EXHAUST (Part 2 of 6)
The passenger side manifold arrived first, so I started my my pipe fit-up on that side. I attached the headpipe to the manifold and snugged up the flange with plain stud nuts so that the flared end of the pipe was flush with the manifold outlet (best not to use locknuts just yet, wait until everything has been fit up). I left it loose enough so I could adjust the direction of the pipe once under the truck. I guided the assembly into the engine compartment and secured the manifold to the head by snugging up three bolts, two outer and a center. I then went to take a look at what was happening underneath the truck and the pic below shows what I saw.
Hmm…now what…I e-mailed a notice to both Holley (they own Hooker) and Summit (the vendor) describing what I encountered. More on this later.
While I was figuring out what to do about the droopy headpipe, I went on to the rest of the kit. I don’t have a welder (which may be blessing or curse depending on the situation). So I was thinking I’d clamp the pipe joints and find some way to use fasteners to attach the hangers to the frame. Six hangers are required, three for each pipe run. I got out my C-clamp collection and began to search for good frame attachment points. I hoped I could find holes in the locations where I needed a hanger. I did find a couple for the rear hangers, but I was unable to find existing holes suitable for the others. I had no desire whatsoever to drill through the frame.
During the initial fit-up, I had a hard time keeping the pipe and mufflers from flopping around, falling and generally behaving in an unruly manner. So I made up a pair of wood saddles for the mufflers and set them on a crossbeam and used a lot of wire and clamps plus the hardware in the kit to secure sections of pipe and that helped a lot.