67 Fairlane GTA 390 Headers

[amdscooter]

Well things are moving along albeit outta order and slowly. I had planned on dropping the engine in whole but a few signals got crossed and I did not think the heads were coming back soon so I installed the block minus the heads yesterday. I was really jazzed and surprised when my buddy stopped by and dropped off the heads today. He did a great job for me and only charged for parts, the shop/machine time he had to rent and gas. I got about $1,600 worth of head work for just over $300 cash. Did a dry run getting the FPA headers into position ahead of installing the heads tomorrow. Got the passenger side roughly in place without much issue. Drivers side is going to be a bugger. I wrestled it for about 3.5 hours. Jacked the car up and tried from the bottom.. no dice. The steering box area is a lot tighter than I thought. Disconnected the driver side motor mount at the stud and was able to lift the block about an inch with the cherry picker.. still no go but closer. Going to try disconnecting both motor mounts tomorrow and hopefully I can get enough play with the tranny still bolted up to get it dropped into position. Honestly, had I any idea it was going to be this tight I would have laid them in there as I was putting the block in place. I'm beat up and extremely tired. Doing all this in my driveway with limited space and it's really kicking my arse. Supposed to rain here on Monday so big push tomorrow to get the headers in and get the hood back on the car. I'd love to get to the point where I can get the heads in for a mock-up on the headers to identify any clearance issues and see how the intake aligns. Anyone has advise I'd love to hear it.

[jayb]

Hmmm, you probably won't like my advice    Pull the short block and trans back out, bolt on the heads, bolt on the driver's side header, put the engine and trans in so its about 6" off the mounts, then bolt on the passenger side header and drop the engine/trans the rest of the way in.  I think it will save you time in the long run.

[amdscooter]

Hmmm, you probably won't like my advice    Pull the short block and trans back out, bolt on the heads, bolt on the driver's side header, put the engine and trans in so its about 6" off the mounts, then bolt on the passenger side header and drop the engine/trans the rest of the way in.  I think it will save you time in the long run.

I'd give that a try If I could. Simply no space for pulling the block and trans at the same time so it's been in there all along. Good times getting the back of the block aligned to the bell housing in the car.  Two words come to mind to describe it.. and neither of them is fun. I'm short space and equipment and I knew it'd take a toll in both time and by poor aching back. But it is what it is and I've gotta work with what I have. Hopefully the sun will shine tomorrow and removing the 8 bolts securing the motor mounts to the frame will give me enough space to get the drivers side in past the steering box.  Thanks for your advise.. wish i could take it. 

[bartlett]

good luck ...

I could not get the engine and tranny headers on at the same time... I try'ed pretty hard.... It must go in engine with drivers header on 90%, passanger header installed last 10% , then tranny install .... Thats the only way I could do it .... I fought the same as you ... 

[amdscooter]

^^^Back into it today... and I'll take every bit of that luck! Did you ever get those pics online anywhere? I sure could use some samples of what the clearance looks like after a successful install from both under and over. Passenger side looks like it's going to have issues with the frame rail and it's not even on the head yet.

Thanks
-scott

[bartlett]

no frame rail problems at all .... I thought the same thing, it should be fine.   I will chage my camera batt for a bit and take some now.  just to help ya out .... 

[bartlett]

Real hard to get any good pictures ... hopfully you got good news today ..

[amdscooter]

^^^ Thanks for the photos. Yupper.. gottem in today with a few things still to work out. From the looks of it yours took a lot less of a beating than mine did. Honestly I'm ashamed to say I scratched the hell outta my nice finish getting them in.. but I'm darn glad they are in. At first I was thinking it's a shame they are so well tucked in there as no one will be able to see them.. now it's kinda a good thing. I'll probably have to dimple one tube on the drivers side as it still touches the shock tower at cylinder  #6 just barely.


Other than that I had 2 other issues that you might be able to help out with. By far the biggest issue remaining is the power steering cylinder. Even with the drop down bracket the cylinder still hits the header... no way the end of the piston is getting in that hole:

Yours looks much lower and the header seems to drop down behind the cylinder.

