Jeepwx03
Well-Known Member
- Thread starter
- #1
First this is not a guide by which to install your headers, only my experience and lessons learned. I did this by myself with jack stands.
What was installed:
ARH catted H-pipe long system with ARH axle backs.
JLT CAI
Steeda transmission bushing
New Ford Exhaust Gaskets
New Ford 30mm plug, my JLT kit came with one but I had already purchased the Ford part (sound tube hole)
Sound tube removal
Total Time:
20-21 hours over 3 days
Location:
I did this in my 20x24 garage
I had a kerosene heater to keep the garage at around 60-70 degrees
Suggested Tools:
Impact gun
Straight ratchet wrenches
Swivel ratchet wrenches
Swivel socket driver
U-joint sockets
Wobble socket extension
Lots of regular extensions
Reverse torx socket
Assortment of sockets
02 wrench or socket
Long flat head screw driver
Intro
I watched the CJ pony parts install video a couple times to get myself familiar with what I needed to do. I also left the browser open the entire install in case I needed to reference a specific part of the install. This seemed to save a bit of time as I did not have to find the part of the video I needed as I usually paused it where I was at that point in the installation. They do not cover everything you need to know but it is a good starting point for sure.
I started out by removing all of the factory intake system. I did this prior to putting the car on jack stands as it was easier than using a small stool to get to everything. This opened up a large part of the driver’s side exhaust header. I was able to remove the top two forward bolts at this time. I also unbolted the steering column from inside the car at this time.
I put the car on 4 6 ton jack stands. I picked up a new set on sale at Harbor Freight. I went with 6 ton to try and get a little more height compared to using my 3 tons. I was trying to pick good jack points as I am always nervous when under car on stands, a car falling on you would suck. There are two bolts where the front sub frame bolts to the uni-body. I put the stands right in front of those bolts. I could have put them in between and been a little happier, but the jack was in the way so I went with where it was. The rear was a little trickier. I found a small crevasse in the rear sub frame the stands fit right into, they were a little more inboard then I would have liked, but it was safe.
Unhook negative battery cable
Passenger Side Header removal:
Now the frustrating part, the passenger side header removal. The video tells you to remove the starter and motor mount to make more room and it is absolutely correct. You need to support the engine when removing the motor mount which puts a floor jack right in the way of where my creeper would go. I thought I would remove the starter first so I could have a little more time on the creeper. This was just waste of time as I could not get to the top bolt on the starter. There may be a way with the right combination of tools, but I couldn't figure it out. What the video did not mention when removing the motor mount is you need to remove the top nut from the rubber mount that hold the cast piece of metal to rubber part. I tried to remove the entire assembly at once to save time, this saved me no time only cost me time. I had to put the assembly back into place after I fought with it and then remove the top nut. I was able to get to the top nut from the engine bay with a bunch of extensions. I also was able to get to both bolts holding the motor mount to the frame. Once I did this I was able to follow the video with no issues. I then could get to all the bolts for the starter. I then had to remove all the nuts from the header. Most of them are easy with the exception of the top front nut. This is very difficult as the AC lines and wire harness are in the way. I removed the wheel, wire harness nut from the bottom of the frame that has a plastic clip helping with alignment, a wire harness nut from the shock tower, removed the positive from the battery, and a ground wire that was in that wire harness. I was able to move this a little out of the way. It was still very difficult and took about 1.5-2 hours all said and done to get the nut off. I used a straight ratchet wrench which took some time, but worked. I will talk about what I did different when installing the ARH header that seemed to work better when I get to that section. That solution may have worked if I had tried to remove it this way. I also had to remove some of the studs with the reverse torx socket to get the stock header out, but I cannot recall which ones I removed. Before trying to remove the header I had to disconnect the O2 sensor from the header by reaching down from the top along the battery box. I did not have to remove the battery box, but this could vary depending on the size of your hands as it is a tight squeeze. After the header was out I was unsure how many of the studs to remove as I’ve ready some that have used all the studs to secure the new headers and some that have not. I would recommend removing all the studs but the top front which I will explain in the installation of the ARH in the next section.
