Another Mopar Off My Bucket List - Barracuda Fastback
Nothing is ever easy. It's like Mohamed Ali vs. Joe Frazier. The header installation has been a real fight.
The rain didn't last all day Friday so we started the install late in the afternoon. Without a lift we were limited on how high we could raise the car. We measured back from the 383 to give us an estimate of where to cut off the exhaust. We should be able to salvage most of it.
I've never been a big fan of power steering but I tend to really hate it when I'm trying to squeeze headers into an engine bay. We disconnected the steering linkage to allow for more room and then saw that the z-bar had to go too.
Despite the fact we'd read that a full sized starter would work with these 2" headers from tti, I can tell you that the set we have won't allow it. We dropped the starter and luckily it WAS a smaller one. We tilted the motor after removing the left mount bolt. When we did we saw that the rubber biscuit was torn loose from the steel. Crap! - Another thing to fix.
After an hour of cussing we had the left header in place and 2 bolts holding it up before we went inside and ate a bite. The mosquitoes were having plenty while we were working. Satisfied that the worst was over we called it a night.
Saturday should have been a piece of cake. After sliding a gasket into place we finished bolting on the driver's side header. The starter had to go back in simultaneously with the header. It fit, - but barely. No way there was room for a full sized starter.
We replaced the bolt in the broken motor mount on the left and removed the one on right. Because we were certain we were going to have to repeat the engine tilting process for the passenger side, we held off on re-installing the z-bar and steering linkage. The right side was much easier to get in place. Things were looking up.
We connected the steering and clutch linkage after tightening the rest of the header bolts. It looked as though we were ready to drop the distributor back in and start adjusting the valves when we noticed that we couldn't turn the wheel to the right without the pitman arm hitting the header. It wasn't close to clearing it. We were going to need over an inch of extra clearance.
We hit the internet for answers. I think I spend more time looking for solutions to problems than I do actually working on things. We found out that fast ratio pitman arms aren't compatible with the tti headers. I wasn't sure which one we had on the car but assumed that the nice new one beneath the car must have been the quicker ratio and it was updated when the previous owner had rebuilt the front end.
I still had my old power steering assembly that I'd taken off when I switched it to manual. We measured the arm and saw it was a stock version. The pitman arm didn't want to separate from the box until we applied heat with a torch, but it finally gave. We were smiling from our good fortune until I compared the two arms with one another. They were the same. Dang!! I guess we wasted a few hours. Time to hit the internet again looking for a different solution to our clearance problem.
For the most part everybody seems to praise tti headers but we did find others that were having problems similar to our own. Some guys were dimpling their header where the pitman arm needed additional clearance. - Some were shimming their motor mounts. - Some said that you had to have motor mounts that were in perfect shape.
We decided to try another pair of motor mounts. I'd bought a used pair for the Charger before my son decided to make his stock k-frame obsolete. They may not be new but they seem to be in real nice shape. If it doesn't take care of the problem we'll try adding spacers and dimple the header.
View attachment IMG_6191.jpg
View attachment IMG_6193.jpg
View attachment IMG_6194.jpg
View attachment IMG_6188.jpg
View attachment IMG_6201.jpg
View attachment IMG_6187.jpg
Nothing is ever easy. It's like Mohamed Ali vs. Joe Frazier. The header installation has been a real fight.
The rain didn't last all day Friday so we started the install late in the afternoon. Without a lift we were limited on how high we could raise the car. We measured back from the 383 to give us an estimate of where to cut off the exhaust. We should be able to salvage most of it.
I've never been a big fan of power steering but I tend to really hate it when I'm trying to squeeze headers into an engine bay. We disconnected the steering linkage to allow for more room and then saw that the z-bar had to go too.
Despite the fact we'd read that a full sized starter would work with these 2" headers from tti, I can tell you that the set we have won't allow it. We dropped the starter and luckily it WAS a smaller one. We tilted the motor after removing the left mount bolt. When we did we saw that the rubber biscuit was torn loose from the steel. Crap! - Another thing to fix.
After an hour of cussing we had the left header in place and 2 bolts holding it up before we went inside and ate a bite. The mosquitoes were having plenty while we were working. Satisfied that the worst was over we called it a night.
Saturday should have been a piece of cake. After sliding a gasket into place we finished bolting on the driver's side header. The starter had to go back in simultaneously with the header. It fit, - but barely. No way there was room for a full sized starter.
We replaced the bolt in the broken motor mount on the left and removed the one on right. Because we were certain we were going to have to repeat the engine tilting process for the passenger side, we held off on re-installing the z-bar and steering linkage. The right side was much easier to get in place. Things were looking up.
We connected the steering and clutch linkage after tightening the rest of the header bolts. It looked as though we were ready to drop the distributor back in and start adjusting the valves when we noticed that we couldn't turn the wheel to the right without the pitman arm hitting the header. It wasn't close to clearing it. We were going to need over an inch of extra clearance.
We hit the internet for answers. I think I spend more time looking for solutions to problems than I do actually working on things. We found out that fast ratio pitman arms aren't compatible with the tti headers. I wasn't sure which one we had on the car but assumed that the nice new one beneath the car must have been the quicker ratio and it was updated when the previous owner had rebuilt the front end.
I still had my old power steering assembly that I'd taken off when I switched it to manual. We measured the arm and saw it was a stock version. The pitman arm didn't want to separate from the box until we applied heat with a torch, but it finally gave. We were smiling from our good fortune until I compared the two arms with one another. They were the same. Dang!! I guess we wasted a few hours. Time to hit the internet again looking for a different solution to our clearance problem.
For the most part everybody seems to praise tti headers but we did find others that were having problems similar to our own. Some guys were dimpling their header where the pitman arm needed additional clearance. - Some were shimming their motor mounts. - Some said that you had to have motor mounts that were in perfect shape.
We decided to try another pair of motor mounts. I'd bought a used pair for the Charger before my son decided to make his stock k-frame obsolete. They may not be new but they seem to be in real nice shape. If it doesn't take care of the problem we'll try adding spacers and dimple the header.
View attachment IMG_6191.jpg
View attachment IMG_6193.jpg
View attachment IMG_6194.jpg
View attachment IMG_6188.jpg
View attachment IMG_6201.jpg
View attachment IMG_6187.jpg