87 heat exchanger spiritual advice.

[charleskieffner]

as about everyone knows heat exchanger/header swaps can be like getting married.

perfect bliss forever walking hand in hand thru fields of roses/daisys etc.

OR



HELL ON EARTH!

since my usual M.O.(modus opa-wrench-i) normally includes a full bentley read over, parts diagram buzz thru, posting questions, reading waynes world, incredible amounts of web surfing before i even get my hands dirty i knew this was gonna be possibly a real purple mutha fucher.

i had started to enlist fellow phx pelicans to have a beer/GHL header swap party.
in anticipation for 10 days straight i smothered heat exchanger nuts with PBR BLASTER. god my garage and me STUNK LIKE A SKUNK!

started ordering new studs, new nuts, valve cover gaskets and nuts and washers, spark plugs, zoomy cool trick tools(O2 remover/long 8mm allen) etc.

continued tossing and turning at night.

dates for all to show up was getting difficult.

had no patience.

aligned super zoomy long allen up thru heat exchanger and on some it didnt line up straight?????? WTF WTF WTF? somewhere in its life, exchanger had been dragged over curb hard.

more loss of sleep.

finally called old shopmate jack doverspike from johnson bozzani days. he gave me price for the following:

remove heat exchangers/entire exhaust.

remove old wrong platinum plugs/install new wr7 bosch plugs gapped .032
correct plugs. all plugs burned good only because i never short drive car.

label all old plugs 1-6

adjust valves,install new gaskets washers nuts.

install new GHL headers w/heat and 2 in 2 out muffy

add brad penn oil(supplied w/filter)

i supplied just about every part needed.

jack gave me killer price i couldnt refuse.

first all valves loose. i suspected this and thats a story for later.

all 12 nuts came off heat exchanger w/out breaking! but it took finesse and 30 years of doing it not to break some. car is az. car so least amount of rust of any location on planet. and it still was a ***** for them.

number #4 exhaust valve somewhere in its life was too tight. starting to wear. they adjusted all valves to .004 and left #4 exhaust at .006 to help it out.

******* 2 year old BOSCH O2 sensor would not come out of cat bypass pipe no way no how. just spun. GHL fixing that.

GHL header w/heat didnt line up on drivers side so heat pipe could go from drivers side to passenger side. GHL called and came over and saw problem first hand and is fixing problem. angle of dangle problem more than likely jig wasnt correct when welded.

jack has had car for 3 days now.

what i had hoped would be a 7am maybe to 8pm day of pelican fun has turned into a purple MO FO FOR JACK AND GHL!

sooooooooo as you can see even with all yer ducks in a row quack quack quack, a few ducks always manage to get run over by the TRAIN OF LIFE!

what you perceive as one thing always seems to change mid stream and you have to dance a different tune.

ie. my entire tool box would have been thrown into the dezert and i would have been a very drunk SOB!

instead........ i pick up car this am, pay jack graciously, look at my clean finger nails, slap sparco belts on, drink my coffee, let warm up and listen to a 50% louder obnoxious exhaust with 25 TRILLION more horsepower and go to PIR and watch HSR races all weekend, knowing in back of mind i have a top end job that WILL turn into an entire rebuild in the next 4-6 years at the measly 4000 miles i put on car a year.

crank " a long road out of eden " cd on and laugh that me and my engine are living on borrowed time!

motor will come apart for ONLY 2 REASONS:

bigtime loss of power

or it shoots smoke out like a MOSQUITO FOGGER!

[pozee]

I see Mr. Olsen has competition...when are you writers going back to work?

Entertaining post!

[rfloz]

I once managed to turn a "simple" steering wheel swap into a two and a half day, three trips to Sears for more tools, two trips to the hardware store for nuts, bolts and washers, triple knuckle busted, multiple expletive deleted nightmare.

But, I finally had a gen-u-ine by-god Momo steering wheel on the car.

The fact that particular car still has no horn or turn signals due to said swap is neither here nor there.

Spiritual indeed - Momo rules!

[911Freak]

LMAO! Thanks guys...so it happens to others not just me...I'll sleep well tonight!

BTW; I'm in the same boat; driving less than 6K a year and looking at a rebuild sooner than later...Tis the life we choose!

[charleskieffner]

well g/friend and i made a deal......................


i take her in porsche to prescott look for "hoosiers" (kitchen shelves) in antique stores and then go to payson and hit all the antique stores there in a day.

i said "HELL YES!"

sooooo ..........
after filling tank with super duper chevron WITH TECHROLEN, and brand new BRAD PENN 20/50 ZOOMY RACE OIL WITH MEGA DOSES OF ZDDP we were off like butter down a hot skillet!

GHL SYSTEM IS WUNDERBAR!

