Yesterday I sprayed all of the upper bolts with free-all and didn't do anything else. Today after I got home from work I jacked the car up and sprayed all of the lower bolts. I then said fuck it and pulled the starter while I was under there and then removed all of the upper bolts. I'll be removing the rest tomorrow after work. If something comes up I'll ask you guys for advice. I made up my mind and I want to do this in my own garage.
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I appreciate the input, for your situation I completely understand your frustration. I'm slightly worried about both things you listed. I've wanted these headers since I got the car and I came across too good of a deal to pass up. I was actually considering switching back to the stock manifolds until this came up.
From the research I've done, these GREEN cats will pass emissions and in Ohio you have two options for E-check. #1 go to the testing facility and drive it in to get inspected on the scanner and visually. #2 is the self serve kiosk for after hours, all you have to do is scan it yourself and if it passes it'll print out a passed E-check sheet and you're good to go... talk about a loophole lol. I'll be doing the kiosk but I did pass visual inspection twice because I just tell them that's how I bought it and they give it a pass.
And as for not gaining much power from the headers I feel as if that could be the case for a 5.0 because its DOHC 4V and well engineered but on the 3V (not saying its poor engineering, just a dated design) I've seen dyno comparisons that show pretty significant gain for being N/A. Regardless I'm too far in to pull out now, we'll see what happens.
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Thank you for these pointers. I would guess that the main weight of the car being supported by the jack stands would allow the motor to be jacked up off of the oil pan without crushing it if the motor mounts were disconnected, still sketches me out though.
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In that case I'll be ordering all of the factory hardware for sure. The headers came with metal gaskets, do you think those are ok to use or would my best bet be to go factory? The last thing I want to do is have to pull the headers off again just to put gaskets on. I have one more question regarding the header gaskets, I should've took a picture while I was in there but I noticed what looked like orange rtv squeezing out of the sides of the manifold gaskets... it was also on the threads of the manifold hardware. I'm guessing that this is Permatex high temp gasket maker, is this really necessary to prevent leaks?
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