first of all i want to give big thanks to Trevor at Exotic Muscle. I called him yesterday to get a tracking number for my headers and we talked for about half an hour. really swell guy. he wanted to know all about the project i was working on and how ir turned out when i was done. he also spent the time to tell me about a couple interesting projects they were currently working on at his shop. Thats great customer service. Its rare you find a company that actually cares about your project rather than just selling you a product and then not caring anymore after that.

i got the headers in today and they are beautiful. i am planning on installing them on saturday. i got the header bolts i need but i ordered mr gasket gaskets since i heard bad things about felpro fitment issues but im starting to wonder about these mr gasket products. the openings on the headers are a rounded off square shape(to match the heads obviously) but i have two sets of gaskets and one has circle opening and the other one has square openings. i have a full set of each design but neither one looks like it will fit perfectly. what do you guys suggest? should i go with another brand? has anyone run into this before?

 

anybody?

 

anybody?

 

anybody here know which gaskets i should be using?

 

I think that EM sells the 1406 Felpro for their headers. I't's a slightly oversized D-port gasket that should match up well to the EM's oval port flanges. Someone please correct me if that's not the right number.

 

The Mr.Gasket Ultra-Seals for LT1 had plenty of meat for the EM header install. They worked great for me. It's an option for 'ya.

Do not use the stock (LT1/4) Fel-Pro #1470. Too small.

The Fel-Pro #1406 is a Brodix head exhaust gasket. Just so you won't be surprised at the product description at Summit .

 

i also need to know a couple other things before i install them. they came with two little metal tubes that are about half an inch long and im not sure what im supposed to do with them. do they have to do with the AIR fittings or anything? also... what size holes are you all drilling for your AIR sensors? it says either 3/8 inch or half inch but it gives two sizes. just curious which would work best. Im not sure of the part number on my gaskets cause they are at the shop but i think i just may cut the smaller one to match.

 

The metal "tubes" you're speaking of are spacers. If you go look at your factory manifolds at the point where the black A/C & Alternator support brackets mount, you'll notice that the manifold is much thicker at that position than the flange on the header.

Solution? Spacers! I'll go take a pic to show you what I mean... BRB.

Sorry for the poor focus - my camera's battery was dying and I only had a few seconds to snap these pics, so I couldn't putz around with it to get the images "just right." Here you can see where the first spacer goes fairly easily - driver's side, just to the left of the air fittings between the flange and the support bracket:


Here you can see the other one. Passenger side, to the left of the primaries and between the air hose and the valve cover - you'll mount the dipstick using it:


And finally... I'm not sure why this is, as I don't have a "before" picture to compare to, but my shop used some washers as spacers on the big alternator/AC support bracket. Again, sorry for the blurs, but you can see the washers:


Hope this helped!

 

that was extremely helpful! now what size hole do i drill for my AIR fittings?

 

I just want to say some good words about Trevor. I live about 3 miles from EM and Trevor has done all of my performance work for the last 3+ years. He would be the first to admit that he is not a certified GM mechanic, but he is more thorough and committed than any mechanic you can find. If you give him a problem that he is unfamiliar with, he will work nights figuring it out and when you get your car back, it will be primo. EM is one classy C4 place. (p.s. I'm getting nothing in return for this, but when you find a good garage, you can't help but praise them). The Fel-Pros work fine.

 

I live in the UK and Merle and Trevor could'nt have been more helpfull regardless of the distance between us, they have been there for me right from supplying all of the parts in my sig below through to the final tuning which we are in the middle of at the moment.

I used the Felpro gaskets that Merle supplied with the hedders 3000 + miles and no problem so far






.

 

so should i return the Mr Gaskets and get felpro? i just wish i knew which mr gasket set worked best. the circle opening and the square openings both look about the same size as the header openings but not sure which would be best to trim to fit. yeah i very much enjoyed talking to trevor. never had a sales guy care so much about the project i was working on myself and ask to hear back about it. Super customer service

 

There's another support bracket that goes from there, down to the manifold. They didn't use it, neither did I. It's not really needed if everything else is put together right.

 

Trevor is a talker if you give him half a chance!! I've known him now for about 5 years, and I help him out when he needs to tune any of the FAST of Big Stuff3 cars they get in. It's eerie sometimes because he knows these cars so well that if you hold an errant bolt up he'll tell you exactly what it's for just after glancing at it...no matter where it goes!