odurandina

sorry to hear. can i try to cheer you up with one of those could be worse moments? imagine how fun it must be to be driving down the road in your gorgeous 355 and you hear these popping/crackling sounds and your wonderful ride is then consumed in fire in just a few moments.... Ferrari used these way fun cats that would get so hot, the headers would be courting meltdown only a few thousand miles down the road from the dealer. the factory headers are junk, but people sometimes install aftermarket crap (photos) just before selling the cars.... can't imagine all that heat buildup would be very good for the cylinder heads either--which are already bogged down with more frighteningly expensive garbage.... good headers and replacement cats/installation runs like, over $10 k, but, as you can imagine, some of the engines require overhauls....

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refresh951

Beautiful!

86 951 Driver

What turbo are you running Mike?

Mikes-951

thats the LR super 75 dry turbo. Im hoping i wont have CRAZY lag because of the free flowing exhaust, but only time will tell! shooting for that 400 RWHP mark.

cruise98

Mike:

Those are beautiful pipes! I am curious about the new engine support. Is it modified?

I ended up going with Lindsey because they had one in stock and FRF did not. FRF was brutally honest and said they could not meet my schedule. I am moving overseas in a few weeks and would like to drive it some before I leave. I appreciate them being willing to miss a sale rather than have a mad customer. If I was not in a hurry, I would have waited. I will buy something from them in the future for sure.

OK, now to the big question. Should I remove the engine, or cut out the shock tower or just remove the cam tower again? I vote for using a sawzall on the car!!! I think our fellow RL'er may be the only one that has installed a header without having the head off for a new gasket. I have talked with several that claim you do not need to remove the cam tower to install a header, but none have done it personally and can give me the secret sauce. When pressed for more details they remember it was the factory two piece header they replaced and not a one piece. I tried removing the bolts from the motor mount and jacking the motor. Not enough, not even close. I could try removing the bolts from the driver's side mount, but the exhaust is almost touching the body and that would have to come off too. Even then I am not sure I could jack up the engine enough to wiggle the header in.

Does anyone have a Houdini move they can share with me? Thanks.

86 951 Driver

Could you take them out from the bottom of the car?

cruise98

Maybe, if the crossover pipe was off. The crossmember may be in the way.

Dutch944

Oke i can say it to you; i removed the headers without removing the camtower!

Only thing you'll have to remove is the coolant line above the headers!

BTW, those are some nice welded headers. BUT I would have imagined that as they do a lot of them, they would get a bending machine and bent the pipes.. There are machines which can do tight bends like these!

cruise98

Bas:

Where you able to install a one piece header while it is all in the car?

dmcampbell

It's not a big deal to remove the cam tower. Also, no reason to remove head to install Mike's FRF short tube equal length headers. I do believe installation of the FRF LONG tube headers does require removal of the engine. Finally, what are the symptoms of the stock header when cracked? Lack of boost, noise? Thanks, Mike

cruise98

Cracked headers are noisy and smelly. I have removed and installed cam towers, just being lazy i guess.

jmj951

I tried, and could not find a way to do this job (last year) without removing the cam cover, but I did not try removing the crossover. I don't know how well that would go - you'd have to remove the exhaust heat shields, maybe the motor mount, maybe more.

In my opinion, unless you can find a definite NO from someone's experience trying to go in from the bottom, I'd say it's definitely worth a shot. Removing the cam tower adds a LOT to this job (not just the time, but so much more that can go wrong) since you have to pull the timing belt, and also since the coolant hard line has to come out of the way, you'd have to drain the coolant. Pulling the crossover may give you the added advantage of being able to install the lower six bolts (collectors to crossover) before you install the header, but only if that assembled arrangement still allows you to move the header as needed to get it into place.

jmj951

I respectfully disagree. It's a pretty big deal, especially to someone who hasn't removed it before and may not yet even have several of the tools for this job (extended length metric hex head sockets, flywheel lock, timing belt tensioner, etc.). When you think of all the parts that need to come off to remove and reinstall the cam tower, it adds up to a pretty big deal.

Mikes-951

yea they are a work of art. My engine is built to sustain the power. Its really well setup in my honest opinion. HUGE reason why i went with the V-Band was so i can easily disassemble the header from the crossover. They look like they would just come off. The engine is currently out of my car right now. But when i blow a HG, ill know i'm also replacing the studs on the head with bolts for easier future disassemble.

cruise98

I removed the cam tower to install the single piece header. The Lindsey header fit very well after I drilled out all of the holes in the head flange. A couple of pictures...