25 BILLION MORE HORSEPOWER!

after getting car back from shop talked with wrench and he did say (1) stud did come out. he used one of my new ones i bought and all was cool.

real good idea to buy some just in case or exhaust project will come to screaming mimi halt. if you look at those barrel nuts and the opposite nuts and see ANY RUST.........just buy 12 studs and 12 new nuts and washers and be ready.

tricks of the trade:

wrenches bent to correct angle of dangle

1/4" dr socket with extensions you need

oxy/actl torch with real tight tip

heat as needed turn clockwise a little and THEN counterclockwise to loosen.

also smacking nuts with hammer a coupla times kinda like impact ratchet action can also help.

since i live about 35 miles from either shop i use...........this could have gotten real ugly at home. was worth every penny not to go off deep end with the project from hell becomes even worse and wayyyyyy more expensive.

and this was an arizona car mind you. we only get surface rust on metal not cancer rust like everywhere else thruout u.s. that has bad winters.


here were my leak down numbers

#1-5%

#2-7%

#3-6%

#4-19%.........FUCH ME!

#5-5%

#6-6%

somewhere in cars life valve was adjusted too tight. seat a lil worn.
wrench stated in 25,000 miles i will have to do top end.

do the math.......... 4000 miles a year divided by 20000 miles= FIVE (5) YEARS!

so with that in mind..........we hauled ass to prescott and then payson today and back home a 1/2 hour ago. 300 miles.

wrench wants roughly 500 miles on it and then i bring it back for GHL fine tuning.

GHL jig for my model 1987 headers w/heat dual in/dual out no cats had a coupla angle of dangle issues. GHL recently moved and jigs a lil out of alignment. my car is NOW DER TEST SCHWEIN for GHL. fitment issue was drivers side heat ducting to passenger side heat duct. shop made it work, and heat is better than stock heat exchangers and we drove thru plenty of snow going across highway 260 from I-17 over to pine strawberry and then into payson to use the heat. GHL will have everything perfect with their jig this week and with my car.

jeff and brian gerber are GREAT GUYS TO WORK WITH and WILL BEND OVER BACKWARDS and THEN FLY THRU FLAMING HOOPS to HELP YOU OUT and CORRECT ANY PROBLEM. really really stand behind there product 110%.

so the cars HAULS ASS.............SOUNDS INCREDIBLE..........A HELL OF ALOT CRISPER all thru the powerband right to red line.

we checked CO and btwn each side pipe there was only .2/tenths of a % difference.

idles PERFECT AT 800 RPM no misses, no hunting just 800 PERFECT IDLE RPM'S.

BOSCH WR7 plugs gapped .032

NEW DIST CAP ROTOR

NOLOGY RED ZOOMY WIRES

CONE K & N (too damn simple to R&R) throw stock airbox away.

NEW BRAD PENN 20/50...............get this! NO START UP SMOKE AT ALL! unlike castrol gtx 20/50 go figure. all we can think of is valves were loose causing smoke????

[rfloz]

Originally Posted by charleskieffner

tricks of the trade:

wrenches bent to correct angle of dangle

1/4" dr socket with extensions you need

oxy/actl torch with real tight tip

heat as needed turn clockwise a little and THEN counterclockwise to loosen.

also smacking nuts with hammer a coupla times kinda like impact ratchet action can also help.

since i live about 35 miles from either shop i use...........this could have gotten real ugly at home. was worth every penny not to go off deep end with the project from hell becomes even worse and wayyyyyy more expensive.

Which is exactly why my car is sitting at TRE this very moment awaiting parts for a moderately serious suspension upgrade.

No amount of lovingly hand made Ducati tools or hard-earned Mustang know-how is going to help me pull out 24 year old torsion bars. Nor is my high school oxy-acetylene torch technique going to suffice for the Wevo rear sway bar mount install, much less do a front pan repair.

Sometimes you really do have to spend money to save money. Or, as Dirty Harry would say: "A man has got to know his limitations."

I know there are a few guys here that could build a whole new Porsche from a stack of sheet metal and a hood ornament and I know I am not one of them. Handy, yes, willing to learn, mostly, top-flight mechanic/fabricator - um, no.

I will be posting Charles' spiritual advice in my garage so that when exhaust refurb time rolls around, I keep my ambitions in line with reality.

[charleskieffner]

hey at the outset it does not appear all that difficult. it really isnt when you look at it. but that underlying feeling of it being simple is very deceptive.

you have 12 studs holding heat exchangers on.

now if yer a gambler you have 12 chances to totally screw things up. like pull engine tranny and have them EDM'd out.

im not a gambler. i cant get my friends to come over 3 and 1/2 days to help me sort things out.

i got a leak down test on my car i wasnt expecting, and that clinched my future with this motor. no big deal. i will have gotten roughly 35000 miles out of the motor before i have to have it R&R'd.

since its showroom stock not a hell of alot we can do to it, except take 20 years of technology and know how to make it better than when it was new.

no matter what the rules state i will put ARP rod bolts in. never have to worry about them. i have to win races before anyone would ever tear me down in protest. we are never gonna run a entire year long series. been there done that, won 2nd over all in state off road racing. we aint gluttons fer punishment. so just 1-3 races a year and enjoy the car for what it is. a stock motor with new suspension gives me PLENTY OF BANG FER BUCK GIGGLES.

stock is good, stock is proven, stock isnt a hand grenade. stock is gentler on wallet. stock can be driven on highways. stock is comfortable rain shine 121 degrees out to below freezing. girls like street hot rods. girls dont like getting into full blown race cars climbing over side bars in mini skirts!

[FenderGuy]

Chuck check your PM