Passenger Side | Side Exhaust | Body Fitment

[Padawan]

All,
I have a 302 and bought:
• 16758 - Headers: 302 stainless steel 4-port (replace OEM Mustang headers & J-pipes) and
• 14932 - Upgrade: Polished Stainless Side Exhaust (standard kit comes with bare steel pipes

I followed the build video instructions and removed the following material for the side exhaust:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ok9W...6XeP8w&index=2
4:48 minute mark

On the Passenger side there is about one inch gap from the Headers and the Side Exhaust (body mounted w/sides pushed in) – Driver side is fine
• Top of Header Flange on passenger side 2 inches higher from the floor than the driver side

On the Passenger side it appears there is approx. 1 of inch of space between the side exhaust and headers

Does anyone have any thoughts on how you connect the passenger side Headers to the Side Exhaust?

Thanks in Advance!!!

[ggunter]

I got the cut out option on my car form FFR and my header cutouts were way off to the point I had to add an inch of fiberglass on the right fender at the front of the opening. If the openings are not what you want you will have to add glass as needed then reshape your opening to your liking. I had to reglass two of my roll bar openings as well. Good thing about glass is make it smaller and cut and grind as needed.

[egchewy79]

make sure your body is exactly where you want it before trimming holes. do your roll bar holes line up, or did you cut these yourself? get the front to back spacing done first then adjust the front side to side. i had my openings pre cut and did need to open these up a bit to barely get the pipes through, but letting my body guy make final adjustments/trimming. I also have J pipes that have a bit more adjustability but with the new ball/flange of the 4 into 4 headers, there should be more adjustability.

[rich grsc]

Most of the time you need to loosen the motor mounts and reset the engine in the frame to even out the headers. You shouldn't set the engine level and thinks it's right.

[Norm B]

I agree with Rich, get the pipes to the best position possible by moving the engine. I did that and still had the passenger side pipe too close to the body. Ended up making a spacer.

HTH

Norm

[Padawan]

I agree with Rich, get the pipes to the best position possible by moving the engine. I did that and still had the passenger side pipe too close to the body. Ended up making a spacer.

HTH

Norm

I loosened the motor mounts and got the engine to come down and inch, but there is still a gap, looks to be 1/2inch on the passenger side. I don't want to widen the passenger side until I can get them connected (if I widen the hole now - mat take up take almost an 1 and 1/4 inch)


I don't have the tool to make a spacer so I called Mark Breeze at https://www.breezeautomotive.com and bought 3 - 1/4 spacers and 3 different size wedges -- he's going to take a return on any unused ones assuming I flip them back around to him -- Mark is just amazing.

Everyone thanks for the help.

[CraigS]

On one MkIV I was helping with a few years back we tried every trick we could come up with to get the driver side lower where it come through the body. The final fix was to put thin washers between the mount and the engine block. We were really surprised at how much a thin washer moved the pipes. Our first try the washers were too thick. These were nothing special, just pulled from a box of miscellaneous sizes like most of us have.

[Norm B]

On one MkIV I was helping with a few years back we tried every trick we could come up with to get the driver side lower where it come through the body. The final fix was to put thin washers between the mount and the engine block. We were really surprised at how much a thin washer moved the pipes. Our first try the washers were too thick. These were nothing special, just pulled from a box of miscellaneous sizes like most of us have.

I wish I had tried that. I tried loosening the motor mounts and moving the engine. Got the engine so low the oil drain plug was below the frame rails and the driver side was still way too high. Ended up going the more expensive route and installing the driver side header with the bolts loose and gradually tightening them until the side pipe was at the desired height and then using feeler gauges to measure the gap between the head and the top of the header flange. Took the header to a machine shop and had them mill the flange on an angle taking the amount I measured on top off the bottom of the flange.

Norm