Ok, so this past memorial day weekend I installed the Hooker 2149. I bought the hooker Y pipe thats made specifically for the headers and used the stock cat. This was going into a magnaflow catback.

the passenger side had to go in from the bottom after the old manifold, dipstick, air system, stock y-pipe, and some spark plugs were removed. The back passenger side header bolt is a bitch and I think I just got it tight by doing it an 1/8th of a turn at a time from the top.

driver side went in from the top but had to remove the steering linkage and banjo valve (note if you can avoid this do, I had to bleed the slave cylinder after opening the banjo valve. Again I had to remove a few spark plugs on the driver side.

At first I tried to slide the y-pipe into the cat while the cat was still attached to the cat-back. this results in much wasted time trying to heat the cat with a torch and still not getting it to fit. I ended up taking the cat off, bolting up the y-pipe to the collectors and then reinstalling the cat.

i used the percy's seal 4 good header and collector gaskets and some fiberglass 6" wire protectors to keep the wires from melting (they do touch the header at many points)

this was my first header install so I'm sure others will read and be thinking "i know...etc" but hope this can serve well to others doing their first headers install.

 

Thanks for sharing your experience with hookers.

 

thanks agent86. like i said before i had the hedmans orderes but realized I'd need to pass emissions here in pennsylvania.

 

I don't know what year you own, but with my '87 I installed both peices from the bottom, which required removing nothing (that I can remember) for the driver's side. My diptsick did not need removing either. Does your passenger side not have the dipstick slot cut into it for it to pass through?

Their y-pipe is a little tough, but I found it best to install all bolts very loosely and then tighten them up. I use 2 sets of Percy's dead soft aluminum gaskets to take up any gappage.

 

This is how I get that last header bolt fully tightened. 1/4 drive with swivel joint. It may not look like it in the pic, but there is plenty of room to ratchet the handle back and forth.



I had to grind this brace down on passenger side because the header would hit. That's the only problem I had with the Hookers. Their Y-pipe did not clear around my auto trans pan. Had to cut and weld in a new corner section for it to clear.

 

I got a cheap 12-point closed end wrench and ground it down to be pretty thin. It seems to work.

On my passenger side, very important I forgot to mention, I had to reverse the bolt holding my engine mount to the cradle. It was rubbing one of the header tubes. Just take a look, I know other years didn't have to.

 

thanks for the tip pacer, i'll have to take out the 1/4" drive to make sure i have that bolt fullen tight. i didn't have to reverse the motor mount bolt on my 86. I didn't remove the dipstick, just unbolted the mount for it. the headers did have the cutout there. i have the 4+3 so the y-pipe did seems to fit ok by the trans. i took it out today and didn't seem to notice much difference in 1st and 2nd gear, but it definitly pulls much more in 3rd and 4th (they seems to be chocked b4) can anybody relate?

 

Neither did I on my '86.

 

The y-pipe is very close to the rear of my 4+3's pan. In fact I think I have to drop the y-pipe to change my fluid, it has been a while since I did it. I run the synthetic Mobil 1 ATF just to help a little with heat.

I did too many other mods at the same time as my headers to say, but yes the factory manifolds choke the hell out of the car. It looks like the car iis trying to fart through a straw.