pain in the ass header

[1 fstr si]

last winter i bought an injen CAI, easy install. at the beginning of winter i bought a magnaflow cat back from ebay. easy install. then i bought a jackson racing supercharger, challenging, but suprisingly easy install. the other day i bought a DC sports ceramic coated header, dont frikin know how easy cuz i cant get my damn stock header off. i let the car warm up before starting to loosen bolts, and one still stripped its head. the one that bolts the header to the support bracket. it stripped, and now it wont come off. heated it up with a torch and everything. so, i unbolted the bracket from the engine, and thought i could squeeze it past everything, NOPE. not happening. so, im prolly gonna get a sawzall and cut the bitch off, and not reuse it. just needed to vent a little.

[Lucid Moments]

You're scaring me cause I'm about to start putting my DC Sports header on in a couple of hours.

[chunky]

Originally posted by mlkelley68
You're scaring me cause I'm about to start putting my DC Sports header on in a couple of hours.

make sure you heat up the bolts before you try to take them off. I usually just use a small propane torch, or I do it after I take the car for a drive and let it cool down for about 10-15 minutes, basically the pipes are as hot as i can stand with a sweatshirt on to keep me from burning. :D

[2k2ep]

I didint have any problems. Run the car for a bit spray wd-40 on the bolts and wait about 30min before starting.

[SiR_d1]

but whats the lifespan of a DC ceramic header? I know the ss lasts as long as the car but not too sure about ceramic

[Lucid Moments]

Originally posted by chunky
make sure you heat up the bolts before you try to take them off. I usually just use a small propane torch, or I do it after I take the car for a drive and let it cool down for about 10-15 minutes, basically the pipes are as hot as i can stand with a sweatshirt on to keep me from burning. :D

Damn, why didn't I read this before trying to take the damn thing off!!!:(
I got the oem header off (almost anyway). I know the car was built in England, but I think they borrowed Godzilla from Japan to tighten down the damn header bolts, not to mention you have to be a contortionist to get to the last one on the bottom of the passenger side.

Where I really had problems was where the header bolts to the bracket that bolts to the frame. Those bolts were so rusted that I snapped the heads off of them while trying to get them off. At that point I said to hell with it, it is starting to get dark and cold I will come back to it tomorrow.

Here is a question. Would you guys take that bracket off, drill the bolts out, and find replacement bolts? Or just say F___ it cause the header is bolted to the enging block and leave that alone?

[2.0L Monster]

Am I the only one who though that installing a new header was really easy?

[1 fstr si]

Here is a question. Would you guys take that bracket off, drill the bolts out, and find replacement bolts? Or just say F___ it cause the header is bolted to the enging block and leave that alone?
thats what im doing. and now i have it all put on, but have encountered another problem. my wires for my O2 sensor pulled out of the harness, and now i have a check engine light on. the harness has a little clip on the side it mounts to the car there are 4 holes that they plugf into. the wire colors are black, black, white and green. could someone please tell me where each wire plugs into the harness.

[Lucid Moments]

Originally posted by 1 fstr si
thats what im doing. and now i have it all put on, but have encountered another problem. my wires for my O2 sensor pulled out of the harness, and now i have a check engine light on. the harness has a little clip on the side it mounts to the car there are 4 holes that they plugf into. the wire colors are black, black, white and green. could someone please tell me where each wire plugs into the harness.

Which are you doing, fixing it, or leaving it alone?

I checked the shop manual I got a copy of, but can't find anything about wiring the O2 sensors, sorry.

[Lucid Moments]

Originally posted by 2.0L Monster
Am I the only one who though that installing a new header was really easy?

Depends on how you mean easy. Simple and straightforward, yes it is that. It is just that some of the bolts are awkward to get to, and others have been exposed to the weather, and are hard to get off.

[Vertigo]

Your supossed to un-clip the o2 sensors so that doen not happen. Before you get the two spring bolts at the bottom of the header off. Then just use a pry bar and some wd-40 to get the rubber holder loose and let the cat just hang there.

[2.0L Monster]

Originally posted by mlkelley68
Depends on how you mean easy. Simple and straightforward, yes it is that. It is just that some of the bolts are awkward to get to, and others have been exposed to the weather, and are hard to get off.

Go to the hardware store and get something called liquid wrench, it works wonders on stuck bolts. Or you could use WD-40 if you want.

[chunky]

Originally posted by 2.0L Monster
Go to the hardware store and get something called liquid wrench, it works wonders on stuck bolts. Or you could use WD-40 if you want.

when dealing with exhaust bolts, heat is far far more effective. the bolts don't stick b/c they're corroded or rusted on - they stick b/c the heating & cooling cycles cause the bolts to sieze to the nut. basically, the nut shrinks and squeezes very tightly to the bolt. By heating it up, you cause the metal to expand, and the bolt comes out much much easier.


and of course having an impact wrench always helps. ;)

[2.0L Monster]

Every time I try to use heat to make bolts easier to take off I burn myself. :'(

[chunky]

Originally posted by 2.0L Monster
Every time I try to use heat to make bolts easier to take off I burn myself. :'(

get some gloves foo. I can work on my exhaust within 15-20 minutes of turning the car off. probably less now that it's colder.

