well the manifold crack is getting worse. I decided to get a good set of headers for Homer. these are Doug Thorley Class A motorhome headers.

Here is the part number (the 502, 572 are part of the 454 family so all the parts interchange). i had to wait a week to get these.

here are the shiny new pipes. these have a coating and are not chrome, but they will look this way a long time they will go darker as they age.

to muffle the beast i wanted to try something i been following along while. these are Car chemistry baffle CC inserts. they come in 2 or 3 disc and eather come weld or rivet or Flanged like i got. these are fully tunable but i try as they are out of the box.

here is a side view. these are the 3 Disc. following the directions i have to trim the rear some.

there is supose to be 1 1/2 - 2 inch space from the collector pipe to the disc. this is where it will go when installed.

i have to debur the header and sand the discs some but it is a tight fit.

these will fit and i hope sound real good. this will allow the muffle at the other end to be tossed. and remove the heat they create.

to install properly i need to get a second set of gaskets. i removed these to sand the discs down alittle you can see where the paint was stripped off with the fitment.

here is the last shot of the headers out of the box and ready for install.

Now it is time to remove the old exhaust. This is the Motor Cover.

Here is a brighter shot of the motor cover.

this is another dark picture of the motor. this is before i started.

Here is the pass side for the "Before Picture"

Here is the driver side "Before Picture"

to keep things in the correct order i put some painters tape with cylinder numbers and where the front is. It helped alot as do the pictures...

i marked the plug wires as i took them off and set them aside. this will aid in installing them later.

I marked all wires i unplugged - oil pressure----water temp and anything other i unplugged this was the water temp sensor

upon removal i found out why i had such a bad leak on the drivers side. Most of the bolts were loose and the gasket was leaking everywhere.

you can see all the soot from the leaks.

here is a closer look at the drivers side exhaust manifold. it itself is in good shape. just a blown gasket.

i tried to get the part number- i guess i did not do so well.

here is the stock manifold and the new header. the header will flow alot more air and keep the temp down some.

well this is where a good swap goes wrong---real wrong. the new header will not fit without chopping up the frame and relocating the motor mount. after trying many different ways there was no way these were to work. I emailed and left many messages on the phone for the manufacture. after a couple weeks of no responce i went to the store of purchase after talking to the parts manager they refunded 100%.

one more view of the motor with no exhaust.

well i was out of time so after another couple close inspections i decided to clean up the old part and if needed get a new pass side manifold. i got some lock washers to hold the bolts from loosing and a new set of Felpro gaskets and the bottle of anti-size. i wire wheeled the bolts and hit them with high heat paint.

here is the gasket number.

i cleaned up the exhaust manifold and primed and painted it. I then cleaned the gasket area. this turned out real good

here is a different angle. this almost looks new.

here is how the new gasket will seal up.

I re-gapped the plugs to 0.45 and cleaned them up. these do not have too many mles on them.

Here is the driver side manifold re-installed. i tourqued to 35 fp as the book recomended.

here is a closer look at the reinstalled manifold.

plugs almost look new. i re-installed them as well

now time for the real bad side. the pass side. here is is as i started.

i removed and labled the wires as I did on the other side.

here is the pass side manifold out. I was lucky as a few of the bolts were loose like the drivers side.

upon closer look i found out one reason it was so bad on the pass side. 2 of the air plugs were gone.

here is a closer look. i was so happy no cracks. replace the plugs and go.

this leads right into the exhaust port. one nasty leak.

These are female iron pipe threads. i had the correct tap and I chased the threads. i did not want any issuse upon re-install.

I went to Home Depot for new brass plugs. I put some anti-size on the threads and installed.

here are the bolts and plugs from the pass side

another look at the plugs and bolts.

after wire wheeling and primer and paint it looks as good as the other side.

I was able to get the part number on this side.

here is the bottom side of the manifold

here was the pass side gasket. it too was in real bad shape.

here are the bolts after i wire wheeled them clean. now they are reay for prime and paint.

this is the drivers side doughnut. it was in poor shape. the new one is next to it.

This is the pass side doughnut. see it is real bad shape.

here is the new pass side doughnut. after the install i heated the motor for 20 min and re-tourqued the bolts. this motor sounds real good now. after 500 miles i retourqued the bolts and no more leaks.