This is a mod that I thought I would never do to the Sidekick.  I have had the Sony head unit for 3 yrs, but never hooked up a camera.  My youngest thinks the rear view camera in daily driver is nice, so I spent the $16 on a camera and hooked it up.  The wiring is mostly run through the driver's side of the headliner.  Power to the camera comes from the soldered splice into the reverse light wiring.  The trigger wire that signals the stereo to switch video inputs is also soldered into the reverse lights switch.  I used adhesive shrink wrap over the video and power connectors. 

The wires that come down from the headliner go out under the tail light.  I slipped some heavy heat shrink over them to protect them against abrasions.

More cosmetic stuff, this time it was paint.  I did this the weekend before last when I added the camera.  The plastic parts on the back of the Sidekick were fading.  I pulled the parts and painted them with the Rustoleum version of Plastidip.  It worked really well, especially on the roof rack parts.  The Plastidip material has a slightly matted texture to it.  It looks blacker in person than in the photos.

Apologies for the rotated photo.  It pops up correctly when you click on it, but not in preview.

This past weekend, I was able to mount the new header.  My exhaust manifold was cracked in several places, making the Sidekick sound poorly and be louder than necessary.  I soaked the exhaust manifold studs / nuts in penetrant several nights in a row.  I also soaked the spring bolts that connected the down pipe to the catalytic converter.  The bolts to the cat, broke when removing them, but the manifold nuts came off easily.

The blue is the coating applied by Hurricane.  It has a scratch on it from shipping.  It was wrapped in cardboard, bubble wrap and several layers of shrink wrap.

My engine has 230k miles on it and is due for another timing chain set.  I want to install a freshly rebuilt cylinder head and head gasket at the same time.  I have made arrangements for a head to rebuild.  Now I need to figure out which head gasket to use. 

Has anyone replaced a head gasket on a J18, J20, or J23?  Whose gasket did you use and have you had any problems?  I have found gaskets from FelPro, KP (Japanese), and Altrom (usually Japanese).

Whose head bolts has anyone used?  I didn't see any from ARP, but I only looked them up by Make and Model and not by size / configuration.

I've never had the head off of my engine to date, so I can't recommend a head gasket personally, but I'd go with and OEM gasket (Japanese). 

FINALLY... someone has bought a Hurricane header to install on their engine!!!  I am really interested in seeing how you like it.   Buster will probably never get one at this point, but I have great faith that Hurricane Headers makes a wonderful header for these engines.

There is obviously plenty of clearance on the steering shaft too, which was an installation  concern on a left hand drive vehicle.

It was an easy install, other than the catalytic converter bolts breaking.  There were no fitment issues with it being LHD and the 1.8 bolts lined up perfectly withe 2.0 header. The factory O2 sensor wires are just long enough, once  the mating connector is removed from its mount on the engine block.

I would not have bought the header except I didn't have to pay freight.  It was cheaper than buying a new factory exhaust manifold.

Editing:
There were a couple of things that needed to be addressed in the header install.  The header outlet is closer to the driver's side frame rail than the original exhaust.  I had to cut the hanger from the catalytic converter to make room for it.  This isn't an issue for me, as I am going to add a flex pipe and rebuild the exhaust from the header outlet back.

EGR issue - There is no provision in the header for the EGR port.  I can add this later, but I don't want to pull the header back off until I have a few other items taken care of.  Mainly rewiring the new feeder cable to my garage, so that I can use my welding machines.

what Lincoln did you get the mirror from?

My mirror was from a 2002 Lincoln Continental.  It is easier to search for the manufacturer or part number.  Gently is the manufacturer and their part numbers start with GNTX.

I wanted map lights with mine, so that I can remove the original map lights and install an overhead console to hold a CB or Ham radio.

GNTX-221
http://pages.ebay.com/motors/link/?nav=item.view&id=111399413253&alt=web
Wiring harness
http://pages.ebay.com/motors/link/?nav=item.view&id=291054428151&alt=web
Mirror window wedge and adhesive
http://pages.ebay.com/motors/link/?nav=item.view&id=231648989518&alt=web

It can be difficult to determine which wedge to use, so I bought a kit with 10 different wedges.

I had some time, this morning, to finish up the exhaust behind the header.  I had to drill the bolts out of the cat inlet flange.  I thought about ordering a replacement cat with the resonator piping installed, but if I am buying new I want to go 2.25" all the way back.  The factory setup is 2.25" to the cat and 2.0" from the cat back.

It is noticeably quieter without the cracked exhaust manifold. 

Sent from my SM-T330NU using Tapatalk

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Since my last update, I have pulled and rebuilt the 5 speed transmission.  The pilot and throw out bearings failed.  I replaced the input shaft during the rebuild and the trans is all good now. 

Unfortunately, the AC clutch bearing failed and I still can't drive it.  The new bearing will arrive this week, while I am working in Portland.

This weekend, I was only home for a little over 24 hours.  I tried to work some time in for the Sidekick, when my youngest was occupied with other kids.

I pulled the bad ac clutch bearing out and verified the dimensions, before ordering a replacement.

The bearing is 32x47x18.  Autozone is the only local vendor to supply it.  The Santech part number for the SS10V6 compressor is MT2233.

I have been collecting parts to rebuild the front end.  I have 230k miles on the rig.  I wanted to do it all at one time, but one of the sway bar links was bad.  Changing the links only took a few minutes.

The rust under the front of the rig has really popped up in the last year.  I moved to our place on Galveston Island and the constant humidity and salt spray is really showing.

I read a post a while back about the 5 speed's pilot bearing failing before the clutch.  The pilot bearing results in damage to the input shaft.

I knew to look for it when I had problems with my 5 speed. Here are pics from when I pulled the transmission.  The pilot bearing and the throw out bearings failed.