Chewpa

Over the past weekend I installed these Bassani equal length headers into my Mustang. Total time was bout 35hours due to the tight clearances and a 2 minor mistakes.</P>


This pic below is the complete kit which includes 1 5/8" tubes, collector, fasteners etc and the pipes are HTC coated btw

Here is the old exhaust manifold in my hands

This pic is after the headers were installed.</P>



The next 2 pics are under the car and just behind the collector, I used a combo of stock studs and nuts and the supplied bolts from the kit.
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This last pic is a side by side comparison of the old stock manifold and the headers....HUGE difference!
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I had to get a custom weld job and finally got to romp down on it! It has a much more throaty sound to it but still purrrsss like a kitten. The exhaust from the Headers all the way to the tailpipes is all Bassani 2.5" stainless steal system including X-pipe.</P>

Dan04COBRA

What did you have to remove to instal these?</P>


Any tips or suggestions?</P>

Chewpa

Remove the starter, loosen the motor mounts, unbolt the steering column, remove the dipstick. I used a block of wood and a floor jack to lift the engine about 4". I also used ramps instead of jack-stands to liftthe car about 9" or so.It is very tight clearances but with a skilled mech and the proper tools, you dont have to remove the K-member or A-frame. A nice 1/4 drive set and 3/8 drive set sockets comes in very handy. I used snap-on combo wrenches for the length and knife edges...they can squeeze into some very tight spots. I also wrapped the starter in a heat shield and punched grommets out on the material and sewed it altogether using 0.32" lock wire. I have very small hands and it was a pain the *** job but hey, its a weekend project and it all went in...vroom vroom! Any other questions feel free to ask!</P>


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lpstang

how long did it take ya after everything was said and done?

Jugador1

he said 35 hours...makes shorty headers seem a whole lot better! lol. but seriously, i hear of people switching from long tubes to shorties because of a loss of torque...(i know those arent long tubes, but im just saying that i might believe shorties to be the best header for the minor modder)

Chewpa

It was 35 hours for me but I studied the instructions and mapped out exactly how to approach this project. I handled everything as carefully as possible not to make a single mistake but of course it happens...i had to tap an exhaust thread and then again on one of the motor mounts. All the bolts should go in finger tight and shouldnt bind at all, in both cases it was a tight fit and I used a socket to threadone of them in there and it cross-threaded. In both casestacked on more time for the project. FYI I didnt make the same mistake twice, the motor mount was in hand tight but the hydraulic jack lost pressure slowly and the engine weight twisted the bolt and jammed the threads.

jeep45238

I also have a feeling that the heat sheild for the starte played a decent part in the time to install.

Chewpa

This is just an update. After test driving my headers and listening to every noise comming from under the hood I did notice an annoying crunching sound which I found to be caused by this motor mount heat shield on the passenger side. I discovered this by contacting Bassani in which im the 2nd person to have had this problem, the other was a 2003 Mustang. Below is a pic of the passenger side motor mount heat shield which may need to be removed to silence the crunchy from acceleration slow or fast.</P>


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95Stealth302

Take that heat shield off and just put some heat rap around that side if its that important, probably not though.

tchamber

Wow, looks nice. I cant believe the stock 2002GT doesnt come with headers, my 95 did.