American Racing Headers Installation on Jack Stands (Part 1 of 2)
12-26-2007, 08:40 AM
#1
Burning Brakes
Thread Starter
American Racing Headers Installation on Jack Stands
Although I have read many other threads about being able to install long tube headers on a C6 using jack stands, I was not able to find any step by step, illustrated examples to gauge how difficult this actually is. Since I have the holiday week off and can't drive the C6 this time of year in New England, I decided that I could take my time while enjoying the car even if this was a bigger project than I was expecting.
This is part 1 of 2 as I have only done the disassembly work. So far I have less than four hours on this project. Part 2 of 2 will be posted in this same thread.
I am following the instructions from the GM High-Tech Performance Magazine article that can be found here: http://www.gmhightechperformance.com...ion/index.html This article has detailed, illustrated step-by-step instructions which I am finding to be invaluable. Like many other articles however, this install was done using a lift and did not have any specific tips for jack stand installations.
The first challenge was getting the car up on jack stands high enough. I have the low profile Omega Magic Lift jack and when lowering this jack there is a lot of movement horizontally as well as vertically. With my older sets of steel jack stands with triangular bases, this tended to tip them as the car was lowered. You can see by the picture of the jack that at high lift angles this jack is making a large arc due to its extended reach design.
To minimize the horizontal movement of the jack, I ended up driving the car up on Rhino ramps first. The 17-degree approach angle only scrapes the black plastic air dam a little. I used the heavy duty 12000 lb version of these ramps because they are an inch wider and work better with the C6 front tires.
With the car on ramps, I jacked the rear using a cross beam adapter to lift the entire rear end. I think the key here is to make sure the car is far enough onto the ramp that there is no chance it can be pulled down the ramps while being jacked.
Jacking the rear with the cross beam adapter I got enough lift to set the car on the rear jack stands at their second lowest position (one hole exposed in the jack stand). Then using the cross beam adapter, I jacked the front up off the ramps and set it on the front jack stands. I got enough lift from the ramps that with little jacking I set it on the jack stands at their fourth setting with three holes exposed. I then returned to the rear to lift it the additional distance so the car was level. With this method and using aluminum jack stands, I had no trouble with any horizontal movement of the car tipping the jack stands.
With this amount of lift, I am able to move underneath the car as needed. At this point, I am worried that I may need some additional lift to work the headers in from the bottom, but that answer will have to wait for the follow up post. You can see by the photo below that the AR headers are beautiful compared to the stock manifolds, but may need more space under the car to work them into position.
You might also notice the oxygen sensor is still in the manifold. I do not have a 7/8" wrench or an oxygen sensor socket to remove it. The rear O2 sensors come out easily with an adjustable wrench, but there is not enough clearance on the manifolds for the adjustable wrench.
The rest of this post is mainly eye candy of the C6 and the AR headers. Here is a view inside the merge collectors of the AR headers showing the nice long spike in the center formed by the primaries coming together.
Here is a view of the AR X-pipe with high flow cats compared to ONE of the stock cats. The after-cat O2 sensor is easily accessible to remove and re-install with an adjustable wrench.
Here is a view into the AR X-pipe where it attaches to the header.
Here is a view into the rear of the AR high flow cat. You can see the after-cat O2 sensor is already installed.
This is a picture from underneath the C6 looking back towards the over-axle tubes that will connect to the AR long tube header system. I am keeping the stock exhaust and hoping headers alone will liven up the sound some while getting a modest HP improvement.
Here is the driver's side of the C6 engine with the plugs, plug wires, and manifold removed. There is plenty of room to work here and the passenger side is even more accessible. The brake booster makes removing one of the manifold bolts difficult, so some patience is needed.
For anyone with experience doing a jack stand installation of long tube headers, now would be a good time to post some installation tips! I will follow up with post 2 of 2 to let everyone know how it turns out.
This is part 1 of 2 as I have only done the disassembly work. So far I have less than four hours on this project. Part 2 of 2 will be posted in this same thread.
