Well the time has finally come today to say good riddens to my old Mac EL headers. Those who know me well enough know that I'm always ranting about how much of a PITA equal-lengths are in general. Well here's a pictoral guide as to exactly why you shouldn't get them: 1: Your spark plug wire on cylinder #3 will ALWAYS look like this after about 6 months or so no matter how much they cost or how its positioned 2: Yes, even if you use those high-heat boot protector sleeves (this came off the plug wire pictured above, notice the huge white spot where arcing had occurred) 3: Obviously, this arcing of the plug wire onto the header will cause an occasionaly misfire, that can inevitably lead to confusion, loss of temper and mental anguish 4: How the f*** are you supposed to get this damn whale of a header in or out of its dwellings???? I hope this changes the minds of any of you who are considering buying equal-length headers, especially Mac ones. I'm replacing mine with BBK standard shorties, and so far I've got the passenger side all buttoned-up, it was ridiculously easy to install. As for the driver's side, I'm stuck. I faught with it for 4 hours trying to get it out from the top, but its not gonna happen. Tomorrow morning I will remove my X-pipe and steering shaft and try to take it out from the bottom. I hate these things so much, I want to go bash them in the head of the previous owner for putting them on in the first place
I have passed on a couple good deals on equal length headers, because I have heard so many bad things about spark plugs and the install/uninstall problems. Are those ceramic BBK's? they look purrrty! I am either goin with BBK ceramic shorties or BBK L/T's soon. If I go with the LT's I'm gonna get a Dr. Gas X too
I just went the cheaper route and got the chrome BBK's since they might not be on there very long either. I'm planning to do a turbo'ed 418 combo within the next year or two, so I didn't bother spending big bucks on ceramic. But man are they sooooo much easier to bolt on than the Macs were to unbolt. I could fasten all but one bolt using a 1/4" drive ratchet. Much easier than going at it 1/8th turn at a time with a stubby wrench...
I have ceramic coated BBK Equal lengths and have no issues at all. They were tough to install at the time but I discovered an easier way to get the passanger side installed which is usually the more difficult side to do. As for the driver's side I had to install from under the car and disconnected the steering shaft like the instructions say to do. I noticed in the picture of the header you removed that the EGR connector is on the wrong primary tube. I wonder if those were even meant to go on a 94-95 GT.
Are you hooking the EGR back up onto the new headers? When you get there, can you get a few pics and tell me what you did to hook it up. It seems that the one that came on the car is too long. I haven't really looked at it close enough to come up with a solution. BTW, as far as getting the old pass side one out......sawsall.
I was looking into getting EL headers but heard about the install and the trouble with plugs and plug wires so I went the better route and went with BBK Ceramic Long Tubes.
The old Mac header hooked the egr to the 1st primary tube for some stupid reason, and there was quite a long tube going all the way to the valve. The BBK's came with a new shorter EGR tube that fit like a glove. I'm pretty sure the old ones were for 94-95 because the egr tube also fit like a glove. Notice I cut it off though because the upper nut was stuck on there and I couldn't get it off. So I just cut the tube right below it (not shown in pics) and used a 1" deep socket and 36" breaker bar with the egr valve mounted upside-down on the intake (nut facing upwards). Piece of cake.
If you look at that second last pic, you'll see that its all hooked-up. BBK supplies a new EGR tube (thank god) that fit perfectly. I was kind of freeked-out at first when I saw it was like 1/2 the length of the one that came off it, but then I realised they use a different primary. The passenger side header was actually quite easy to take out and the new one just dropped right in. As for the driver's side, I wish I had a sawsall to take it out. But I think I can git er dunn today from the bottom.... in one piece. And the first and last bolts on the DS were a major PITA to get out. Pass side bolts were a breeze.
i liked my mac shorties unequal length....they both went in on top......sorry to hear about your trouble....
I've had my BBK EL headers for over 3 yrs and no problems what so ever. Plug wires are fine as well (Taylor 2ys old). But the mental anguish pic is funny lol.
They are a PITA to install, but I have never had any other problems with mine. Maybe it is just the design of the lower cost EL headers. My Bassanis have been great though.
Well that sucked... Well both headers are finally in. I caluculated that I spent a total of 8 hours getting the old driver's side header OUT of the car. The new BBK was bolted-in in a matter of 30 minutes. I had to first take-out the steering shaft, then remove my mid-pipe, which the previous mechanic who installed it welded the bolts at the rear flanges so they wouldn't back-out, so I had to cut those and get new ones. That would've been enough but my car is a 'vert and has that goddamn cross-brace below the K-member, and that had to come off as well for the header to slide-out. 2 of the bolts for that had to be grinded-off. Here's the bastard next to the new kid: Finally installed and all buttoned-up: Well after 2 full days of header swapping, I'm not 100% done, I still have to put the 'vert brace thingamabobber back on and tighten the mid-pipe-to-cat-back flanges which I just loosely bolted-up. But I did start the car just to make sure I put everything back on correctly, and it fired right up This was by far the hardest thing I've ever done on my car. I think an engine swap would have been quicker and easier. You long tube guys are probably laughing at me now.... I don't even want to imagine how much harder those are to put on.
I ran Mac shortie headers on my 94, no power gain what so ever. LTs are the way to go, one of the reason I enjoy obd2. Just wished they would have stuck a pushrod and not a modular with it. Dustin
Don't you need to lower the entire K-member on 4.6L cars to get any kind of header in there? That sounds like a major PITA
There are a few different ways to do the swap. I had bought a whole new tubular k member when I had the swap done. people that know what they are doing can do the swap In 6 hours give or take. I picked up a nice amount of power with my modular. Dustin
I probably wouldv'e been happy with stock manifolds that didn't leak or burn plug wires. Thats pretty much the 2 main reasons that the Mac's had to go. Plus they looked like @$$. I don't mind sacrificing the 1hp extra that the EL's are supposed to provide in exchange for having a car that doesn't misfire after 3 or 4 months on a set of wires. BTW Paul, thats looking sweet! I can't wait to see the final product
Remember how you were supposed to send those to me after you took them off? I dont know if i still want them. But maybe... lol
