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its not the cross over pipe, its the end of the header

Yep.. I see what your saying..
I'd make a shield out of aluminum for that connector.
The headers will be about 460*F coming out of the cylinder heads, I never thought to check at that spot. When Bob arrives at my house later this afternoon i'll hit that spot with the IR gun and see what temp it is.
If I were you, i'd continue to install and move forward. GM uses good wire with teflon insulation for wire harnesses so they can take a lot of underhood temps.
I would also consider running a small piece of flex hose from the front under the air dam to that spot, pipe in some cool air but i do stuff like that all the time. I on't necessarely expect other people too.

Looks good tho- keep up the good work.

You cant really tell from the pic, but the header is actually pressing into the connector, ill try but idk how to fit any aluminum between there lol

Forget about using any plastic Reflectix anywhere near the headers. It melts at 200 F

I would wrap a piece of fibreglass cloth and bind it with some aluminum tape. What you are trying to create is insulating air space using a non flamable material.
A metal shroud also works if you use some fibreglass cloth or matting to line the underside.

Upon closer inspection, the flange is what is hitting the wire harness. there is about a millimeter gap between the actual pipe and the wire harness.

I think you could probably get away with cutting a notch in that part of the flange that is hitting too allow it to clear the connector. I'm talking about the floating part, not cutting a notch in the front header because then it would leak. Not saying this would work, but from your pictures that's all i can come up with at the moment. Would another type of header clear that connector better?

The SLPs intense might cause they don't have the flange. I bought these cause they are 200 bucks cheaper, guess i should have just gone with the SLPs...

You never know though, they might have problems with clearing too. Someone who actually has experience with putting headers on this gen would have to chime in.

From what I can see in the picture, it's the outer layer of the flange. this is not part of the surface that the donut gasket uses is it? If not, you should be able to notch it away. As long as your not cutting away any part that is in contact with the donut gasket you should be fine.

If I had to do it again I would have done what others have suggested above. Notch the flange for it to clear. Also when you bolt the crossover and front header down everything is going to move again so before you cu thte notch put it all together and then mark where you need to remove material.

Also like I mentioned earliter the Crossover flange is going to touch the casing. You need to mark that too and shave some of the flange off the crossover.

In this case a slip fit connection would be well worth the money.
Just for the sake of explaining I attached a picture.

BTW, I found these on summitracing but you can buy them at Autozone for like $3.99
Go get yourself a reducer thst will fit over the front header collector right before its flare that is made for the dougnut and it will fit inside the cross over pipe.
Cut the front header right where the flare starts so you can slip the reducer over the front header collector.
Then cut off the ball flange on the cross over pipe and just lipe the reducer inside the cross over pipe, use torca clamps and clamp it down.

Basically you making the connection like the SLP headers.

Although you don't need the O2 bung I attached this pic to show you how to cut the sides so the the clamp will crush fit the reducer and you will also need to make the same cuts in the cross over.


I think this is the best and cheapest methode of getting out of your situation.
if I were local to you, I'd do it for you, I have no fear when it comes to modifications...

Not to be a douchebag...but the guy I quoted some sound advice. He helped solve this problem on Oldsman105's car. Same headers, same trans, problem fixed. If you fail to get this working w/o issues, it was that you chose not to do the research and make the minor modifications. IIRC it was a 25 minute fix.

BillBoost37 wrote:Take some close looks at what Oldsman did to try and shield his and how he redid his connector.

I hope you can get them to clear the connector enough.

BillBoost37 wrote:Not to be a douchebag...but the guy I quoted some sound advice. He helped solve this problem on Oldsman105's car. Same headers, same trans, problem fixed. If you fail to get this working w/o issues, it was that you chose not to do the research and make the minor modifications. IIRC it was a 25 minute fix.

BillBoost37 wrote:Take some close looks at what Oldsman did to try and shield his and how he redid his connector.

I hope you can get them to clear the connector enough.

Hey Boost... linky please, I want to check it out.
Thanks,

Tom, linked you at the old forum. That's where the post is located.

For anyone else looking for the info, hit up the old forum and use "connector" for the search words with "oldsman105" as the author. Post is titled Boosty's creative genious or something like that.

http://www.bonneville.forum.com/t266006/ Or copy this link and remove the dot from between the e and f.

I tried going on the old site a couple of times but my access must have changed.
Suppose I would have to re-register again.

Meh, this site has everything..........even has the staff from the other site.

Now I see what your talking about, that seemed to work. Good idea anyway.
It appears that there are several good options available.

my membership on the other site shows my original registration date from 7-21-2005.

Hopefully oldsman will chime in on whether this solution worked long term...

It lasted up to the Day the Transmission took a dump, Nearly a year. Then I switched to a 4T65E.

Did the trans die of natural causes or the heat from the header?

the trans died because......well i cant say i here people will get offended...it wasnt from the heat of the headers