The War Wagon... decaring wars on the grocery store since 1966

[TheSilverBuick]

You did a number on that manifold! Dang! I bet you can break a bowling ball in a sand box

[Scott Liggett]

Hey, they are in!! Sorry to hear you had to butcher your old manifolds to get them out. That sucks. I never had much trouble with the headers once I had them installed. My car had rusty old headers when I bought the car. I am now on the fourth set. Those Hedmans fit the best.

[Shelty]

passenger side manifold is on, as is the new passenger side valve cover gasket. the car was leaking from the valve covers bad, part of the reason the engine has so much goop on it. I have to tighten down the driver side, tighten the motor mount I loosened on the driver side, install the new plug wires, driver side valve cover gasket, and adjust the trans cooler lines.

Im also fabricating a bracket from some old bracket I found in my garage for the alternator bracket. I also found a bolt that will perfectly fit with a nut from the jar of bolts I have. Like all old chevys with the rams horn log headers, the alternator bolted into the driver side head. I am making the piece to triangulate the lower alternator bracket and sturdy it up by bolting it to the boss in the head. total cost ~free minus a bolt I need to buy probably.

only a few things right? lol

here are some pictures.

busted up passenger manifold, my drill wouldnt fit sideways to drill out the bolts, so I just drilled straight down and bisected the bolts. as a result, I broke the chunks of the manifold off as the cast iron cracked.

looks crazy, but it worked, didnt damage the head and its not like these were going to be reused or sold anyway




bracket im fabricating. the silver dot is where I need to drill another hole, and I will trim off the area near the silver line where it curves.


driver side header. Im leaving the shields on, they look silly, but it should help keep the boots from melting


passenger side, ignore the wires, they will be cleaned up

[Scott Liggett]

Just drop it in from the top. Just don't touch the battery cable on the starter. BZZZZZZTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!

[68scott385]

Well that what we(I) want to see, the new shiny stuff.

[Shelty]

its no problem lol, i didnt take any pics of the process of getting it off, cuz i was too busy fighting the thing.

just trying to get motivated to go out to the garage to get the pass side header on.

[68scott385]

I guess I'm unnecessarily giving you a hard way to go, it's just that I get so much more from visual stimulation.

[Shelty]

I can take a picture of the manifold.

[68scott385]

If I had a nickel for every time something that was suppose to be a simple 30 minute job but turned into an all day nightmare...

Congrats on completion!!!

I don't suppose you took any pictures during your torture session? Or of the end results? Yeah, I know, it's set of headers bolt to a sbc.

[Scott Liggett]

You have discovered the first rule of hot rodding. Nothing is ever a simple bolt in. Nothing. Congrats on winning the battle of rusty bolts.

[Shelty]

good news, after three days of drilling and fighting with the passenger manifold it finally came off. surprisingly, the studs of the bolts threaded right out, no muss no fuss.

at least that nightmare is over with

[68scott385]

true that, but im not quitting nor am I letting this car beat me.

working on drilling out the bolts, the manifold now wiggles a decent amount. so progress.

That's the only attitude to have doing this kind of thing for fun or money.

[Shelty]

true that, but im not quitting nor am I letting this car beat me.

working on drilling out the bolts, the manifold now wiggles a decent amount. so progress.

[68scott385]

an afternoon job turned into probably a week.

That's the situation we all face when starting a project, just have to make the best of it. What doesn't kill you just makes you stronger and you'll learn something from this that will help you out later, that is unless you get disgusted with the hobby and quit it altogether.

[Shelty]

thats currently what im trying to do, im trying to get the manifold to come far enough off the head to get some room in there for the sawzall. leaving enough of the bolt left to get vice grips on.

I didnt think about just breaking the manifold to pieces. thinking if I could break the top off of it, I could get my drill in there, drill down perpenduclar to the bolt (using a big bit) to basically cut the bolt in half then I could probably get the sucker off.

going to go back out in a bit to have at it again. just frustrating, an afternoon job turned into probably a week.