01-11-2009, 06:53 PM
finally got the new header on yesterday and in typical fashion what should have been a 2 hour job at most turned into 8...got every bolt off except for 1 at the header/cat flange and it turned out that the stupid nut was seized to the bolt.
i ended up rounding the thing off and then it started to rain. so i bolted everything back up and drove to a few places to see if they could heat it up or cut it off but nobody wanted to tackle such a small job ($100 minimum, don't have the time, etc) so i finally had the brain cells to try Autozone and got one of those socket kits that takes off rounded/painted over/rusted bolts. worked AWESOME, except that to break the nut off i had to bench press what felt like 300 pounds with about a foot of space to move around under the car. then i was able to take the bolt to ACE and find a replacement bolt and another nut with a crazy exhaust leaking car...argh.
anyway the new header sounds pretty cool even with the stock STi exhaust and picks up a little more over 4k rpm. it's also a good bit lighter than the stock piece.
i don't like that it makes a lot of racket underhood when you open it up (thin walled tubing) and the headers shed alot of heat when you're at a stop (might be bad staging at an autocross).
overall though i'm looking forward to the power and milage increase for what i put into it (total of $45 to re-weld a few cracks) and i can't wait to hear how it sounds with the new exhaust i picked up...
i ended up rounding the thing off and then it started to rain. so i bolted everything back up and drove to a few places to see if they could heat it up or cut it off but nobody wanted to tackle such a small job ($100 minimum, don't have the time, etc) so i finally had the brain cells to try Autozone and got one of those socket kits that takes off rounded/painted over/rusted bolts. worked AWESOME, except that to break the nut off i had to bench press what felt like 300 pounds with about a foot of space to move around under the car. then i was able to take the bolt to ACE and find a replacement bolt and another nut with a crazy exhaust leaking car...argh.
anyway the new header sounds pretty cool even with the stock STi exhaust and picks up a little more over 4k rpm. it's also a good bit lighter than the stock piece.
i don't like that it makes a lot of racket underhood when you open it up (thin walled tubing) and the headers shed alot of heat when you're at a stop (might be bad staging at an autocross).
overall though i'm looking forward to the power and milage increase for what i put into it (total of $45 to re-weld a few cracks) and i can't wait to hear how it sounds with the new exhaust i picked up...
2010 Civic Si
2019 4Runner TRD Off-Road
--------------------------
Past: 03 Xterra SE 4x4 | 05 Impreza 2.5RS | 99.5 A4 Quattro 1.8T | 01 Accord EX | 90 Maxima GXE | 96 Explorer XLT
2019 4Runner TRD Off-Road
--------------------------
Past: 03 Xterra SE 4x4 | 05 Impreza 2.5RS | 99.5 A4 Quattro 1.8T | 01 Accord EX | 90 Maxima GXE | 96 Explorer XLT