Wow, I am mostly through this terrible mod install of Bassani shorty headers. I have to say this is the biggest pain in the butt install of any I have ever done in my life, on any car. Total aggravation. I have the passenger side in and last night also managed to wedge the driver's side in, after jacking the engine up, removing the oil tube, bending the brake lines and dropping the exhaust. I dropped one of the 8mm bolts and of course it fell inside the frame through this tiny hole that was conveniently located to drop stuff into! (I am finshing around in there with a maget right now for that yet) So, now to bolt up the driver's side. Please, anyone with experience in this install...
Do I put in the lower bolts first, then wiggle the header and gasket in there then do the top, or do the gasket and top and then start the lower bolts? Is it easier to start the bolts while the engine is jacked up yet or let it down and then proceed? Any advice would be appreciated as my goal is to finish the truck and drive by Saturday afternoon. I will have Friday night and Saturday morning to work on it, approx. 8 hours. I just need to bolt up drivers side, put exhaust back up on hangers and reinstall wheel wells. Also what tool(s) are best to tighten lower bolts on drivers side header? Upper bolts are pretty easy to get to but lower ones are hidden pretty good.

 

I can relate took me almost 10 hrs to do both sides, small hands and lots of patence. The only thing i can help you with is make sure the bottom bolts are screwed in so that the header and the gasket just slip in those bolts are very hard to get at and tighten.
Good luck. I think you will like them once they are installed and your up and running.

 

Jeff,

Sorry about not responding totally forgot. Tighten those bolts
while the truck is in the air. It is tough to tighten them just be
patient. On my truck the passenger side header was hitting
the shock mounting bolt and I had to cut it down. Did you have
to do the same. There is no easy way to do this install. This is
by far the worst install for a bolt on mod. Either this weekend
or next I will go back and retighten everything. You think losing
a bolt in frame was bad. When I was bolting the cat to the
header on the driver side, it slipped off and the nut and washer
fell in. I couldn't do that again if my life depended on it. It took
me 30 min. to fish them out. But after all was done I am pleased
with them. After seeing the stock manifolds, I can't see why
there wouldn't be any gains from them. Besides they look really
nice.

 

Thanks for the replies. Yep, on passenger side I had to cut the shock mount bolt down as well. When you say tighten the bolts when the truck is up in the air, do you mean the engine jacked up or the truck? Did you put bottom bolts on first on driver's side?

Anyone out there, know this! Headers are a real big pain of an install. I have been working on this project for over 8 hours now probably, and still have to tighten the drivers side up and reattach the wheel wells and exhaust. Defnitely not for the faint of heart. I am just plain wore out on this but it's too late to turn back now! I have installed headers on other vehicles in the past and have not had this much trouble before. Well I sure hope it's worth it, and that I like the sound! Because if I don't... well, f *** it they are staying on anyways.

 

Tighten the bolts with the engine jacked. It will give you teeny
weeny more space to work with but it still sucked to do. I put
one bottom in the very front of the engine then lined up the gasket and put one top in the back of engine then put in the
rest of bottom bolts then top and hand tighten as much as I could. I said the same thing these f---ing things are never coming
off.

 

Wow,this brings back bad memories.lol.
I installed mine bout 1.5 years ago.Took all day.I too had to cut the shock stud a bit.And I think header bolts falling into the driverside cat is standard w/ bassani's.I used a magnet tied to a string and pushed it into the cat w/ a wood dowel.
To top it off,after intall, I noticed that in overdrive @50 or so ,if I step on the gas abit w/o downshifting,it sounds like a rattlesnake under my hood.So 3 weeks later I pull them off again,both sides,to look for an exhaust leak.But there was none.I guess its cause these headers are thinner than the stock header.

Good luck
Frank

 

No offense intended but the JBA's weren't nearly this difficult. It took me and a friend about three hours to put on. The only hang up was that the EGR tube didn't line up and needed to be bent slightly. Oh yeah, it made it easier to take the starter out.

 

I would have bought the JBA's but I got such a good deal on a lightly used set of Bassani's. I have no issue with the quality of the product, they are very well made. But did they have to bend the darn pipes so that the header is so much bigger than the stock manifold? There is just no "wiggle" room to manuever hands or tools when trying to bolt these up. Live and learn I guess! I am leaving work right now to go home and get to work again on this project. Pray for me. One of my friends is coming over too. to probably laugh at my anguish. Well, dammit I am going to finish this some way, somehow!

 

Yeah, I got a great deal is the only reason why I got them.
Mine were slightly used also. Yep had to f--k with EGR tube
also it didn't line up right.

Jeff, let us now when your done and what you think.

 

HI!... WOW! It only took me 3.5 hours to install my JBA's and 1.5 hours to install my JDM/KOOKS long tubes, and that's including removing the JBA shorty's to install the LT's. I don't see why some people have such a hard time installing these headers. I thought it was quite straight forward, but I guess that's just me.

 

Those shorties are junk and a Pain in the but to install and there worth nothing for HP anyway.

Long tubes are so much easier to do.

 

i say screw LT all together, highflow cats are where its at.

but thats just my opinion, i know i'll get flamed for this too haha

 

Correct me if I am wrong. I believe the Bassani headers are equal length tubes. I believe the JBA's are not. Just from looking at pictures, it seems the Bassani's have a lot more piping bent all over the place to deal with.

Jeff, let us know how it ends up.

-Bill

 

Done! Yes, I am done with all my mods! Even better, the truck starts and runs great... I could have fallen down on the ground in rapture when I turned the key and the bad boy fired up.



Anyways, bolting up Bassani's on the drivers side is easier, at least to me? If anyone attempts this project email me and I will give you what pointers I can. Still, I think just the header install took me about 12 hours or so? (Lost track). So, now this winter I installed: JLP Ram air, reburned the chip (JLP), JLP driveshaft loop, boost bypass, PCV valve kit, PSP lower 4lb pulley, Denso IT-22's, and Bassani headers. This complements the Accufab TB and JDM Silver bullet which I previously had. Talk about biting off alot at once.

The Bassani's are not much louder than stock when just driving casually. But now with all the mods when I "get on it" the truck just screams and howls like a banshee. I have died and gone to automotive performance heaven! It was all worth it, the busted knuckles, sore neck and hours and hours of labor. I love the feeling of doing work yourself, and it works and makes a difference in the end. The difference in HP, Torque and performance is incredible. On the road last night it was so cool, I was driving not even fast (to me) and at lights everyone just disappeared into my mirrors. I opened it up on a couple empty roads and OMG it just flies. I think next I will do an electric fan kit, better pump, and a B&M tranny pan. Oh, and maybe different rims.

Thanks to all who gave advice through this process... it helped me out alot! Oh well, I'm off now to show off my bling bling to the girlfriend, taking her to a surprise birthday party today (for her!) It's also 70 degrees out, sunny and I am a happy camper!

 

Jeff, I am glad you liked them. After I did mine I loved them. They look nice under the hood. I think they are worth it. It felt stronger
running now with the mods I got. Anything is better than those
factory manifolds. All I need now is that electric fan. Have fun
and good luck with the new mod.