Changing the headers, part three

This is turning into a major pain in the ass.

The header on the passenger side went on without much of a problem - besides the adapter being rotated 180 degrees - but the one on the drivers side was almost impossible to get to fit properly.

After some cursing, thinking and frustration I realized that the pipe for the back-most cylinder was bent, moving the holes slightly when the other bolts were attached. This resulted in me using a big bar in order to adjust it temporarily until I could screw it in there.

On the passenger side I'm currently struggling with getting the engine bolts back on. The new headers are different from the old ones in more ways than one and where I previously could use my hand to hold the nut for the engine bolt in place I can't, no matter how I try, reach in there now.

So I need to remove the starter in order to get enough space for my hand. To do this the cooler pipes for the transmission has to be removed...

It never ends!

As for now the headers are on and the starter is almost coming loose - I just need some help with it as it's too cumbersome to replace on my own (I can do it but I usually end up messing up my already bad shoulder so I won't).

I bought some ready made adapters between the headers and the exhaust so that I could keep the amount of welding I had to on my own to a minimum. Stupid me thought that all headers have the same adapters but Hooker doesn't fit. They just cost a lot.

So now I have to build them myself anyhow. :(

Changing the headers, not as easy as I thought

Over the past few days I've been trying to replace my old headers with the brand new from TA Performance. This has proven more work than I cared for.

Getting the old ones out and the new ones in was only time consuming as we needed to lift the engine and the real work started when I was about to reconnect the existing exhaust to the new headers.

First off I noticed that I couldn't get the exhaust out from under the car as it's all welded in one piece.

Then I notice that not only are the bolt holes rotated 180 degrees but the exhaust pipe is about 3.5 cm to short which means that I had to cut off the old adapter and weld the new one in place.

The problem with this is that the new headers points in a slightly different direction compared to the old ones which means that I need to realign the new adapter.

On top of this the new adapter is also too small - 6 cm in diameter compare to the old 7.5 cm - so even if I can fix the alignment it's not going to fit properly. The only option left is to buy a new adapter pipe.

So it won't be done for at least another week due to easter coming right up.

Changing the headers

I decided to take a stab at changing the headers while the engine hoist is still in the garage (it's a loaner).

Over at the V8Buick forums there are some that claim that you can change the headers without lifting the engine out of the car but I must say that with a big-block it's a very tight fit and I'd rather spend an hour lifting the engine.

Today I only managed to get the car up in the air, disconnect the exhaust and disconnect the headers from the engine. The hard part is tomorrow when I'm actually going to raise the engine and put the new headers in there.

Street legal!

Woop!

I just got off the phone with the authorities here in Sweden and it turns out that my car is street legal after all!

I have until May 2009 to fix the mufflers and other assorted issues that might prevent it from passing the DMV inspection, something that should be doable now that I have a proper garage.

Adjusting the timing

Yesterday me and my good friend Ulf was out at the garage trying to adjust the timing as the car didn't run properly.

Following this excellent thread on the V8Buick forum we set out to do good. Only to find out that nothing we did seemed to correspond with the information in the thread.

The idle timing seemed way off and the 30 degree mark climbed way past the timing tab as soon as I touched the throttle. Still the car ran decent so we adjusted it as good as we could and took it for a short test spin.

Sure enough, lot's of tire smoke and "oomph" as well as big grins on our faces. Seeing as the weather was great we decided to take the car for a longer drive and during this we felt that there was something lacking still.

We started adjusting the distributor cap in small increments and finally dialed in what seems to be the perfect setting. The car really flies and has a lot of torque. The only problem is that the timing still seems to be off.

I'll try and double check this later today but I need to wait for a buddy or brother to assist me.

Update: The timing was only off by 2-3 degrees when we checked so when I get the time I will adjust it to the proper setting.

A new garage - a new start

So, I finally moved to a new garage and let me tell you, it feels great to be able to start working on my car again.

There's a couple of things I need to get done though, setting up a work bench and stuff like that, but I can more or less get cracking on all the things I have been postponing for several months.

Unfortunately the engine still runs a bit crap so I need to take another stab at the valves and the ignition before I begin with the interior (no need for a fancy looking car that won't go anywhere).

I also discovered a lot more surface rust than when I parked the car last autumn so I need to get cracking on that before it eats through the metal.

For a couple of pictures of the old garage and the new one, start here.