I am following the instructions from the GM High-Tech Performance Magazine article that can be found here: http://www.gmhightechperformance.com...ion/index.html This article has detailed, illustrated step-by-step instructions which I am finding to be invaluable. Like many other articles however, this install was done using a lift and did not have any specific tips for jack stand installations.
The first challenge was getting the car up on jack stands high enough. I have the low profile Omega Magic Lift jack and when lowering this jack there is a lot of movement horizontally as well as vertically. With my older sets of steel jack stands with triangular bases, this tended to tip them as the car was lowered. You can see by the picture of the jack that at high lift angles this jack is making a large arc due to its extended reach design.
To minimize the horizontal movement of the jack, I ended up driving the car up on Rhino ramps first. The 17-degree approach angle only scrapes the black plastic air dam a little. I used the heavy duty 12000 lb version of these ramps because they are an inch wider and work better with the C6 front tires.
With the car on ramps, I jacked the rear using a cross beam adapter to lift the entire rear end. I think the key here is to make sure the car is far enough onto the ramp that there is no chance it can be pulled down the ramps while being jacked.
Jacking the rear with the cross beam adapter I got enough lift to set the car on the rear jack stands at their second lowest position (one hole exposed in the jack stand). Then using the cross beam adapter, I jacked the front up off the ramps and set it on the front jack stands. I got enough lift from the ramps that with little jacking I set it on the jack stands at their fourth setting with three holes exposed. I then returned to the rear to lift it the additional distance so the car was level. With this method and using aluminum jack stands, I had no trouble with any horizontal movement of the car tipping the jack stands.
With this amount of lift, I am able to move underneath the car as needed. At this point, I am worried that I may need some additional lift to work the headers in from the bottom, but that answer will have to wait for the follow up post. You can see by the photo below that the AR headers are beautiful compared to the stock manifolds, but may need more space under the car to work them into position.
You might also notice the oxygen sensor is still in the manifold. I do not have a 7/8" wrench or an oxygen sensor socket to remove it. The rear O2 sensors come out easily with an adjustable wrench, but there is not enough clearance on the manifolds for the adjustable wrench.
The rest of this post is mainly eye candy of the C6 and the AR headers. Here is a view inside the merge collectors of the AR headers showing the nice long spike in the center formed by the primaries coming together.
Here is a view of the AR X-pipe with high flow cats compared to ONE of the stock cats. The after-cat O2 sensor is easily accessible to remove and re-install with an adjustable wrench.
Here is a view into the AR X-pipe where it attaches to the header.
Here is a view into the rear of the AR high flow cat. You can see the after-cat O2 sensor is already installed.
This is a picture from underneath the C6 looking back towards the over-axle tubes that will connect to the AR long tube header system. I am keeping the stock exhaust and hoping headers alone will liven up the sound some while getting a modest HP improvement.
Here is the driver's side of the C6 engine with the plugs, plug wires, and manifold removed. There is plenty of room to work here and the passenger side is even more accessible. The brake booster makes removing one of the manifold bolts difficult, so some patience is needed.
For anyone with experience doing a jack stand installation of long tube headers, now would be a good time to post some installation tips! I will follow up with post 2 of 2 to let everyone know how it turns out.
Last edited by mvcrash; 12-30-2007 at 04:16 PM. Reason: Posted Part 2 of 2 in this same thread. Removed "Part 1 of 2" from title.
12-26-2007, 08:57 AM
#2
Melting Slicks
Good start to the project.
You really can get all four off the ground without anything more than a jack, some hockey pucks, jack stands and a few blocks of wood. You jack the car where the lift pucks install and alternately place jack stands and a small block of wood under the support points listed in the owners manual if you do not want to use the outboard points where the pucks install.
If you get a jack that can go lower than 5 inches with a removable saddle they fit under the car easily. Relatively cheap Sears 2-3 ton jacks usually are capable of this along with quite a few others.
Good luck with the rest of the job and don't be hesitant to purchase any tools you may be missing to get the job done. They are always well worth the money if you plan in the future on doing anything else to any of your cars.
You really can get all four off the ground without anything more than a jack, some hockey pucks, jack stands and a few blocks of wood. You jack the car where the lift pucks install and alternately place jack stands and a small block of wood under the support points listed in the owners manual if you do not want to use the outboard points where the pucks install.