Passenger Side ARH Header Installation:
I had purchased some harbor freight wobble extensions and swivel ratchet wrenches for this step, I would suggest this for the removal as well. I would not suggest the harbor freight swivel ratchet wrenches as they did not hold the swivel location well and would move, the more expensive craftsman or snap on would probably not do this. I had left a couple of the studs in place thinking this will be fine as I had read others had reused the studs. I also put the new exhaust gasket on and threaded on the nuts loosely as the ARH header had a slotted flange for the headers making it easy to slide the headers over the bolts and nuts on the top as they were harder to get to. I made the mistake of leaving one of the bolts out of the top back hole and this was difficult to thread on as the gasket has extra pieces of metal that were to keep the gasket in place while there was no headers installed. I had to remove the header to start the new bolt. The big issue I ran into using the studs is the top second from the rear stud. I had already had the nut threaded on, but the stud was so close to the header I could not slide the ratchet wrench in between the header and the end of the stud. This forced me to either remove the entire header again or use the open end of the wrench. I had already had 6 or the 8 bolts/nuts tightened so I chose to use the open end of the wrench. This went well for 75% of the process until the nut got to close to the header flange that I could not get any turns on the nut. I had to modify one of my cheap open end wrenches with the grinder to finish up the job. Hind sight I would suggest just using all the bolts except for the top front as CJPP video suggests. Now onto what I did differently to tighten the top front bolt. Only do this at your own risk as I was pretty nervous the entire time I was doing it. I used a large pry bar to slightly bend the AC light out of the way of the nut. I was able to then get a deep well socket on the nut with a U joint adapter directly on the socket and some wobble extensions. I was able to get a good angle of approach from the wheel well with the tire removed, this was much easier than the removal process. Through-out the process I had to use the floor jack to raise and lower the engine to be able to get to different bolts. I had to use the O2 extension provided in the kit and plugged it in from the top and dropped it down, added some anti-seize to the 02 sensor. I reversed the process installing the starter then the motor mount.
Drivers Side Header removal and installation:
With my abundance of knowledge gained from the passenger side, I moved onto the driver side. Confident that this side will be easier because there is more room and I learned some things from the other side. I removed the tire for more room. I removed the torx bolt and shifted the steering out of the way and started removing nuts. I removed the motor mount, I was able to get the nut and front bolt form the top and the rear bolt from under the car. Everything went very smooth. I kept the two studs on the top front as I was able to get to them very easily from the engine bay, I removed the rest of the studs. I used the bolts for the rest of the header installation making sure to install the header gasket before installing the top bolts. I also added the nuts to the top front studs before installing the header. The header went on easy and I installed 1 bolt in the bottom to hold it in place. I had issues getting 1 bolt threaded and started to get concerned about cross threading I was having that much of an issue. I ended up removing the header and threading the bolt on without the header in place. I did have some issue but did get it threaded in. While ding this a piece of metal fell into my eye, I had eye glasses on but safety glasses would have been better. This is the only time I had issues with things falling. I was able to remove the metal piece with no damage to my eye. Moral, I would suggest safety glasses at least during this part of the header installation. I know I don’t work as well with more stuff hanging off my face, but this could have been much worse than it was. I re installed the header and tried the difficult bolt first, I was still having issues. After a few breaks of laying under the car staring at the problem area thinking many profanities in my head, as my 5 year old daughter was sitting in hear chair next to the car coloring and telling me jokes, I started violently shaking the header while trying to carefully thread the bolt in. This worked!! It was all downhill from here. I tightened everything up. I did have some issues installing the motor mount. I installed the rubber section and threading in the bolts a little, leaving them lose as I thought I could have some issues getting the cast piece onto it while it was in place. I noticed that there was not enough room in between the header and the rubber motor mount threads to slide the thick cast piece over top of it. I jacked the motor up as high as it would go, still not enough room. I removed the rubber motor mount part and installed the cast piece onto it outside of the car, I left the assembly very loose to give more flexibility when installing. It took some maneuvering but I was able to get it in this way. I got all the cast pieces bolts threaded in and tightened down and then did the same to the rubber piece. Lowered the engine and tightened the nut on the assembly, worked perfect. I installed the steering column after this, I was having issues getting it to slide the entire way on to the rack. I went into the car and noticed the collar I unbolted at the beginning had turned 180 degrees. I rotated this, hearing the steering call off the rack, and threaded the small bolts onto the collar holding it in place. I was concerned that I may have some issues getting the steering back onto the rack with the collar in place like it was, but there was no issue. I installed the 02 and re-installed the tire.
