m_LeDez

I've un-bolted the flange bolts at the collector and I need to remove the Hi-flo's/x-pipe from my coated Kook's headers, but they seem to be permanently sealed together. The header tubes flex if I try to move the x-pipe, and I can't break them apart. I've also tried to apply heat, but doesn't seem to be doing much.

Any suggestions?

'06 Quicksilver Z06

This was another reason why I didn't have my LG Pros coated.

The forum vendor I bought them from, advised against it mentioning that they had a car with coated LGs on it, which utilize a slip fit, and that they had the same trouble you're having right now removing the cats from the headers. If I recall, he said that they were trying to install a clutch.

He described the same thing you describe above the pipes seemingly being "sealed together" due to the coating.

They wound up beating them off but he mentioned that he was leery the whole time doing it that way because of the force on the header bolts.

From what I recall, the KOOKS use a ball and socket type connection utilizing two flange clamps. As you tighten those flange bolts, the pieces are drawn closer together. You can tighten them down pretty tight too.

I'd be careful beating on them because of the obvious force being put upon the header bolts and the aluminum heads. If the primaries are bending when you put force on the X pipe, thats not a good sign. I'd stop immediately

Is the car at home on jack stands? Put everything back together and take it to a muffler shop. Heat might work.

You might also try unbolting the headers from the heads. Maybe the entire header/X pipe assembly will drop so that you can work on it.

Worse case scenario, you could just cut the cats off of the headers of course avoiding the header flanges, pull the headers and then cut the remnants of the cats and X Pipe off.

m_LeDez

Thanks for the reply Z51,

I'm going to take your advice and stop while I'm ahead. It seems like this should be a "heads up" for all others who have purchased coated headers. If I knew this was going to be a problem I would have passed on the Hotjet coating.

Thanks again for your response.

Zig

are they more difficult to break loose than it was the catback from the x-pipe ?

m_LeDez

From the x-pipe back is no problem. I can lift the car (w/ jacks) and swap out my cat backs in ~20-30 minutes. It's become that easy, but this is the first time I've tried to remove the x-pipe from the headers.

This is now real problem, but perhaps it just requires more heat. I know I'm not the only guy who has purchased coated headers. If I would have known this was going to be a problem, I would have removed the coating (glue!) material from where the x-pipe meets the headers.

I would STRONGLY suggest for those who have just purchased coated headers to the same.

KOOKS........ANY COMMENTS?????

'06 Quicksilver Z06

Good points above

When I initially removed the stock H pipe from the axle backs it was a bear. Hooking up the new pipes to the axle backs, well they slid right on and if I had to remove them again, I doubt it would be such a problem.

Indeed having everything except the header flanges coated would have been a good option.

When you finally get them off, and I am confident that a good muffler shop can get it off for you with a combination of heat alternated with a little bit !!! of beating, I'd look into having the outer coating removed from those header flanges, at least a couple inches back. A few light hits with a grinder should do that for you while you have it at the muffler shop.

Waveblaster785

Have you tried coming from the front of the car and putting a screw driver or something inside the ball/flange and smacking it a few times?? Careful of course since you are dealing with the headers/heads.

I don't have coating on my headers, but I do have the kooks and they have been on/off about 5 times with no problems. Make sure you take the bolts all the way out too, they can bend/bind if you overtighten them and that could be a source of problems too.

Once you get them apart I'd sand them down and use some high temp RTV to put them back together. Orange stuff, it's 02 sensor safe.

Good luck.

Oli1313

Kooks headers have a message board. There is no C6 section so ask in the C5 section. It took them >20 days to answer my question so do not hold your breath. I also e-mailed them a detail long question and after a couple of weeks got a one word response. In my experience great headers, poor customer service.


http://www.kookscustomheaders.com/messageboard/

KOOKS Headers

You can call me at my office if you would like in the AM 1 866 586 KOOK.I do not know how tight they where put on so it is hard for me to say. But at the shop if someone hulked them on a good rubber mallet and some WD 40 should do the trick. As for the message board sorry about that. That was on our old site.YOOU should go check out the new one WWW.KOOKSCUSTOMHEADERS.COM GO TO KOOKS TV ICON AND CHECK US OUT ON PINKS, UNIQUE, HORSEPOWER TV AND SOM GREAT OTHER FOOTAGE.

m_LeDez

George,

Thank you for your response. Let me say that I have been VERY happy with the quality, fit and performance of the Kook's headers. I installed them myself and found the installation a fairly simple and rewarding experiance. I saved ~$600-700 in labor and managed to spend some "quality time" under my car. I would recommend anyone to purchase your product.

However.....as with anything, there's always room for improvement. From reading posts in the past, I knew you would respond in a timley fashion and as always, make yourself available and answer questions. For the moment, I would like to keep this in a public forum so that other Kook's customers might learn from my experiance.

As for the improvements, it's my opinion that the bell shaped collector on the header should not be coated. Your installation instructions give no torque spec's. for any of the fasteners. Line 11 reads, "Install remaining header bolts and tighten". Line 12 says to "fully tighten" the system after x-pipe is centered. Fourtunatly, I found a few Kook's installation threads posted by individuals in this Corvette Forum which provided some pic's & header bolt torque specs. I didn't try to call the assistance number you provide because it was after hours and over a weekend when I was doing the installation.

The few other items were what to do with the "new bracket supplied" until I realized it was for the automatic transmission lines. That's not mentioned in the instructions. And finally, what to do with the routing of the O2 extensions. The extensions (wires) are protected with the foil type material, but the plastic connectors are exposed and were making contact with the hi-flo cats. I had to use stainless steel zip-ties to secure them clear of the pipes.

But of course, back to my main problem. Getting the x-pipe to separate from the headers. I'll have to take it into a local shop to have it done. A rubber mallet won't do the job. At this point....THEY ARE WELDED TOGETHER! I just hope this doesn't become a major issue for those of us who were drawn into the option of having the headers coated.

Mike L.

Zig

or at least i hope i do. for the life of me i couldn't find where that bracket went (i've got an mn6), i checked numerous times, made sure nothing was too close, and ended up leaving it off.