If you get a jack that can go lower than 5 inches with a removable saddle they fit under the car easily. Relatively cheap Sears 2-3 ton jacks usually are capable of this along with quite a few others.
Good luck with the rest of the job and don't be hesitant to purchase any tools you may be missing to get the job done. They are always well worth the money if you plan in the future on doing anything else to any of your cars.
12-26-2007, 02:09 PM
#4
Drifting
Send a PM to "RAPID TRANSIT" who hangs out in the ZO6 section He tried to self install a set of ARH's and ran into some problems. Perhaps you can learn something from his experience.
12-26-2007, 02:25 PM
#5
Burning Brakes
Thread Starter
12-26-2007, 02:55 PM
#6
Safety Car
Great thread and detailed information being posted. I will be doing my Kooks headers and off road x-pipe install very shortly and any and all helpful hints will be greatly appreciated.
12-26-2007, 05:40 PM
#7
Burning Brakes
Thread Starter
Installation Finished!
Took about seven hours today to complete the job for a project total of about 11 hours. Might take another hour to reinstall wheels and get the car off the jack stands, but I have a few other projects while the Vette is up in the air.
Was able to do the complete job myself with no assistance, eventhough assistance was available if I needed it. It certainly would go faster if you simply had someone available to get a tool you forgot to bring with you after crawling under the car!
Started the day by purchasing a Oxygen Sensor Wrench set from AutoZone for $15. I highly recommend it as the O2 sensors in the manifolds needed serious torque to remove.
I would highly recommend that you find at least six jack stands to do this job. On several occassions you need two jack stands to temporarily hold up pieces, such as shown in the images below:
Count them: That's right. SIX jack stands!
Getting the extension tubes, x-pipe, and headers all connected took a lot of heavy effort twisting, pushing and pulling. I almost decided to call it a day before something rotated and everything just popped into place.
After that, I did not have a problem centering the pipes in the tunnel as described in the GM High-Tech Performance article. The frame seal that they cut off for more clearance in the article is really close on my car so I may have to cut that off too if it rattles on the road. I did not re-use the old manifold bolts -- I bought new ones from forum vendor Gene Culley and he was helpful in finding the right part number.
Although I haven't driven the car yet, I did fire it up. First problem I ran into was that I must have bumped the coolant sender connector, because the DIC gave me a message that the car was hot and coolant temperature was reported as XXX. The coolant sender is right underneath the alternator and I found the wire was unplugged.
Second issue was a check engine light for MAF out of range, but I reset that and it didn't come back. I think that might have been due to disconnecting the battery. I disconnected the battery only after working the passenger header past the starter relay and drawing a small arc. With the C6, I am never sure what will work correctly after disconnecting the battery so I don't do it unless I have to.
Tomorrow I will double check all the O2 sensor wire routing and recheck all the exhaust bolts.
The American Racing Headers are a top quality kit down to the clamps provided to run the rear O2 sensor extension wires in the tunnel. The only minor quality issue I ran into was a bit of weld slag in one of the O2 sensor bungs. I had to chisel it out before I could insert a sensor into that bung.
Bottom line, I would do this again in a heartbeat rather than pay someone to install it for me, but only because I had that GM High-Tech Performance article. Without that, I think this job could have easily taken me twice the time figuring out what had to be removed for clearance, etc.
Was able to do the complete job myself with no assistance, eventhough assistance was available if I needed it. It certainly would go faster if you simply had someone available to get a tool you forgot to bring with you after crawling under the car!
Started the day by purchasing a Oxygen Sensor Wrench set from AutoZone for $15. I highly recommend it as the O2 sensors in the manifolds needed serious torque to remove.
I would highly recommend that you find at least six jack stands to do this job. On several occassions you need two jack stands to temporarily hold up pieces, such as shown in the images below:
Count them: That's right. SIX jack stands!
Getting the extension tubes, x-pipe, and headers all connected took a lot of heavy effort twisting, pushing and pulling. I almost decided to call it a day before something rotated and everything just popped into place.