Rest of the exhaust:
This was a little harder than I thought it was going to be, but still nowhere near as hard as the header installation. In the CJPP video it shows installing the cats then the mid pipes. I noticed in the video that he struggled a bit sliding the mid pipe on the cats because of the angle of the pipes. I assumed I would have some issues and thought about installing the cats on the mid pipe first then sliding that assembly onto the headers. Side note, make sure you install your clamps first and pay attention to how you put them on so you can easily get an air gun on them. One thing that the video did not mention is in which direction to install the mid pipe. I watched closely and it shows the longer side going towards the driver side with the 02 bungs facing upwards. I tried to install the pipes how the video suggested, but quickly changed my approach to installing the cats onto the mid pipe. I still had some issues as the one cat was having issues sliding onto the header. I aggressively moved the pipes around a bit with one cat on one side and doing the same to the other and it seem to open the holes just a little bit to make the installation a little easier. I installed the 02 sensors and tried to plug in the extensions. I found out that the extensions for the rear 02 sensors did not have the same plug as the OEM. There are little wings that do not line up. I thought I was going to have to shave the wings off the OEM connector but I removed the OEM connector from is factory location and the wire was long enough to clip into the o2 sensor without he extension. I have not notified ARH of this yet, but plan to. I moved onto the pipes connecting the axle backs to the mid pipe. I installed them, and they seemed to make the assembly very heavy as there is no exhaust mounts in this section of the system. I took them off and installed the axle backs. Make sure you install the axle backs as far forward on the mounts as possible otherwise the axle back and mid pipe will not stay connected. I started tightening up the clamps from the header back trying to push up on the exhaust with my free arm and my legs. I was already pretty beat down from the other 2 days of rolling around on the ground, but I got this part done. Everything lines up pretty well, but I noticed the one exhaust tip was a little off, so I went back under and loosened the clamp and pushed a little harder and it’s pretty much perfect now.
In closing
I hope this write up helps some that decided to read it. I know there was different ways to do things, probably better than I did, so please make suggestions to help everyone out and make the install a little less painless. I think it would have went much quicker with a helper for tool grabbing, jack operation, another set of eyes, and another set of muscles when mine were fatigued from holding my arms up for so long.
Extra
I recorded a video when I only had the headers installed, enjoy
[ame]
What was installed:
ARH catted H-pipe long system with ARH axle backs.
JLT CAI
Steeda transmission bushing
New Ford Exhaust Gaskets
New Ford 30mm plug, my JLT kit came with one but I had already purchased the Ford part (sound tube hole)
Sound tube removal
Total Time:
20-21 hours over 3 days
Location:
I did this in my 20x24 garage
I had a kerosene heater to keep the garage at around 60-70 degrees
Suggested Tools:
Impact gun
Straight ratchet wrenches
Swivel ratchet wrenches
Swivel socket driver
U-joint sockets
Wobble socket extension
Lots of regular extensions
Reverse torx socket
Assortment of sockets
02 wrench or socket
Long flat head screw driver
Intro
I watched the CJ pony parts install video a couple times to get myself familiar with what I needed to do. I also left the browser open the entire install in case I needed to reference a specific part of the install. This seemed to save a bit of time as I did not have to find the part of the video I needed as I usually paused it where I was at that point in the installation. They do not cover everything you need to know but it is a good starting point for sure.
I started out by removing all of the factory intake system. I did this prior to putting the car on jack stands as it was easier than using a small stool to get to everything. This opened up a large part of the driver’s side exhaust header. I was able to remove the top two forward bolts at this time. I also unbolted the steering column from inside the car at this time.
I put the car on 4 6 ton jack stands. I picked up a new set on sale at Harbor Freight. I went with 6 ton to try and get a little more height compared to using my 3 tons. I was trying to pick good jack points as I am always nervous when under car on stands, a car falling on you would suck. There are two bolts where the front sub frame bolts to the uni-body. I put the stands right in front of those bolts. I could have put them in between and been a little happier, but the jack was in the way so I went with where it was. The rear was a little trickier. I found a small crevasse in the rear sub frame the stands fit right into, they were a little more inboard then I would have liked, but it was safe.
