stm

I'm new here, but have do have a bit of experience working on cars. This is my second gen 2 4runner and my fourth toyota. I bought this guy last year and installed a toytec 2.5" suspension lift on it and love how it looks and rides. The exhaust, cat & muffler are almost rusted open, so I decided to go ahead and buy some nwo headers and replace the whole exhaust system. And this is where my troubles began.

I say troubles lightly. I've taken on some challenging projects on in the past, but this one makes me want to slit my wrists, duct tape a cat to my head and run drunk and naked down the street while screaming. I'm amazed at toyota's ability to design an engine compartment such that it will prevent any of my wrenches from having leverage with which to work. Truly an engineering marvel.

Currently, I have the driver's side exhaust manifold, cat, muffler and exhaust pipe removed. I've labeled all the vacuum hoses on the passenger side and removed them as well. This brings me a a few questions (and a nut that has halted all progress).

When I removed the manifold from the driver's side, there was a weird sheild-ish gasket like thing installed between the head and the manifold. I haven't seen it in pictures from other installs and am wondering if I can ditch it. The headers are gasketless anyway, so unless it has a very important purpose as a shield, I don't like it and want to reassign it to the trash. Here's a picture of the one installed on the passenger side (you can see it right below the plug and above the manifold):



Ok, question #1. I bought new studs when I ordered the headers. They also came from nwo. The studs have two different nuts. Four of them are silver and look like a mushroom cap and eight of them are brass and look like a head bolt (forgive the descriptions, I think you get the idea). Which go where? Both nut styles fit the studs. Here's what they look like:



AND.. while I have your attention, any advice on removing one of the two 12mm nuts holding the EGR thingy onto the manifold would be appreciated. So far, I've tried the following: penetrant, acetyline torch, tapping at it with a hammer, and finally (I'm embarassed to say it) I took a cold chisel to the little bastard with a hammer. It's still possible to get a good grip on it with a wrench, but it's worn just enough that the wrench will slip off if a considerable amount of force is put on it.

Thanks!

stm

Oh yeah, here's what she looks like: