[new man]

Just a little rambling....

Installed the LT headers and Cajun catted bpipes Saturday. Had 2 buddies that are much better with a wrench than me help. One of them was able to get access to a shop with a lift for $10 per hour.... I read all the posts I could find about the tools and install. One thing I didn't see in any threads is how big of a pain in the a$$ it is to remove the manifold heat shields...Major pain. Have to get VERY creative to get the engine mounts loose on driver side (4x4). We had to disconnect the steering linkage and remove the cross member

Took 3 of us 10 hours. I almost gave up about 7 hours in after we couldn't get the motor mounts loose. I told them I was done because they wanted to disconnect the the front 4x4 drive shaft and possibly disconnect the brake lines etc.....I wasnt comfortable doing all of that. Luckily removing the cross member got one of the mounts loose and then getting very creative with extensions, breaker bars and flex head sockets we were able to get the top left mount bolt loose. Thinking about changing my screen name to 14MM...

Once the manifolds were off, installing the new headers and bpipes was cake (compared to getting the old ones off).

I ordered new OEM manifold gaskets before the install, didn't check when I received them but Amazon only sent me one. So I had to reuse one original gasket...It only has 7,500 miles on the new truck so hopefully it'll be ok. I never wanna do that job again :/
The truck sounds beastly with JBA catback and Borla 40944 muffler. Gonna get ultra quiet welded up tomorrow. Hope that tames it down some, the wife hates it and were taking a 7 hour road trip Thursday.

Any tips on getting a wrench on the headers without engine jacked up? I'm dreading the thought of going in and re torquing those header bolts.

-Mike

 

[NAlag]

I developed a leak about 2 weeks after the header install, and like you I was dreading going back in there. So I just used a 14mm box wrench, got under the truck and was able to check pretty much all of them. Only 2 nuts on the driver side needed any torque and the leak is gone now.
I'm back to having massive low end power Funny thing is any exhaust leak will cause the transmission to shift poorly, so thats something to look out for as well.

 

[EMB5530]

Congrats on the install.
Hopefully mine goes a bit easier as I will be by myself on the garage floor.

 

[new man]

Man, I tell ya, I don't think I could have done it without the lift. It makes it so much easier to attack things from different angles. Plenty of people do it, But don't think I coulda. Good luck on the install. We used a 7/8" open end wrench for the O2 sensors.

The heat shields took about 2 hours to get off, mainly cause we rounded one of the bolts..... wear gloves.

-Mike

 

[NAlag]

Congrats on the install.
Hopefully mine goes a bit easier as I will be by myself on the garage floor.

Good luck going at it solo, I did some of it alone and it was tough. I needed some experienced help from my cousin and his friend to be able to finish.

One things that helped with the driver side was taking the airbox out. It lets us get to it from under the hood but you need someone to guide the wrench for you. Oh and Irwin bolt extractors (need the deep socket kind) made getting stripped nuts off real easy.