Installing Headers

[Bambikiller240]

contact one of the Z Specialist Salvage yards for what you need.

Z Specialites in Snohomish, Wa.

Danny's Datsuns in Roseburg, OR

Z Parts in Richmond, CA

CyberSanford in Michigan

Z Car Source of AZ in Phoenix, AZ

Z Barn in Maryville, TN

[Inf]

I haven't seen anyplace selling washers like those. The washers in the picture are ones I made this last summer with a lathe and a mill. I basically took a bar of stainless, cut a hole down the center with the lathe, cut down the sides to get the right outer diameter, and then cut off slices (enough for the shared exhaust studs), then used the mill to cut that little section out of each one.

It was pretty labor intensive for the end result, I think it would be easier to just cut some washers in half and tack weld the halves onto existing washers if you're having flange thickness issues.

I ended up not using these and just using a stock exhaust manifold. The header had some other problems aside from the flange being too thin (this was an MSA 6-2-1 header). The collector pipe would not fit any way I manipulated it. I would have had to have a shop bend the 2 pipes so it would fit properly, and doing so would likely warp the flange since that was the only thing between the front 3 and rear 3 pipes.

That and I wasn't exactly confident about the condition of some of the studs. The shop I bought the raw head from did a pretty damn poor job (some place called TGSI or something in california that races opel GTs primarily). These guys apparently have no clue how to install a helicoil and this ended up causing me an enormous amount of grief. So torquing down a header to prevent leaks wasn't really something I was comfortable with. Maybe in the future when I have a different motor.

[zztom]

Hi everyone. I put on a set of 6-2-1 headers with no adjusting needed. The flange was the same thickness as the intake manifold. The other way, having to make washers , sounds tricky. These pics might give you a look. Tom.

[Victor Laury]

I too had no problem with the MSA 6into1 unit and did not need stepped washers. You do need the thick stock manifold washers for the bottom studs that are shared by the intake manifold. BUT! There is no telling if your manifold will be the same. Take your time and check twice if the exhaust flange and intake flange are the same height. If you do'nt bother, and slap it together, you can have a really ugly time getting things to seal. The Nissan fat manifold washers have enough material to grind away to make up for small diffrences.

[Inf]

I think i've caused some confusion in this thread about the different header types MSA sells

when I said 6-2-1 I meant it goes from 6 primaries into 2 collectors and then down to 1 collector. So the one I had my trouble with was the other one msa sells.

The only reason I havent flipped out and sent it back is because I plan to forget the collector someday and run a seperate pipe for the front 3 and back 3 432 style perhaps. It sits under my bench in the garage for now

[TomoHawk]

the collector was about 1/2 inch to high in the transmission tunnel

That is a problem with production header units. The usual cure is to modify the mounting holes on the header so it fits right, but only if there is enough material to do it right.

You see this on TV DIY car shows, bit not often.

[robert11256]

hello i am 19 i bought a pair of pacesetter headers for my 260z and a intake from arizona z car which works awesome i might add but im having the same problem with spacers now i work as a machinist and can modify and fit them as need but is there any other ways or is it just about taking your time and getting them to fit Thanks

Rob