hi all. Ive got a my00 classic. Ive got some rcm gt spec headers on the way.

just wondering if anyone knows of any guides or can give me any advice on taking the originals off and puting the new headers on.

any dos or donts?
easy job?.. Lol

cheers guys

 

The headers are a simple job as you just pop the undertray off, undo the six head bolts and the two up-pipe bolts and off they come. However I did mine after binning all the ****ty old heat shields so I am not sure if the shields get in the way of the bolts. If they do getting the old shields off is a battle as they are so rusted I ended up drilling and cutting them off. But hopefully you won't need to do this. The nuts on the studs will be very rusty and probably very stubborn. Use a good quality socket on them not a cheapo one that will round them off.

I couldn't get the studs out so cleaned the threads up with a wire brush and reused them.

The up-pipe is the real bitch as you need to remove the intercooler, turbo heat sheild and undo the downpipe to turbo bolts to allow access to the up-pipe nuts on the turbo. Lots of difficult to get to and likely rusted nuts here.

Putting back together is much better and I would use new studs, nuts and gaskets with some copper slip to prevent future rusting of threads.

I am sure somebody will provide a proper guide but that gives you an idea. I have had two up-pipe crack so done it a few times...

Oh and obviously you want to fit the up-pipe after removing the old headers and before fitting the new ones. It won't come out with the old headers in place without jacking the engine or removing the turbo and vice versa.


The new pipes wont have shields so may make areas hotter. You may want to wrap to prevent this. However wrapping can lead to cracks in some cases. Also check nothing is too near the new pipes that will melt/burn.

 

Top bloke well ive changed to a bigger turbo not long ago so all the bolts that go onto the turbo should be pretty free still fingers crossed! Thanks mate for an excellent reply �� ive heard about the cracking of pipes if heatwrapped... Not a thing i want to consider happening as these things don't come cheap! Ill custom make small heatsheilds if i can see a way of mounting them... First things first though gotta get em on �� cheers again.

 

No worries, the more I think about it the more I am sure that you don't need to remove the heat shields to get the headers off just hard to picture when I don't have them any more.

Most people will probably say to wrap the headers for performance gains and to keep temps down. Both of these things are good reasons to wrap. I am not sure how much more likely it makes the pipes to crack but I know out of two identical up-pipes the wrapped one cracked in about a year and the unwrapped lasted more like 4 years.

As you have already done the turbo I am sure you won't find this too difficult.