and moving around "hot" things isn't a big deal (ie we have a halogen flood light light we move around under the car that heats up real good.)
2. A second set of hands and lots of light. This would be a nightmare to do alone. With two people it's been a breeze so far!
3. Telecopic Handle Ratchet w/locking swivel head. I'll post a pic of one later, this thing is AWSOME! The handle extends the ratchet to 1'-2' when you need it (which is OFTEN on this kind of an install). The swivel head locks at several different angles, very very useful when you need it.
4. Wide assortment of sockets. Deep, normal, Metric, non-metric along with various extensions.
5. Jack the car WAY up (carefully!). It's really a good thing to have the car real high up. It's easier on your back, you can get in and out from under the car etc.
6. Ratcheting stubby wrenches. SUPER useful for tight spots like a couple of the spark plugs and a few of the manifold bolts.
7. PB Blaster - We presprayed everything beforehand and had zero problems with any of the bolts. This is very objective though, its hard to say how much it helped since we didnt really do one side with it and one side without it to test.

All in all this has to be the most fun I've had doing an install ever on one of these cars! Make sure you have lots of time, go easy on all the manifold bolts (wiggle them back and forth a bit if stuck), have lots of beer and you should be fine!

OH, we aslo accomplished something that people may want to know - We managed to get the whole AIR tube out without any cutting but sliding it "around" the engine and up through the passenger side. It did need a very tiny bend at one point, but other than that it was not all that hard to wiggle through. Takine the AIR out takes out a LOT of clutter, even though the pump is below the coil/icm, it makes it way easier to get to plug #1, there are a few less tubes in the upper part of the engine bay, one less vaccume line, and the little AIR pump module thing that sits above the ICM is out too.

It took us 6.5 hours going nice and easy to get the car jacked WAY up, and to get to the point where all the mainfold bolts are out. We took probably an hour of that time in beer breaks.

Hawk

awesome man, I've done a header install and it was a PITA! Glad your done, I know I was.

TobyZ28

That was removing all the old stuff. We spent the next day getting the new macs in 8) It went fairly well except the breslin bolts NEED 12 point wrenches and are damn close to the tubes. This and a Y pipe bolt were the major PITA's actually. It was 4x as hard getting the new stuff in as it was getting the old stuff out. This was the first car ( friends car), no burnt anything so far and we did a darn good job of making sure everything was clear of the headers.

The Day after that (saturday) we started working on MY car (yes back to back header installs ) Things were going great (we were flying) but once we got to point where the drivers side goes in we ran into a bit of an issue with steering column touching a tube . We spent the rest of the day adjusting the steering column, tried moving the steering rack, and grinding to make as much room as possible. Its still close but way better than before. This may be a problem tomorrow when we get the passengerside in, and button everything up.

We have a few videos well put up later in the too (open headers, lots of install pics from different angles that were not availble from any of the guides).