Sure are a lot of people putting on headers, Huh? I got pay back on the old exhaust system, Ace had reciprocating saws on sale.

'Took about 10 minutes to zip the old exhaust and muffler off.

I was looking under the truck and made a couple of observations. Understand I haven't been under a Ford FE engine truck for over 20 years.

The oil drain just dumps straight on the crossmember when I change oil??

I took the exhaust pipes off and I really like the style of exhaust on the left side of the engine. It looks like an upside down "W" and dumps the exhaust out of the center of the manifold. It also is two piece with a cast iron clamp thing, If both sides had been like this I would have left the stock exhaust on it.

Did Ford make a right side exhaust manifold like the left one I have? the right side on my truck is the regular ole dump out the end style I have seen everywhere else. I don't remember my Dad's 352 being like this.

Tomorrow morning I tackle the manifolds, motor mounts, headers and starter, after I go to Wally world to get a wider oil drip pan I guess.Wish me luck and patience.

 

As for oil drain, yup mine is like that too. I think they used CAR pans on some of these trucks. My small block 70 truck had the correct "rear" drain on it. Nice.

For mine I made a sheetmetal "deflector" pan that bends up and catches most of the oil and then directs it to a waiting pan below. It really cuts down on the mess. When I put a new motor in it, I will use the correct pan(or make it).

I think most all manifolds are just like the ones you have(or all of us did at one time). I dont thing you have much choice.

Larry

 

Right side exhaust is off, two snapped bolts. Penetrating fluid didn't work, heat didn't work, candle trick didn't work, vice grips didn't work.

I am on the left side now, same two bolts giving me trouble but I don't want to snap these ones. I just got my power steering back together, i am NOT redissassembling it so I can drill out broken bolts.

For others: All the exhaust bolts came out relatively easy except the center top two. The rear most leftside top started to break then came loose. The bottom four were almsot finger tight and relatively easy to remove. I bought a 9/16" 6 point socket especially for this and it is too loose, a 14mm fits better.

Off to the store to get more Oxygen and a rigt angle drill set up, when they say the Oxygen tank lasts 15 minutes, they mean it. I could have set my watch by it. LOL

 

I took my time with the left side and got all the bolts off with out breaking any more. Wish I would have had more patience with the two I snapped off the passenger side.

Next step is to lift the engine. The header instructions say to jack the engine up, where is the best place to put a jack? I will use a couple of pieces of wood to pad wherever I go, oil pan or harmonic balancer? I don't need any more excitment, the manifold bolts were enough.

If I weren't traveling in between T-giving and X-mas the intake manifold would be next. Hey, it's leaking, that was my excuse for the headers at least.

OBTW, on the drivers side I did every thing but kill chickens and scatter their blood. Penetrating oil, heat (two cylinders of Oxy), tapping with a hammer and candle wax. Alternated the oil and wax with heat. I did use a 14mm six point socket, that fit the best, no room to slip around.

 

I put blocks of wood to get up to the balancer to do mine. Works good, just watch you do not lean it too far, it will fall of the blocks. No, I did not have that happen, just a warning.

Larry

 

I have found the only sure way to remove those bolts without breaking them is to get the "ears" on the heads cherry red before attempting to remove the bolts. I put anti-seeze on them when replacing them

 

He he he, I snapped a few exhaust studs on my truck trying to replace the gaskets. I ended up rebuilding the motor when I went to "fix" the broken studs. With out pulling the heads I can't think of any other way to drill them out. Even if you are gifted and get them drilled out how will you re-tap them if they need it? That has to be the worst design flaw on these engines. I used a liberal amount of anti-seize when I put it all back together again. My motor was in dire need of an overhaul anyway....

PS I did try and locate screw in studs so I could use nuts to secure the manifold but didn't have any luck finding SAE hi-temp bolts in Spain. I think this would be a much better method than bolts?

 

For the top bolts, even if you can't retap them, I used a smaller bolt/nut combination on the very back hole. I tried drilling it, but to no avail. It went off center and was a disaster. I just opened it up enough to put a 1/4" grade 8 bolt/nut on it. Works great, doesn't leak any worse then the rest of the tubes.

You could get regular header studs and use them. You can get them at Summit Racing or Jegs(not sure if they are available for foreign shipping?)

Larry

 

I second the bolt/nut solution, except I've used 5/16 bolts.

 

I almost went for the header studs but was concerned they would be too short. Time wise I was in a bit of a pinch to get the project done so I could drive the truck again. I think Summit listed them by length and that was why I didn't buy them.

 

Ok, I got the broken easy out out, $50 + dollars for a angle head drill, and some change for bits. Finally pushed it out with some junk 1/4 inch drive stuff and a hammer. To heck with it, going with Plan B and the 1/4 inch bolts. Easy-outs suck, I don't know what I was thinking. If it didn't come out with the original head what made me think it was coming out with some small chunk of brittle explosive steel?

