Are you talking about the manifolds - I know what the blinker fluid is; along with everything else. But?

Collectors ? Those would be @ the tail end of the headers.

Anyway, I used a cordless Impact on the 12/13mm Ex. Manifold nuts. BUT! - I had to wire wheel the chit out of them first in order to get a socket on them. They were pretty tricky; With some , I used 2-3 universals to loop over the frame then up in position on the passenger side. They weren't torqued that tight on mine. The studs buzzed out of the heads fairly easy. They were stainless , the nuts were not.

Same deal on the drivers side with the exception of a 1.5' extension. I was able to keep that little impact on the outside of the frame rail that way - on the D side.

 

I'm talking about the "flange" on the stock manifolds...just forward of the upstream O2 sensors. It's been a long day.

 

Oh those - The two bolts on each side. Yea , I just broke those bolts - There wasn't much left - One of them on the drivers side was so rusted - It was the same thickness as a pencil lead- looked pretty funny

 

The nuts on mine were both different sizes. I don't mean on from side to side either, but rather I need two sockets to get the driver side off and two sockets to get the passenger side off. Well actually, that's not completely true. I also used a die grinder. One nut came off on each side nicely, the other... not so nicely.

 

Yeah, one side is 14mm and the other is 15mm. Got the EGR crap out of the way...

 

So where mine ? 12mm/13mm - I used a die grinder w/wire bristle attachment. When I was done cleaning them up enough to get a socket on them; the nuts were all like cratered , like they use to have a bad acne problem or something --Nasty looking . - But they came right off

 

Progress

You having fun Jackal

I know - we suck

 

For what it's worth, mine were 13mm and 15mm.

 

No Kidden! I'm going to go check mine real quick , I know where they are - I gottuh get out of the house anyway -

Yep , thought so - 12mm/13mm.. I was board as you could tell.

I'm not as busy as Jackel must be

 

I may be slow, but you have too much time on your hands jbrew...hahahaha. I dremeled the pass. side because I couldn't get a deep socket on the bottom nut. Everything but the manifolds are long gone. I got held up 4 hours waiting on my reinforced cutting wheels to show up, so I worked on the shotgun. Had to put some Scattergun Technologies (Wilson Combat) upgrades on the ol' 870. Also spent more time under the hood. I have to drill out the old copper rods on my Troyer e-fans to mount the new style bracket. I hate those damn rods. Good time to install the new idler arm though.

The manifolds will come off tomorrow if I get started early enough. I'm suppose to leave town for most of the day tomorrow. It really looks like the pass side will go. Too close to tell without actually trying.

Is there any harm removing the heat shields all together?

Oh yeah, hand sawing that OEM stainless pipe is NOT fun. I'm sore as hell and went through 8 reinforced cut off wheels. It's in 4 pieces now. Can not believe how large / heavy those cats are. They sound liked they are full of birdshot, no wonder they do that when you turn the engine off. Had lots of sheared bolts from all the rust. The driver's side manifold studs look "good", but the pass. side is long gone.

 

when i put longtubes on i didnt put the passenger heat sheild back on... witch theres prob a good 4-5 inchs to the floor and no one has complained that the floor has gotten hott yet...

 

That's because it's still cold out. Wait til it gets warmer out. I wold leave as much of the heatshield on as possible. I had to trim some away. I only trimmed as much as needed. The flange at the collector on the driver side was rubbing and I knew it would rattle lke crazy. The headers were already torqued down so I just unbolted the front driveshaft, dropped it out of the way and went to town with a die grinder. Problem solved. 90% of heatshield still in tact.

 

The top manifold nuts on the pass. side broke loose pretty easily with a break-over bar. One of them was so corroded I had to use a 12mm socket on it.

The bottom nuts don't seem to be so easy. I don't have much access and the second most rearward nut is blocked by the motor mount plate, so I can't get a damn socket on it at all. Looks like I'll have to grind on it for a while with the crappy little Dremel. This is NOT an easy job on a 4x4.

Are these starters known to go out at a certain point? I don't see getting one replaced without removing the headers again, and that's not gonna happen.

 

Yeah, makes you wonder if you should just replace the starter now doesn't it? I chanced it and left it go.

I had an easier time getting at the nuts and studs on the passenger side than I did the driver side to remove the manifold. The sterring and crap was in the wy on the driver's side. But as far as putting the headers on, the driver's side was much easier.

 

Jackal:

Not sure your in the same position. Or that you can do it this way. - First , you need your heat shields; Shifty will find out why this summer. Built54 has reported cab heat at one time and fixed the problem. It's not only the heat, they help insulate sound.

Anyway, I seen a that the guy who did the DynaTech/Bassani install in this forum messed up cutting his O2 sensor holes in the heat shields by using the measurement method. I wanted to avoid that, so I installed the headers first/ marked the heat shields on both sides where the O2 openings need to be/at this point you can remove the heat shields and with a 2" hole saw - you can cut the openings perfectly/reinstall the heat-shields/then the sensors.

Keep in mind, you can remove the heat shields easily with just the headers installed. Also, before you remove, check the clearence. You may have to trim the shields in front, if they come in contact with headers, you don't want them to touch the headers. That would just defeat their main purpose making them heat sinks/transfers - you don't want that. Try to maintain at least an inch gap @ the front by the wheel well. Their easily trimed once removed.

BTW- When your boring your holes in the shields, make sure their clamped down well - The holes can be 2" - 2.5"/ 2" is optimum. I used a 2x8 backer board when I drilled mine