header install procedure...

We may earn a small commission from affiliate links and paid advertisements. Terms

seanjuan

seanjuan

Senior Member
I will be replacing my stock b16 header this week with a used Comptech 4-2-1 1 piece header and was wondering if there are any good procedures to follow when doing this...

I bought a new gasket for the head and the gasket going to the cat is pretty new as well so gaskets should be covered.

I read that you are supposed to retorque the bolts several times after letting the engine warm up.... then cool down, etc

so my plan for now is to do just that install the header when the engine is cold, warm it up and retorque, let it cool down then warm it back up again and retorque maybe do this once more if I'm feeling patient

also, since it is used would it be a good idea to clean the inside of it? there is a decent amount of carbon built up right now. as for the outside of it what is the best way to posish stainless steel? it deffinately looks used right now and I'd like to clean it up before I put it on. should I just pick up some stainless polish or would a fine steel wool be better?

thanks
Sean
 
Steel wool+Mothers polish. As for the carbon buildup use carb cleaner. Other than that it sounds like you've got it. Support your cat, I wedged mine up in a crack and it ended up falling down and pulling out the O2 sensor wires. -=[
 
is the donut gasket down at the cat new? when i took the stock downpipe away my cat to to put my header on, it was destroyed. if u havent replaced that gasket u should. maybe put the air hose to the tubes, clean em out..

and i dont know about letting the car warm and cool off and etc..; i understand expanding with heat and skrinking again, but it shouldnt do that..but after a short while, i would check the studs to see if any have loosened up. just like putting new tires on.

and i was going to recommend steel wool before i finished reading ur post
 
hell i never even used new gaskets, i've reused mine countless times... i'm cheap :) just throw the shit on there, i didn't even torque the bolts down for the header, just made them good and tight with a ratchet, have never had any issues. you'll need a special socket to get your O2 sensor off, thats realy the only difficult part... and be sure to take the doughnut gasket off the stock down pipe, i made the mistake of leaving it on there because i thought it was part of the original header... oops, lol
 
I have a torque wrench, albeit a cheap one but it works so over torquing shouldn't be an issue. unless you are saying that doing the heat cycling thing is a bad idea in which case I'd like to hear why

thanks
 
Originally posted by seanjuan@Jul 21 2004, 01:20 AM
I have a torque wrench, albeit a cheap one but it works so over torquing shouldn't be an issue. unless you are saying that doing the heat cycling thing is a bad idea in which case I'd like to hear why

thanks
[post=366109]Quoted post[/post]​
Click to expand...


It's just overkill. Don't overtighten, and recheck every once in a while. You'll know if you have a leak.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top