Lastly is the transmission cooler lines on the passanger side... the lines are smack up against the header and pressed against the side of the oil pan as well.

Might be able to get away with just putting some new bends in there... not sure yet.

Other than that the starter cable is going to have to be re-routed. But they are in and I'm in a much better exhausted state tonight than I was last night. Already emailed Stan to see if he had any ideas for the power steering and tran lines. The heads are in and torqued. the headers are in with nearly all the bolts in finger tight at least. I tossed the intake and valve covers on to get an idea what it'll look like done.


Hopefully when the rain passes I'll be able to complete the mock up and ensure the intake and head ports line up. If they do I get to drop in the lifters.. install the push rods and rocker assemblies. Hopefully there are semi-easy fixes for my 2 main issues so I can wrap this thing up and get it over to the muffler shop soon.

Anyone have advise or experience with these hood hinges? I've had them off for over a month and now they don't want to compress all the way with the springs on. I had to take the springs off to get the hood fully closed. Kinda vexed but too tired to mess with it tonight. i just left the springs swinging from the rear and closed shop. 

[bartlett]

progress is good ...

your running differant heads so things might be a little off,

  I took this picture for you,

[amdscooter]

progress is good ...

your running differant heads so things might be a little off,

  I took this picture for you,

Yup.. there seems to be a difference for sure. It looks as if your headers drop behind the ram and mine drop right over the cylinder itself. I'll have to take another long look at it tomorrow. thanks a lot for the pics.. every lil bit helps.

[amdscooter]

Bartlett could I impose on your generosity for a few more pics? Specifically could you turn your steering wheel all the way to the right and get a shot that shows how much clearance you have between the top of the power steering cylinder and the bottom of your header? In the pic above I can see that the ram clears by a decent margin but cannot tell how much the cylinder clears by or where it actually passes under the header.

One other request.. could you get a shot of your transmission lines and how/where they clear your header? Mine are smack dab on the header and that interference has the lines pressed hard against the oil pan as well.

Thanks again for your help! 

[bartlett]

Ill snap the steering pic ... My tranny lines are not stock so that wont work for ya ....

[amdscooter]

^^ Thanks.. and if you would not mind go ahead and snap a shot of the trans lines anyway. I'm going to have to deal with that issue as well pretty soon and I suspect a change of lines is in order.. that header is not moving. I'm open to ideas.

I pushed my wheels to the left and was able to get the shaft in the drop down adapter. But as I suspected I cannot turn to the right at all as the cylinder hits the header. I have not heard back from Stan at FPA yet. I'm not sure what the answer is going to be.. perhaps a longer drop down shaft?

[bartlett]

to late on the tranny lines ... maybe tomara ..   


This area was a concern for me, Its very tight and I was afraid of the boot burning up so I pushed the boot back for the time being.  I had good clearance straight but it just rubbed when full right. My lines also rubbed the drop down bracket. I had to loosen the lines and rotate them for clearance. That was easy.  Tonight while snapping a pic I took the time to clearance the header some with a hammer (not a show car so Im not to worried about it) I got a good 1/4 " now and am happy with that area. I will redo some undercoating on that area now to clean it up some ... 

 Im wondering if you dont have your motor mounts flip flopped. maybe a good thing to check....

[amdscooter]

to late on the tranny lines ... maybe tomara ..   


This area was a concern for me, Its very tight and I was afraid of the boot burning up so I pushed the boot back for the time being.  I had good clearance straight but it just rubbed when full right. My lines also rubbed the drop down bracket. I had to loosen the lines and rotate them for clearance. That was easy.  Tonight while snapping a pic I took the time to clearance the header some with a hammer (not a show car so Im not to worried about it) I got a good 1/4 " now and am happy with that area. I will redo some undercoating on that area now to clean it up some ... 

 Im wondering if you dont have your motor mounts flip flopped. maybe a good thing to check....

Thanks for that pic. Just double checked the motor mounts and they are on the correctly and the right sides. I guess I'll just have to wait for Stan over at FPA to reply. Only soloution I can think of is a lower drop bracket or one that brings the cylinder forward. I don't think I can beat that tube flat enough to get the clearance I'm missing. Thanks in advance for the trans line photos.