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Craig0320
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V8 Engine Swap
TRS 20th Anniversary
- Joined
- Sep 21, 2017
- Messages
- 1,209
- Reaction score
- 225
- Points
- 63
- Location
- Mississppi
- Vehicle Year
- 1998
- Make / Model
- Ford
- Engine Type
- V8
- Engine Size
- 5.0
- Transmission
- Automatic
- 2WD / 4WD
- 4WD
- My credo
- Break it right the first time. Fix it better the next time.
Installed 5.0 Obx headers into 1998 torsion bar Ranger
Here is my experience with installing the OBX 5.0 headers in my 1998 torsion bar ranger.
First off buy a good set of header bolts. You will not be able to use a regular bolt.
I bought a set of ARP header bolts.
Part number-400-1212
Length-1 inch
Thread-3/8-16
I used a 3/8 ratchet and extension stepped down to a 1/4 drive 3" extension with a 12 point 3/8 socket to tighten all the header bolts.
My buddy let me use his lift to do the work and it was extremely helpful. He helped me out a lot with the install also.
Ok, here we go.
Passenger Side Manifold Removal
First thing we did was remove the front wheels and inner fender wells from the truck. It is a few 8 and 7mm bolts to get the fender wells down. The passenger side has one 13mm nut to remove. Once they were out of the way there was a lot more room. After that I dropped the collector bolts out from the bottom with little effort. There are 4 and they are 15mm heads. I had to drop my trans bracket to get to the exhaust hanger bolt to give me some wiggle room. Once that was done I went back to the passenger side and started to remove plug wires and spark plugs. Next I removed all of 8 of the exhaust manifold bolts. They have 14mm heads. There is one manifold bolt behind a heat shield with three 8mm bolts holding it on.
The manifold slid right out of the fender well with no issues. Once the stock manifold was removed I pulled the old gasket off and cleaned everything up.
Passenger side Header install
To help keep the gaskets in place I glued them to the headers with yellow weather-strip adhesive. It makes life a little easier. I had to loosen the motor mount to where the nuts were even with the top of the stud. Make sure to tighten the motor mount nuts down before you install the header to the block. I also had to cut the exposed shock stud off and bend the high pressure a/c line up an inch or so for the header to completely clear and slide in. All the holes lined up perfect. Here is my mistake that cost me lots of time. Before you install the headers make sure there is enough room from the side of the exhaust pipe and the bolt head to get a wrench on and also for spark plug clearance. I had to heat three spots and bend the pipe in for a wrench to clear. Also you need to install the 5th and 7th bolt first. I had to pull the header back from the block enough and gradually tighten those two. I ground down a wrench for the bolts behind the pipes and used a pry bar to get my final turns out of them. My other major issue on the passenger side had to bend the pipe back to be able to get a spark plug socket on the number 2 plug. Once that was done we installed all of the plugs, insulated, and zip tied wires for routing as needed. I wrapped the number 2 plug boot with titanium header wrap and haven’t had a problem. I also added some adhesive backed thermo shield on my power booster and evaporator housing.
EGR TUBE INSTALL/DELETE
The supplied egr tube was too short and the old one was too long. We installed the supplied egr tube by screwing the nut to the header side all the way down and tightening the egr side nut to where the egr valve was lined up with the intake... Once we had the positioning down we took a buckeye and sliced the tube about 70% through. This allowed us to twist the tube and match the egr better to the back of the intake. We pulled it off and brazed everything up. We installed the tube and realized that we needed another gasket to seal the air gap because it was a hair off. So I got pissed off and just blocked the port on both sides. There is your delete. For now I am going to leave it off. I will deal with it later.
Driver Side Manifold Removal
I disconnected the steering shaft. It is one bolt and it just flops out of the way. Removed the two 13mm bolts holding the heat shield on the back of the a/c compressor it gives you just enough room to get to the first bolt in the manifold. Removed the dipstick out of the block. There was one bracket on the last bolt that had to be removed which had nothing attached to it so it wasn’t a big deal and was easy to take off. After those few things I removed all the bolts and pulled the manifold out.
Driver side Header install
Before we installed the driver side we heated a couple of pipes so we could get a wrench on. Once satisfied installation began. I have to say a little wiggling and it went right in. I checked that all of the plugs cleared the pipes and they did. If I remember correctly the 2nd and 8th bolt had to be started with the header slighting away from the block. The only way the 8th bolt went in was without the washer. Other than that a socket went on all the other ones. I installed the bolt on piece last. It went right together. After that the plugs and wires were installed and routed and insulated according. I used some titanium header wrap on the pipe closest to the firewall were it was touching the insulation. We fired it up and no leaks anywhere. YAAYYYYY!
In total it took 13 hours to install these. A few hours could have been saved.
1 hour was from my buddy dropping a header bolt down my exhaust pipe. We had to cut the pipe out and reattach with a sleeve.
2 Hours were spent on the egr tube. Which if it would have fit right and you were going to delete it anyway then take these two hours off.
I spent around 10 hours on actually installing the headers themselves including routing and insulating everything. I expressed my disappointed with having to heat and bend some pipes to my buddy in which he replied. (Son, I’ve been doing this for 50 years. There has been many times I’ve had to modify something on a header when installing them. That is why they are custom.) So this made me feel a little better.
