Header swapped yesterday, extended wire for the 02 sensors are now in the mid-pipe cat so no CEL, strut tower brace back on, and everything is buttoned up including that nice heat-shield blanket. Held my hand on the blanket after the car idled for 20 minues and it was luke warm! Yassss. The GWR Street Header that was on there already sold so net cost for header swap = $0. WIN!
![[Image: 1WAehtY.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/1WAehtY.jpg)
Will be posting vids eventually. To sum it up though, it's loud. More on that later.
More progress today as well on the radiator. This time without help. It was much easier to get back in. Not sure why but I guess I kind of figured out how to do it getting it out. Still wasn't trivial as there are just so many things in the way. Hopefully I won't have to remove anything for a bit.
![[Image: rngcEru.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/rngcEru.jpg)
The A/C condensor and lines sit in front of the radiator and mount on the radiator. The metal power steering lines wrap around the front of the condensor all the way across and mount on the opposite side of the radiator. So you get to play jenga to move it around and be very careful to not force anything.
![[Image: XebXySX.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/XebXySX.jpg)
Then the radiator wants to hit the front frame at the top.
![[Image: 6dkquOo.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/6dkquOo.jpg)
The fan and shroud also wants to hit a subframe bar near the bottom.
![[Image: 5LdZEsG.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/5LdZEsG.jpg)
There are also those tabs at the bottom you have to push the radiator up at just the right angle to not hit the front frame while keeping all the shit together and not putting to much force on the condensor and stuff.
So, you can see why it was a bit of struggle to get it out initially as Cabell and I had no idea how any of this worked. At least I know I can do it myself now if needed and it won't be as bad.
I slowly got everything back in the car, double checked I was not missing anything and everything was all hooked up. I left the bumper/fender liners/plastic splash shield off for now just in case I messed something up. Everything else is back in it. Filled it up with distilled water to do the initial flush. Got the car up to temp and then turned on the defroster for 10 minutes. Ice cold of course due to the air in the system but the fan kicked in and coolant was circulating.
This is when I heard the new header for the first time. I could tell on start-up it was a bit more boomy and louder right away but nothing too bad. Idle is a bit boomier and louder as well. Once the car was warm I did a 3k rpm rev twice and decided that was enough. It was 9pm and I slightly don't want the neighbors to hate us just yet... The header for sure uncorked some noise... lol. I can't wait to rip on it though so everyone in a half mile hears a swarm of bees coming!
I let the car cool off for 30 minutes while I cleaned the garage up. I pulled the drain plug and could see slightly murky/green old coolant initially. It started clearing up at the end. Yeh, the flush is working. I will be doing another tomorrow as I felt like starting the car at 10pm may not be the best idea. I will then burp the system until I see no bubbles, go out for a spin to make some loud noises and monitor coolant temp to see if I need to burp the system more.
Other than that I'm going to call FlimFlam on Monday and set a day to drop it off next week to get the camber bushings done as he has not responded to my second email. Took a phone call to him before he answered my original inquiry. I would say initial customer service by email is not so great
Will be posting vids eventually. To sum it up though, it's loud. More on that later.
More progress today as well on the radiator. This time without help. It was much easier to get back in. Not sure why but I guess I kind of figured out how to do it getting it out. Still wasn't trivial as there are just so many things in the way. Hopefully I won't have to remove anything for a bit.
The A/C condensor and lines sit in front of the radiator and mount on the radiator. The metal power steering lines wrap around the front of the condensor all the way across and mount on the opposite side of the radiator. So you get to play jenga to move it around and be very careful to not force anything.
Then the radiator wants to hit the front frame at the top.
The fan and shroud also wants to hit a subframe bar near the bottom.
There are also those tabs at the bottom you have to push the radiator up at just the right angle to not hit the front frame while keeping all the shit together and not putting to much force on the condensor and stuff.
So, you can see why it was a bit of struggle to get it out initially as Cabell and I had no idea how any of this worked. At least I know I can do it myself now if needed and it won't be as bad.
I slowly got everything back in the car, double checked I was not missing anything and everything was all hooked up. I left the bumper/fender liners/plastic splash shield off for now just in case I messed something up. Everything else is back in it. Filled it up with distilled water to do the initial flush. Got the car up to temp and then turned on the defroster for 10 minutes. Ice cold of course due to the air in the system but the fan kicked in and coolant was circulating.
This is when I heard the new header for the first time. I could tell on start-up it was a bit more boomy and louder right away but nothing too bad. Idle is a bit boomier and louder as well. Once the car was warm I did a 3k rpm rev twice and decided that was enough. It was 9pm and I slightly don't want the neighbors to hate us just yet... The header for sure uncorked some noise... lol. I can't wait to rip on it though so everyone in a half mile hears a swarm of bees coming!
I let the car cool off for 30 minutes while I cleaned the garage up. I pulled the drain plug and could see slightly murky/green old coolant initially. It started clearing up at the end. Yeh, the flush is working. I will be doing another tomorrow as I felt like starting the car at 10pm may not be the best idea. I will then burp the system until I see no bubbles, go out for a spin to make some loud noises and monitor coolant temp to see if I need to burp the system more.
Other than that I'm going to call FlimFlam on Monday and set a day to drop it off next week to get the camber bushings done as he has not responded to my second email. Took a phone call to him before he answered my original inquiry. I would say initial customer service by email is not so great