Unhook negative battery cable
Passenger Side Header removal:
Now the frustrating part, the passenger side header removal. The video tells you to remove the starter and motor mount to make more room and it is absolutely correct. You need to support the engine when removing the motor mount which puts a floor jack right in the way of where my creeper would go. I thought I would remove the starter first so I could have a little more time on the creeper. This was just waste of time as I could not get to the top bolt on the starter. There may be a way with the right combination of tools, but I couldn't figure it out. What the video did not mention when removing the motor mount is you need to remove the top nut from the rubber mount that hold the cast piece of metal to rubber part. I tried to remove the entire assembly at once to save time, this saved me no time only cost me time. I had to put the assembly back into place after I fought with it and then remove the top nut. I was able to get to the top nut from the engine bay with a bunch of extensions. I also was able to get to both bolts holding the motor mount to the frame. Once I did this I was able to follow the video with no issues. I then could get to all the bolts for the starter. I then had to remove all the nuts from the header. Most of them are easy with the exception of the top front nut. This is very difficult as the AC lines and wire harness are in the way. I removed the wheel, wire harness nut from the bottom of the frame that has a plastic clip helping with alignment, a wire harness nut from the shock tower, removed the positive from the battery, and a ground wire that was in that wire harness. I was able to move this a little out of the way. It was still very difficult and took about 1.5-2 hours all said and done to get the nut off. I used a straight ratchet wrench which took some time, but worked. I will talk about what I did different when installing the ARH header that seemed to work better when I get to that section. That solution may have worked if I had tried to remove it this way. I also had to remove some of the studs with the reverse torx socket to get the stock header out, but I cannot recall which ones I removed. Before trying to remove the header I had to disconnect the O2 sensor from the header by reaching down from the top along the battery box. I did not have to remove the battery box, but this could vary depending on the size of your hands as it is a tight squeeze. After the header was out I was unsure how many of the studs to remove as I’ve ready some that have used all the studs to secure the new headers and some that have not. I would recommend removing all the studs but the top front which I will explain in the installation of the ARH in the next section.
Passenger Side ARH Header Installation:
I had purchased some harbor freight wobble extensions and swivel ratchet wrenches for this step, I would suggest this for the removal as well. I would not suggest the harbor freight swivel ratchet wrenches as they did not hold the swivel location well and would move, the more expensive craftsman or snap on would probably not do this. I had left a couple of the studs in place thinking this will be fine as I had read others had reused the studs. I also put the new exhaust gasket on and threaded on the nuts loosely as the ARH header had a slotted flange for the headers making it easy to slide the headers over the bolts and nuts on the top as they were harder to get to. I made the mistake of leaving one of the bolts out of the top back hole and this was difficult to thread on as the gasket has extra pieces of metal that were to keep the gasket in place while there was no headers installed. I had to remove the header to start the new bolt. The big issue I ran into using the studs is the top second from the rear stud. I had already had the nut threaded on, but the stud was so close to the header I could not slide the ratchet wrench in between the header and the end of the stud. This forced me to either remove the entire header again or use the open end of the wrench. I had already had 6 or the 8 bolts/nuts tightened so I chose to use the open end of the wrench. This went well for 75% of the process until the nut got to close to the header flange that I could not get any turns on the nut. I had to modify one of my cheap open end wrenches with the grinder to finish up the job. Hind sight I would suggest just using all the bolts except for the top front as CJPP video suggests. Now onto what I did differently to tighten the top front bolt. Only do this at your own risk as I was pretty nervous the entire time I was doing it. I used a large pry bar to slightly bend the AC light out of the way of the nut. I was able to then get a deep well socket on the nut with a U joint adapter directly on the socket and some wobble extensions. I was able to get a good angle of approach from the wheel well with the tire removed, this was much easier than the removal process. Through-out the process I had to use the floor jack to raise and lower the engine to be able to get to different bolts. I had to use the O2 extension provided in the kit and plugged it in from the top and dropped it down, added some anti-seize to the 02 sensor. I reversed the process installing the starter then the motor mount.
