Celica Forums General Discussion Exterior help! header install!

i need help with installing my header that i got.
i followed the instructions in the install guide, but i dont know how to take out the top and bottom heat shields...!!??!
and it tells me to unbolt the engine cradle/crossmember to get more space, but thats too much work and i dont have the right size sockets and only a small breaker bar...so im skrewed!
i've been at it for 5 hours now! do i HAVE to unbolt the crossmember/engine cradle????
somebody help me! im doing it all by myself! those heat shields are pissing me off i can't get to the bottom bolts on the header kuz of them

well i have never installed headers but when i installed my front sway bar you are supposed to unbolt the engine cradle. Go on to the hotchkis website and look for the insrtuctions for the front sway bar install that will tell you all the locations and sizes of the bolts. I can't help with the heat sheilds sorry. See, it's too much trouble so i don't even want to try the install for the header. Good luck i hoped that helped!

so if i unbolt the engine cradle, do i need to support the engine with anything?
was it hard to unbolt it? dam thats going to take another 2 hours!!

oh and i just went to their site, instructions doesnt show up on my computer.

well how high do you have the car? i think if you have it on a lift then not really but if you just jacked the car up (like i did ) yeah you might want to support it so it won't fall right on top of you then lower it slowly. yeah i was very difficult to unbolt because the bolts are way under the car and one of the bolts is facing down so the rachets will have to face you when you hand unbolt that. Hmmm...the hotchkis instructions would have been very helpful. i don't know what to do.

for lowering the engine cradle there is 4 19mm bolts and 7 14mm bolts

so i have to support the engine so it won't fall on me????
oh and thanks for the sizes of bolts.

no you dont, the front engine mount is still connected, and so is the steering rack i hung on mine when i did my sway bar, it is not coming down

oh yeah ssgsky is right, sorry i didn't mean to give you false info.

hmmm... ok i started unbolting the engine cradle, man...without power tools its so hard to unbolt them.
i see one of those 19mm bolts that bolts the cradle to the lower control arms...am i supposed to unbolt those too? how hard is it to put the control arm back in so that it's alligned when i bolt it back?

one of the guys on here ( i think it was steven??) installed his headers from the top of the car. he just took the valve cover off to give him the room he needed.

how is your car raised? lift or jacks?

i used jacks...
but the whole process was a pain in the ASS!
i tried the valve cover, but it didnt do anything, the top heat shield wouldnt come from the top either..
well , i finished the install but im taking it off and re-doing it with the stock header!
the header sounded like shitttttttt!
arrrrrrrrrrggg im so pissed... it sounds so horrible and the smell is horrible...
its burning my heat wrap that i wrapped it in
i dont know what to do i gotta go back to college tomorrow and im so skrewed... i guess im going to stay up all night putting the stock header back on. somebody please help

no..
it was GT-Dan who did the install from the top.
he can help.

i tried it... it didnt work

I do not know if you can go through the top on the GTS. The GTS header is larger than the GT. If you go through the bottom, you have to disconnect all that. You should be able to get the heatshield off through the top.

Did you take the whole valve cover off and not just that plastic piece? If you do take the valve cover off, it will give you more room to work with through the top.

ok there are 2 bols there that are really close together. unbolt the one that mounts the cradle to the subframe, not the lower control arm.

i took off the top plastic cover AND the valve cover but it still wasnt enough space...
thanks ssgsky for your help, the process was a pain in the ass...
total, about 15 hours of work: installed the new one, when i was all done and everything was put back and i started it up i regreted that 10 hours, it sounded horrible and i thought my engine was going to die out, so today i re-did the whole process and put the stock header back on,another 5 hours. damn amss header! at least now i know how to install a header...i'll have to save up for the trial header instead.

well, you shouldn't have gone with the amss header. That header is crap. Shoulda done your homework. Guess you learned the hard way. But your next header shouldn't take you another 15 hours to install. Also, did you check for exhaust leaks, could be why it sounded bad.

I bought a HS header and put it in my 2000 GT in like an hour. I did't have to undo the front strut or lower the engine cradle. It's all b/s. What I did was I took all the heat shields off but they wouldn't come out so I undid the stock header and pulled out the heat shields. It was a bitch getting the stock header out but this is how I did it I turned it around and then flipped it around and pulled out the bottom part(with the manifold bracket on it) out through the bottom of my car. And took a little wheele grinder and grinded off the manifold bracket on the header and it came out of the top of the engine like nothing. It was easy and I love the way it sounds now w/t the TSRM