Fitting Headers.
 

Any tips or snags i should look out for?The car in question 04 WRX.

What headers are you going for? GT spec can be a pig to fit and it has been known for them to require a bit of chopping about to get them to fit.

Harvey Smith polished ported and wrapped

They will bolt straight on mate.

I hope so.what do you reckon a couple of hours?

2hrs max. You fitting them or someone else?

A mate is doing the fitting i am passing the spanners and giving moral support.

i thought there would be a long list of do,s and donts.

Yeah don't break anything.

wd40 all the bolts you can see tonight. are you doing the up-pipe aswell. to remove it from the bottom. undo the o/s engine mounting and jack the engine up an inc or so

Ported and polished ? or just ported ?

Here is how to do an uppipe.

Swapping uppipe.

Drop the D/P.
Undo the bolts, headers to uppipe.
Loosen but do not remove three nuts on each header to cylinder head.
Now undo the nuts holding the uppipe. 5# in total if they are all there.
Remove U/P.
If it will not come loosen the two bolts, collector to the rest of headers/cross pipe and it will fly out.
Alternative : Least preferred option.
If it will not come out with lots of twisting, slack engine mountings. Do not totally undo. Jack engine and pipe drops out.
Try to get pipe out first before undoing mountings for engine.

To do the whole headers is only a little more work but you should not bolt the headers together on the floor before you try to fit them. Loosely fit the collector on both set of heads and leave the nuts loose then the uppipe from the collector to the turbo and leave loose at both ends, gaskets in place. It is then easy to fit the crosspipe in to position. Now go round each joint and torque up evenly, little bit at a time, so the whole assembly comes together with all flanges flush so that sealing with the gasket is easy.
In the workshop we allow 3 hours to remove headers and uppipe and replace. Sometimes it takes less but sometimes it can take longer if we have to get the gas equipement out to apply heat.
Approach each nut, bolt or stud carefully. Ensure your socket or ratchet spanner is well attached before you try to undo it because you only have one chance and an ill fitting socket or open ended spanner on a tight nut will round the nut which is the last thing you want.
As sensibly advised above apply plenty silicon penetrant, WD-40 or similar, the night before and on the morning you are about to attack the job. I suggest you let the engine run for five or ten minutes to get some heat in to the exhaust which makes it easier to crack the nuts in the first place but don't let it get so hot that the retained heat then becomes a problem to your working on the exhaust manifold components.

The up pipe was fitted a few months ago. That took us ages i hope the headers dont take so long.

I know you have done the uppipe Dave so the headers are one step on and a lot easier.

Job done nice bit of wrapping Harvey.

That must have been done by my Wife then :)
Bloody tedious job and on the tubulars there is a solid 4 hours work or more when you do each runner separately which is how it should be done !!! The ported are not too bad as they are in 3 pieces plus the uppipe.