A Header Story

[Ron A]

This last weekend, I put a header on my 92 Classic that I got from David
Pertuz (thanks David!), but not without a few tense moments. When I was
taking off the stock manifold, I noticed what looked like an exhaust
leak on the distributor side. Maybe that was a sign. I didn't have much
trouble getting the stock items off thanks to PB Blaster and some big
wrenches from Harbor Freight.

The next morning, I slid the primary onto the studs. Just an aside, the
Hotshot gasket that I got had much larger holes than the exhaust ports.
Probably for a Gen 4, not my used Gen 2 or 3. Anyway, while torquing the
nut to the right, by the distributor, it never tightened. Oh crap! It
was true! The stud broke off, recessed in the head. Off to Harbor
Freight to get a right-angled drill ($12.49 on sale). Jim Hudlow came
over to help. We got a small hole drilled through the embedded stud,
then increased the size twice to accept a larger ez-out. I was amazed
that even though I center punched the stud, the drill still made an
off-center hole. Jim said that was fairly normal when you don't use a
drill press. With the ez-out, the stud started coming out, but when it
got even with the surface of the block, it got very hard to turn. Ideas
were discussed. I ended up slowly turning the ez-out. Thoughts of Rick
Zotz's broken ez-out in the stud kept going through my mind. I was
sweating BBs. Broken ez-out and then a tow to the dealer and all that.
The ez-out was flexing, a bouncy feeling, but finally it got easier and
the stud was out. The rest of the install went like it should.  I had a
spare head, from which I was able to "borrow" another stud (thanks Tim
Rogers!). Good thing. The dealer was out when I went to get a
replacement stud ($6).

I was surprised how quiet the header was and can tell there is a little
more scoot. The next day, I retorqued the nuts. I was surprised when the
torque wrench went a little over 1/8 of a turn. Once again, I had
visions of Zotz hell. Everything was fine and I've been enjoying the header.

Ron Atteberry
One more mod...