Mounted the drivers side header, I am using Mr. Gasket copper gaskets and the single-piece-per-outlet fiber gasket that came with the Dyno-Max Headers. I came in from the bottom, had to remove a crossmember to get it in, hope I can get the crossmember back in after the headers are mounted. I am a newbie and ignorance is bliss


I had to remove the oil filter to get to the bottom bolts, I guess I won't be using a torque wrench, I can barely get a box end wrench on a couple of them. What the heck am I supposed to mount the dipstick to??? I guess I wll stud that bolt at a later date when I have more patience. Oh yeah, I did remember to chase the threads with a tap and to use anti-seize gunk.

I am working on the passenger side now, they went in real easy from the top, I had to trim the heat shield on the motor mount a little though. I guess they should fit now. I will bolt them in tonight and make sure the cross member bolts back in place. Gotta remember to bolt the starter in while I am at it. Oh yeah, while I was at the store I did see a spacer for a Ford starter (two bolt) in the "help" aisle for those guys in that other thread about starter spacers. LOL

I was going to put in new motor mounts but I couldn't find a socket or wrtench that would bite the two bolts from the mount to the engine, I will save them for later, I did buy a new rebuilt starter though. Hope that will stave off any starter issues. I will have to re-route the starter wire though.

Also picked up some Flex Pipe Exhaust pipe, should get me to the Muffler shop so I can get real exhaust welded on it, I didn't notice the kinks I will have to make until someone mentioned it to me here and I saw someones attempt in the picture gallery with bolt on stuff. I have some Flowmaster "Raptor" mufflers to put on them, I hope to have it running tomorrow night.

 

I would go with 5/16 thru bolts, instead of 1/4. The motor mount bolts should be either 5/8 or 11/16 heads. Don't bet on that "new" rebuilt starter being trouble free ( better save that receipt) And one more thing, be a MAN and drive it to the muffler shop with open headers !!!!!!

 

I finished I think, no problems so far. I got the driver side mounted. Came in from the top and juggled the starter at the same time, what fun. I had forgotten about the top bolt on the starter being so much fun, on my Galaxie I used to lay across the air cleaner/engine to get it (my dad showed me that).

I did the gaskets and tightened the passenger side then went over and caught the driver side. What a pain to get to the bottom two bolts on the drivers side. I said tighten because there is no way I'm getting a torque wrench on some of them. The torque I used was 15 ft lbs on the ones I could reach and as tight as I could get them with a box end on the others. I attempted to tighten a torqued bolt with the box end and couldn't budge it so I figure that I couldn't hurt too much by just wrenchin' the bejeezus out them.

I re-mounted the crossmember and it went in OK, don't know why it was never mentioned any where else. Now I will tell you the rest like the instructions for my headers.

The instructions read how to get the engine ready and mount the headers, then they said to re-mount a bunch of stuff they never said to take off.LOL

The reason I am being so detailed is because of all the interest in headers and I sorta want to share the pain too, sorry about the long windedness to all you old timers.

So, I re-mounted the clutch linkage, bottom crossmember, oil filter (gotta remember to put that last 1/2 quart in tomorrow), passenger side valve cover, air cleaner, all the vacuum hoses , starter cable, battery and the spark plug wires. Whew.

Yeah I did start it up with just the headers, brought the family out of the house really quick, I let it warm up just to see if the header bolts would loosen like the instructions said. Yep they did.
Then I got about $50 worth of adapters and pipes and mounted my mufflers, (sorry baddad, I live on a military post and they can be quite medeival about driving privlages and such, the federal cops can be worse than the MPs).

I will probably run the Flex Pipe until my credit card recovers and take it to a local muffler shop that has cut me a good deal before. I was going to braze up some of the pieces for fun but ran out of Oxygen with my little ACE Hardware special Oxy/MAPP torch (D@mn). OBTW I used the smaller bolts on the two manifold bolts I snapped off and drilled out because I have a fantasy about rescueing the threads some day.


I shut it down tightened the loose header bolts up and went and put the rest of the exhaust on, family was really disappointed about how quiet and mellow the sound was with the glass packs. I told it would be a little better once they break in. Now tomorrow I start on the wiring to get the brake lights so they work.

 

Yup, cherry bombs....they will "break-in" in a few weeks of driving and then everyone will ask you to do something about it.

Glad to hear you got it all back together and running.
I dont remember the crossmember removal part. Maybe I did, maybe I didn't....it's been a few months and CRS is already kicked in. Filter housing removal??? Don't think I had to do that either. Go figure, maybe it's the difference in model years and the room available.

Yup, that upper starter bolt was a real engineers revenge.....

Larry

 

Jeeze! I dont remeber so much trama putting my headers in. What brand of headers are you using? I wish I knew the brand of mine so I could recommend them. (Junkyard score) They sorta resemble other Headman headers I have seen, so perhaps they are Headmans. Mine both dropped on throught the top, and other than the expected starter juggling, and having to tweak the C6 shift arm to clear the driver's side collector, I didn't have near the problems you did. I did snap one bolt, #6 top ont he driver's side, but it snapped off long enough to vise grip it.

I never had to touch my crossmember.