Put my Kooks headers and x-pipe in last weekend. Unfortunately the stock Boss 302 mufflers are too good. Gotta work on other options... but the headers are nice!
The job was way more than I thought. Figured 6hrs would be generous... nope. Breaking loose the stock stud/nut combo on the stock headers was crazy hard and most broke loose like a gun shot. I know for a fact all OE drawings say "break all edges, no burrs" ... but I'm not sure anyone double checks the suppliers or Ford checks their own metal stamping, dang there is some sharp metal on the K-member.
Just so you all know, the driver side isn't so bad to uninstall, the passenger side however is a total ... bad word. You absolutely must unbolt the engine mounts from the block, I left the lower part of the engine mount with all the squishy anti-NVH rubber mounted to the frame rail and that was fine. In order to support the engine, and lift it a little, I screwed some wood together for a wide base on the floor jack pedestal with one long piece to reach up and lift from the harmonic balancer. Once the engine mounts were out you can easily get to all the header bolts. Note; the passenger side front upper engine mount to block bolt with the ground strap is stupid hard and totally blind. Then it was a cake walk. I wish I would have started with the engine mounts from the get go, I'm sure I would have retained more of my blood had I gotten them out of the way immediately and saved hours. For sure you have to pull the battery and battery tray, it's super easy and a good reason to clean your engine compartment, gotta keep things spiffy.
Installing was completely reverse in difficulty to removing the OE components. The passenger side went right in and I had zero issues. The driver side required me to conjure every bit of Tetris mastery skills I earned back in elementary school plus my son pushing on the throttle body to get it rocked as far over to the passenger side as possible... and it still required a bit of a shove on the header to get it up into the pocket.
I thought for sure I could re-use the stock studs and nuts since they were in decent shape, but they definitely touch the primary tubes along the bottom row and in a bad way. So more wasted time, unscrewing things a second time, running to the parts store and trying to find the correct bolts (that took two parts stores). Typically the headers & x-pipe come with the hardware... while these are new headers, I'm not the first owner. The x-pipe thankfully did have the new clamps. Compared to GM exhaust fasteners, these 10mm x 1.25 bolts are legit, plus having a thick header flange, so nice.
Now I just need to replace the over axle pipes and the already mentioned too quite mufflers.
Dang those copper gaskets sure are nice (shameless plug)!