After that, I did not have a problem centering the pipes in the tunnel as described in the GM High-Tech Performance article. The frame seal that they cut off for more clearance in the article is really close on my car so I may have to cut that off too if it rattles on the road. I did not re-use the old manifold bolts -- I bought new ones from forum vendor Gene Culley and he was helpful in finding the right part number.
Although I haven't driven the car yet, I did fire it up. First problem I ran into was that I must have bumped the coolant sender connector, because the DIC gave me a message that the car was hot and coolant temperature was reported as XXX. The coolant sender is right underneath the alternator and I found the wire was unplugged.
Second issue was a check engine light for MAF out of range, but I reset that and it didn't come back. I think that might have been due to disconnecting the battery. I disconnected the battery only after working the passenger header past the starter relay and drawing a small arc. With the C6, I am never sure what will work correctly after disconnecting the battery so I don't do it unless I have to.
Tomorrow I will double check all the O2 sensor wire routing and recheck all the exhaust bolts.
The American Racing Headers are a top quality kit down to the clamps provided to run the rear O2 sensor extension wires in the tunnel. The only minor quality issue I ran into was a bit of weld slag in one of the O2 sensor bungs. I had to chisel it out before I could insert a sensor into that bung.
Bottom line, I would do this again in a heartbeat rather than pay someone to install it for me, but only because I had that GM High-Tech Performance article. Without that, I think this job could have easily taken me twice the time figuring out what had to be removed for clearance, etc.
12-26-2007, 06:34 PM
#10
Burning Brakes
Thread Starter
They have three features I really like:
1) They will work on asphalt;
2) The pins slide through the extensions really easily because the extensions are solid. With my steel jack stands, I fumble forever trying to get the damn pin through the far side because there is nothing inside the hollow cylinder to guide the pin to the far end.
3) They don't take up too much space. After crawling under this car many times for the header installation, there were many times that I was glad to have the extra room to work.
12-27-2007, 12:06 AM
#11
Burning Brakes
Removing wheels?
Just out of curiousity, why did you remove the wheels? I can only assume to make it easier going back & fourth under the car, but is it really necessary?
12-27-2007, 07:52 AM
#12
Burning Brakes
Excellent post
Really great write up. Thanks!
12-27-2007, 07:58 AM
#13
Burning Brakes
Thread Starter
What you don't see in the pictures is that I don't much room directly in front of the car, so going underneath the car from the front I had to have the front wheels off. It is a pretty long distance on your back to pass between the lifting points on the C6 where the jack stands are to get to the motor.
So you are right, it is not really necessary but was done more for convenience.
12-27-2007, 08:21 AM
#14
Burning Brakes
Thread Starter
Height of Lift
Another forum member sent me a PM with this interesting article: http://www.ls1howto.com/index.php?article=29. It documents a C5 header installation on jack stands and has good info on lifting the car. The article claims the C5 needs 19" of lift so I measured my setup and from belly pan to garage floor I am only 14.75".
Last edited by naschmitz; 12-27-2007 at 08:21 AM. Reason: Fixed link
12-28-2007, 05:20 PM
#16
Burning Brakes
Thread Starter
12-28-2007, 05:29 PM
#17
Safety Car
First I am glad that you are okay and that things worked out, got worried when I didn't see a new thread with Part II on it.
Your post with pictures is top notched and I for one appreciate you taking the time to document your installation and what problems you ran into along with links.
I will be doing my Kooks with off road x-pipes shortly and your post will make it easier.
Thanks again and from Hawaii Hau'oli Makahiki Hou which is Happy New Year.
12-28-2007, 06:20 PM
#18
Premium Supporting Vendor
Naschmitz, We appreciate you going with ARH. You have yourself a terrific system that should net excellent power gains and provide multiple years of trouble free use. Good luck and enjoy your ride in 08.
Nick
Nick
12-29-2007, 03:40 PM
#20
Burning Brakes
Thread Starter
With some rain last night to wash off the road salt I was even able to take the car out for a quick shakedown run today. Car runs and sounds great. No exhaust leaks. No rattles. No check engine lights.
I am very happy with the headers.
Bert