Plumbing and Exhaust

        After the engine was installed, I spent the next couple of weekends plumbing the engine in.  I decided to cover this in one blog post.

        Throughout the plumbing steps. I learned a few key things.  The first was to use a lot of silicon lubricant.  This really helped the pipes slide into the fittings.  Although some of the pipes felt impossible to install at first, after some silicone lubricant and a bit of twisting, they would fit.  

        Another thing I learned was to keep track of all the different plumbing hoses, each hose had to be cut down and installed in different sections, so it was important to measure twice and cut once.  At the beginning, it is very clear which pipe you need to cut for each step (due to different shapes).  But later in the process, you end up with smaller sections of similar looking pipes.  So it is very important to remember which section came from which original pipe.

The last step in this phase was to install the exhaust.  I started by attaching the headers onto the engine, I got the screws in place but only tightened them slightly to leave some wiggle room.  I next slipped the collector onto the ends of the pipes.  This is where having the headers loose is useful.  For attaching the springs, I found that taking each mounting point out and widening it was key.  After re-assembling the springs, I compressed them with zip ties, this helped me slip them onto the headers/collector.  I then cut the zip ties and the first half of the exhaust setup was done.