Drivers Side Header removal and installation:
With my abundance of knowledge gained from the passenger side, I moved onto the driver side. Confident that this side will be easier because there is more room and I learned some things from the other side. I removed the tire for more room. I removed the torx bolt and shifted the steering out of the way and started removing nuts. I removed the motor mount, I was able to get the nut and front bolt form the top and the rear bolt from under the car. Everything went very smooth. I kept the two studs on the top front as I was able to get to them very easily from the engine bay, I removed the rest of the studs. I used the bolts for the rest of the header installation making sure to install the header gasket before installing the top bolts. I also added the nuts to the top front studs before installing the header. The header went on easy and I installed 1 bolt in the bottom to hold it in place. I had issues getting 1 bolt threaded and started to get concerned about cross threading I was having that much of an issue. I ended up removing the header and threading the bolt on without the header in place. I did have some issue but did get it threaded in. While ding this a piece of metal fell into my eye, I had eye glasses on but safety glasses would have been better. This is the only time I had issues with things falling. I was able to remove the metal piece with no damage to my eye. Moral, I would suggest safety glasses at least during this part of the header installation. I know I don’t work as well with more stuff hanging off my face, but this could have been much worse than it was. I re installed the header and tried the difficult bolt first, I was still having issues. After a few breaks of laying under the car staring at the problem area thinking many profanities in my head, as my 5 year old daughter was sitting in hear chair next to the car coloring and telling me jokes, I started violently shaking the header while trying to carefully thread the bolt in. This worked!! It was all downhill from here. I tightened everything up. I did have some issues installing the motor mount. I installed the rubber section and threading in the bolts a little, leaving them lose as I thought I could have some issues getting the cast piece onto it while it was in place. I noticed that there was not enough room in between the header and the rubber motor mount threads to slide the thick cast piece over top of it. I jacked the motor up as high as it would go, still not enough room. I removed the rubber motor mount part and installed the cast piece onto it outside of the car, I left the assembly very loose to give more flexibility when installing. It took some maneuvering but I was able to get it in this way. I got all the cast pieces bolts threaded in and tightened down and then did the same to the rubber piece. Lowered the engine and tightened the nut on the assembly, worked perfect. I installed the steering column after this, I was having issues getting it to slide the entire way on to the rack. I went into the car and noticed the collar I unbolted at the beginning had turned 180 degrees. I rotated this, hearing the steering call off the rack, and threaded the small bolts onto the collar holding it in place. I was concerned that I may have some issues getting the steering back onto the rack with the collar in place like it was, but there was no issue. I installed the 02 and re-installed the tire.
Rest of the exhaust:
This was a little harder than I thought it was going to be, but still nowhere near as hard as the header installation. In the CJPP video it shows installing the cats then the mid pipes. I noticed in the video that he struggled a bit sliding the mid pipe on the cats because of the angle of the pipes. I assumed I would have some issues and thought about installing the cats on the mid pipe first then sliding that assembly onto the headers. Side note, make sure you install your clamps first and pay attention to how you put them on so you can easily get an air gun on them. One thing that the video did not mention is in which direction to install the mid pipe. I watched closely and it shows the longer side going towards the driver side with the 02 bungs facing upwards. I tried to install the pipes how the video suggested, but quickly changed my approach to installing the cats onto the mid pipe. I still had some issues as the one cat was having issues sliding onto the header. I aggressively moved the pipes around a bit with one cat on one side and doing the same to the other and it seem to open the holes just a little bit to make the installation a little easier. I installed the 02 sensors and tried to plug in the extensions. I found out that the extensions for the rear 02 sensors did not have the same plug as the OEM. There are little wings that do not line up. I thought I was going to have to shave the wings off the OEM connector but I removed the OEM connector from is factory location and the wire was long enough to clip into the o2 sensor without he extension. I have not notified ARH of this yet, but plan to. I moved onto the pipes connecting the axle backs to the mid pipe. I installed them, and they seemed to make the assembly very heavy as there is no exhaust mounts in this section of the system. I took them off and installed the axle backs. Make sure you install the axle backs as far forward on the mounts as possible otherwise the axle back and mid pipe will not stay connected. I started tightening up the clamps from the header back trying to push up on the exhaust with my free arm and my legs. I was already pretty beat down from the other 2 days of rolling around on the ground, but I got this part done. Everything lines up pretty well, but I noticed the one exhaust tip was a little off, so I went back under and loosened the clamp and pushed a little harder and it’s pretty much perfect now.
In closing
I hope this write up helps some that decided to read it. I know there was different ways to do things, probably better than I did, so please make suggestions to help everyone out and make the install a little less painless. I think it would have went much quicker with a helper for tool grabbing, jack operation, another set of eyes, and another set of muscles when mine were fatigued from holding my arms up for so long.
Extra
I recorded a video when I only had the headers installed, enjoy
[ame]
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