Exhaust Manifolds for performance.

ewww j has the cheap pos thin bosh o2's lol. come on j with all the money in your car you could at least spring for the motor craft version lol.

LOL...whatever man they were 50 bucks EACH...if thats cheap then I wish I was rich like you.

so if you get kooks do you have to drop the k member or is it just easier that way?

You could PULL THE ENGINE. :)
 
Well what if you put it on jack stands and pulled the wheels off and took the inner fender lining off and what not? maybe then? cuz im all for some headers but i dont wanna have to have em put on by someone else ya know. then agian i dont have tho tools to pull the endine or k member
 
easiest way is going to be pull the engine cradle/Kmember.
If it were me, I would drop the engine AND the cradle.

Your gonna go thru much more work "trying" not to take the Kmember out.. and I seriously doubt it's even POSSIBLE without taking the Kmember out.

Especially since you have to lower the Kmember if you want to change the motor mounts or the rack and pinion...

Save yourself ALOT of time, headache and scraped knuckles and just drop the engine and Kmember out the bottom.
 
Well what if you put it on jack stands and pulled the wheels off and took the inner fender lining off and what not? maybe then? cuz im all for some headers but i dont wanna have to have em put on by someone else ya know. then agian i dont have tho tools to pull the endine or k member

So you think taking the rubber fender liners off makes the engine magically appear? :) There is a HUGE metal strut tower on each side that attaches to the front sub frame. There is NO way to access the bolts to the stock manifolds without pulling the engine or dropping the K-member.

If it were me, I would drop the engine AND the cradle.

Why would you add the time of removing the drive shaft, trans cross member, the engine harness to the battery, the radiator hoses, the power steering lines, the steering shaft, all the fluids that are involved in removing the various parts, ON TOP of removing the exhaust, the suspension, and the calipers.

It took me about 8 hours to complete the job IN MY GARAGE. It would take twice as long to do it that way. :)

and I seriously doubt it's even POSSIBLE without taking the Kmember out.

+1 there! I bet you could install the headers, but getting the stock ones out is not possible.

Save yourself ALOT of time, headache and scraped knuckles and just drop the engine and Kmember out the bottom.

I say just drop the K member....but hey, its up to you. You have my write-up to follow, if you want to add hours of labor to remove the engine with the K-member, then lift the engine OFF of the k member to remove and install the headers be my guest. :)
 
Well I replaced my exhaust manifolds with engine in car. First I have Aviator ones in and they did not work with the setup so I installed the Cobra ones (good to 600HP, screw headers). It was not hard, just tricky. I had to use two setups of ratchet wrenches. One large 1/2" drive, one small 1/4" drive and I think one regular socket and one deep. if I recall they are 13mm?

Anyway. I had them out and new ones in quickly but the exhaust was dropped at all points but the muffler hangers. Also, with the Mark's driver's side it may help to cut it off between the manifold and cat to allow more room.

Otherwise hang/brace the engine and drop JUST the member as J says, its the way to go and not hard to do.
 
To remove maybe a half hour. Install went faster since I figured out where to approach each stud with what. Some came out from working below, some from working a top by reaching in from the front of the engine bay. Also I had a huge ass coolant hose in my way, the Mark does not have that, its more in the front of the engine.

I had no way to support the engine and thus drop the K. So I HAD to figure out how to do this after reading is was "not possible". Well, it was. Oh, I did lose some blood :)
 
It took me about 8 hours to complete the job IN MY GARAGE. It would take twice as long to do it that way. :)

you must work very slow.. because we took the engine trans and K member out of two cars and put the engine trans and Kmember back into one car in less than 8 hours.

completely stripped two cars and put one back together in less time than you installed "headers"..

dont quit your day job J
(grins)
 
Here is a pic of the engine bay so you can see it is not one of those go thru the inner fenderwell applications. My engine was lowered into the bay and then the Kooks Headers snaked in and the engine rolled to get both sides to clear. The peanut style header bolts were also used instead of other brands.
 

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I had no way to support the engine and thus drop the K. So I HAD to figure out how to do this after reading is was "not possible". Well, it was. Oh, I did lose some blood :)

Are the Aviator manifolds the same, cuz I don't see how you can access the manifold nuts/bolts without moving a bunch of junk.

you must work very slow.. because we took the engine trans and K member out of two cars and put the engine trans and Kmember back into one car in less than 8 hours.

I LOVE how you say we....I'm sure if I had an extra hand I could have been faster too.

Swapping engines is a different story. I seen your post....hmm, unbolt both K-members and trans cross members, undo the hoses and the main harness and it comes out. Ya...thats pretty simple and you can't compare it to installing headers....expecially with more than one person.

A matter of "modifying" something is different, not to mention I ran to the parts store, swapped out P/S pumps (and pulley) and installed a new motor mount. Its all in my thread.
 
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The Aviator manifolds are the basically the same, but the knuckle block the steering shaft 100%. The Cobra ones shift it to the outside more for clearance.
 
Sorry to bring up a dead thread, if anybody checks this though, i have a clogged drivers cat. Its on a 97 mark viii, and the cat and manifold is one piece, so i'm looking for something to replace it that might be more high performance. Dennis Reinhart refered me to a miami shop but i doubt i'll have the money for something really nice and custom, since they do mandrel. Any suggestions will be very appreciated though.
 
If you are financially challenged, drop down that pipe and using a rod, chop through the crap inside the CAT and strart car with that pipe still down...blow out the junk and then put pipe back up.....you might have saved yourself some bucks.

If you have an immissions program, take it in and if it fails (it might not), then you will have $ saved to do whatever you want to do.....
 
now about those cats, im wanting to do away with all of them, this will trigger a code for the O2 sensors, i know theres a chip for mustangs to bypass it, will this work on the Marks? if anyone is running non-cats with the C-E light off, please chime in
 
I put Cobra manifolds on the '96 and have no cats, no EGR and no CEL.

I have an SCT chip.
 
since you have that motor out, i would personally recommend changing those heater core hoses before you put it back in.. they are a serious PITA to do
 
how much was the SCT chip? is that the programmer that keeps the CEL off?

new blanks are 220.00 dollars
tuned chips are priced at whatver the SCT dealer wants to charge for the tune.
the chip would have to be custom programmed by an SCT dealer to do what you want.. or you could buy the hardware and the software (<--expensive) and burn the chip yourself.

your better off in the short term/cheaper having an SCT dealer make you a chip.
 
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