At the end of the day was it worth. After driving the truck for around a 100 miles so far I will say yes. The torque is constant through the gears and dang you can feel the performance increase. These headers really opened this engine up. I hope this write up helps someone.
Here is my experience with installing the OBX 5.0 headers in my 1998 torsion bar ranger.
First off buy a good set of header bolts. You will not be able to use a regular bolt.
I bought a set of ARP header bolts.
Part number-400-1212
Length-1 inch
Thread-3/8-16
I used a 3/8 ratchet and extension stepped down to a 1/4 drive 3" extension with a 12 point 3/8 socket to tighten all the header bolts.
My buddy let me use his lift to do the work and it was extremely helpful. He helped me out a lot with the install also.
Ok, here we go.
Passenger Side Manifold Removal
First thing we did was remove the front wheels and inner fender wells from the truck. It is a few 8 and 7mm bolts to get the fender wells down. The passenger side has one 13mm nut to remove. Once they were out of the way there was a lot more room. After that I dropped the collector bolts out from the bottom with little effort. There are 4 and they are 15mm heads. I had to drop my trans bracket to get to the exhaust hanger bolt to give me some wiggle room. Once that was done I went back to the passenger side and started to remove plug wires and spark plugs. Next I removed all of 8 of the exhaust manifold bolts. They have 14mm heads. There is one manifold bolt behind a heat shield with three 8mm bolts holding it on.
The manifold slid right out of the fender well with no issues. Once the stock manifold was removed I pulled the old gasket off and cleaned everything up.
Passenger side Header install
To help keep the gaskets in place I glued them to the headers with yellow weather-strip adhesive. It makes life a little easier. I had to loosen the motor mount to where the nuts were even with the top of the stud. Make sure to tighten the motor mount nuts down before you install the header to the block. I also had to cut the exposed shock stud off and bend the high pressure a/c line up an inch or so for the header to completely clear and slide in. All the holes lined up perfect. Here is my mistake that cost me lots of time. Before you install the headers make sure there is enough room from the side of the exhaust pipe and the bolt head to get a wrench on and also for spark plug clearance. I had to heat three spots and bend the pipe in for a wrench to clear. Also you need to install the 5th and 7th bolt first. I had to pull the header back from the block enough and gradually tighten those two. I ground down a wrench for the bolts behind the pipes and used a pry bar to get my final turns out of them. My other major issue on the passenger side had to bend the pipe back to be able to get a spark plug socket on the number 2 plug. Once that was done we installed all of the plugs, insulated, and zip tied wires for routing as needed. I wrapped the number 2 plug boot with titanium header wrap and haven’t had a problem. I also added some adhesive backed thermo shield on my power booster and evaporator housing.
EGR TUBE INSTALL/DELETE
The supplied egr tube was too short and the old one was too long. We installed the supplied egr tube by screwing the nut to the header side all the way down and tightening the egr side nut to where the egr valve was lined up with the intake... Once we had the positioning down we took a buckeye and sliced the tube about 70% through. This allowed us to twist the tube and match the egr better to the back of the intake. We pulled it off and brazed everything up. We installed the tube and realized that we needed another gasket to seal the air gap because it was a hair off. So I got pissed off and just blocked the port on both sides. There is your delete. For now I am going to leave it off. I will deal with it later.
Driver Side Manifold Removal
I disconnected the steering shaft. It is one bolt and it just flops out of the way. Removed the two 13mm bolts holding the heat shield on the back of the a/c compressor it gives you just enough room to get to the first bolt in the manifold. Removed the dipstick out of the block. There was one bracket on the last bolt that had to be removed which had nothing attached to it so it wasn’t a big deal and was easy to take off. After those few things I removed all the bolts and pulled the manifold out.
Driver side Header install
Before we installed the driver side we heated a couple of pipes so we could get a wrench on. Once satisfied installation began. I have to say a little wiggling and it went right in. I checked that all of the plugs cleared the pipes and they did. If I remember correctly the 2nd and 8th bolt had to be started with the header slighting away from the block. The only way the 8th bolt went in was without the washer. Other than that a socket went on all the other ones. I installed the bolt on piece last. It went right together. After that the plugs and wires were installed and routed and insulated according. I used some titanium header wrap on the pipe closest to the firewall were it was touching the insulation. We fired it up and no leaks anywhere. YAAYYYYY!
In total it took 13 hours to install these. A few hours could have been saved.
1 hour was from my buddy dropping a header bolt down my exhaust pipe. We had to cut the pipe out and reattach with a sleeve.
2 Hours were spent on the egr tube. Which if it would have fit right and you were going to delete it anyway then take these two hours off.
I spent around 10 hours on actually installing the headers themselves including routing and insulating everything. I expressed my disappointed with having to heat and bend some pipes to my buddy in which he replied. (Son, I’ve been doing this for 50 years. There has been many times I’ve had to modify something on a header when installing them. That is why they are custom.) So this made me feel a little better.
At the end of the day was it worth. After driving the truck for around a 100 miles so far I will say yes. The torque is constant through the gears and dang you can feel the performance increase. These headers really opened this engine up. I hope this write up helps someone.
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