Man, this has been a really long day. I'm putting side pipes on my 1980 L-82 and have been working on it from 10:00am this morning until about 15 min ago. I really need some feedback as I need to finish this before monday, (it's my only car right now). Everything is super easy and perfect except like a dumbazz, i tried to bend the dipstick tube "just a little" to make room to get the header up in there on the passenger side. So, something broke and the whole tube pulls out super easy and does not seat at all in the block. the tube looks fine though, doing some reading on here it looks like there is a lower tube on the inside of the pan, i can only assume it broke off and is floating around in there, so I tried to pull the pan and of course the power steering ram is in the way. I played with it for a bit but it does not want to come off easily so i let it go for the night. If i can just get the pan off and the dipstick fixed, the rest is cake. Any advice? What is the easiest way to drop the pan? as far as removing the steering components in the way? What should i expect when i do drop the pan, i've also read the baffle is bolted to the block. if so, do i need to remove it to get to the lower dipstick tube? If thats the case, whats involved? easy? or very involved? I'm hoping i can get this all done tomorrow between about 2:00 in the afternoon and 10:00pm, what do you guys think. Thanks; I'm really need some insight or previous experience here.

 

Drop the idler arm (2 bolts, passenger side) off the frame and the whole ram will swing out of the way.

 

thank you so much lol, god knows what i would have done later today without that info lol . Any thoughts on the dipstick tube?

 

Take a look at the piece that you have, does it look like it has been broken or are there ragged edges on the end ( may have to use a magnifying glass ) if not then don't worry about it, some tubes only go in an inch or so and are press fit or you can use some RTV

 

thanks guys, i appreciate the responses. guess what it was? The tab that bolts it to the block was broken off of it. I spotwelded it back on so i could get my car back on the road, it's solid but so mangled I will need to buy a new one, lol.

I managed to get everything back together so i could get to work tomorrow but i had to give up on the actual pipes. I could not get the darn things to slide onto the collectors, one had a small dent which really made it impossible and the other seemed like the pipe diameter was almost exactly the freakin same as the collector. (it's not but its so close i can't just slide it on). Any tips on gettin these to slide onto the headers? I was thinking about going to an exhaust shop and have them widen them up for me like a 1/1000th of an inch or something. I don't know, lol . Until i get these on I've gotten open headers right in front of my face.

I have to admit though, these are super loud, but there not as loud as i thought they would be for open headers, it must be due to the length of the primary tubes. I'm really impressed overall, my experience with other headers has been lackluster but with these i have ten thousand more times more room in the engine bay to get to the starter, spark plugs, etc. Freakin awesome, and....when i womp on it...i get flattened to my seat now...and the sound makes my blood curdle. I f'n love it.