It’s been a while since the last update, don’t worry you’ll see a slew of posts coming. This was after the engine mount bolt break, but finally got to the next step after tightening down the whole driveline. The headers I ordered from Factory Five have catalytic convertors installed at the collector. Here’s a pic of the header as I shipped them out to Jet-Hot to get them coated. They’re well built, nice welds, and it was almost a shame to have them coated – but I wanted to keep heat in the engine bay to a minimum.
After our debacle of replacing the engine mount, we opted to do an easier of the two headers – the passenger side. But you know, if it’s bound to happen – it will!
2 bolts were fastened at first, just to hold everything in place. I didn’t torque them down but use them to hold things together. I proceeded to do 5 more bolts and got them all screwed in but not torque. Then the last bolt (rear upper) started in just fine, and it’s harder to see so I but my socket on it and started tightening down. This last bolt was mis-aligned a bit and started cross threading… (insert sad/mad face here) so I pulled it all out and we determined (along with the local Sacramento Factory Five clan) that it was time to tap the hole…
My son and I have never tapped a hole before, let along on a brand new aluminum coyote head- so we tested on a scrap piece of 1/4″ aluminum I have laying around. Once we determined that the hole was perfect, he replicated the same process on the engine. We use cutting oil to ease the cutting, and it also helps remove debris. We used a beer tap plug (from a beer tap!) to clean out all the debris, it worked great!
We used a 10mm x 1.25 Metric Tap Left Hand Thread M10 x 1.25mm Pitch to re-cut the threads. Now the threads were all cleaned out – we very carefully reinstalled the header. Whew!
It’s been a grind, but one side installed!