[1 fstr si]

well, i finally got the stupid thing done. i used a hack saw to get that stupid bracket off and said screw it. it feels solid. its really easy to install after you get that bracket outta the way, or if it comes out with no problem.
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid102/p742aa2faff280c77b09807b70a878fb4/f9c1aae5.jpg
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid102/p3ba0129c4a57b90b4d1f06f846c685fb/f9c1aa08.jpg
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid102/p33b7fb57e6b0579fcb1cd5840716def0/f9c1a92a.jpg

i honestly thought the JRSC install was easier than this stupid header.

[Peking]

Man, stock header looks just nasty. Glad you got that SOB off.

[03EP3SiHB]

Glad you finished it. Wish I had my DC Header right now. I noticed last night when I put my HKS on, the 3 bolts that hold on the cat were a pain in the ass to get off. Anyways car sounds and feels better with HKS on now, keep us up on more mods on your car. Got pics posted of your car all together?????

[ALTERED SI]

SORRY , IT LOOKS LIKE U HAVE TO CUT IT GOOD LUCK!!!:(

[DC5RK20A]

I installed my Toda manifold Friday night. Got to the garage at 6:45pm, started at 6:58, garage closed at 8pm, was done at 7:55. Worst part for me, one of the bolts that mated the 2-1 pipe to the 4-2 head. One of the nuts kind of stripped. Finally broke free, this added an extra 10 minutes to the ordeal. Overall it was still pretty quick and painless. Also forgot to put the damn swaybar back on, so had to unbolt the manifold from the exhaust and slide it over the top of the manifold and then bolt it up. Guess I was too excited as I could see it was coming to a close and I was in time constraint mode. Sorry I didn't get any pictures of the install as I was so time constrained.

All I can say, the Toda manifold--"IS PHUCKIN' AWESOME" (Little Nicky voice). The car has so much more pull in the whole revrange. Made a tiny mistake Saturday night, was playing with my friends and some Japanese guy in a Nissan Laurel (4 door sedan turbo-charged) wanted to play. Well I was in 3rd and I somehow mistaken went into second, the car screamed at me, quickly realized what I did, got it out of gear and just hoped everything was OK. Got up to the redlight, checked my max revs on the A'pexi RSM, it showed 0905, which means it went to 10905rpms. Was a little worried, but the car shows no signs of problems. It revs to 8850 stock.

[myeverlovinsir]

Never had this trouble. I installed my DC header when the car was relatively new so that's probably why I did not have the hitches you had. Good to see you got it done!;)

[Lucid Moments]

Mine didn't work out so well. One of the spring loaded bolts that connects the cat to the header snapped and left half of it in the new header. To hell with it. I am paying someone to finish this off for me. There is such a poor seal between the header and the cat that I am not even going to drive it to the shop, just going to have the damn thing towed.

[chunky]

Originally posted by mlkelley68
Mine didn't work out so well. One of the spring loaded bolts that connects the cat to the header snapped and left half of it in the new header. To hell with it. I am paying someone to finish this off for me. There is such a poor seal between the header and the cat that I am not even going to drive it to the shop, just going to have the damn thing towed.

damn! that blows!

why not just buy a couple of new bolts from the dealership?

[Lucid Moments]

Originally posted by chunky
damn! that blows!

why not just buy a couple of new bolts from the dealership?

Half the bolt that snapped (the spring loaded one that connects header to cat) is stuck in the new header and I just plain don't feel like f-----g with it.

Pull the header back off, drill out the bolt, find a tap & die set and retap the hole in the header, put the header back on. You get the idea.:p

[STP03BlueSI]

the header took me and a tech a hour and 1/2 to do and we even had a bolt break. One that connects the Header to the cat:confused:

[2.0L Monster]

Did you try to loosen the 2 header/cat bolts at the same time? (You know, 3 turns for one, then 3 turns for the other and repeat) Or did you try to take one bolt off at a time? Cause it is very easy to break the bolt if you take them one at a time.

[Lucid Moments]

Originally posted by 2.0L Monster
Did you try to loosen the 2 header/cat bolts at the same time? (You know, 3 turns for one, then 3 turns for the other and repeat) Or did you try to take one bolt off at a time? Cause it is very easy to break the bolt if you take them one at a time.

It wasn't taking off the header/cat bolts that was the problem, they came off all right. It was putting them back in where one of them snapped, and I'll be damned if I can figure out why. I wasn't really twisting that damn hard.

Now the bolts that held the bottom of the header to the bracket that connects to the car were rusted to hell and gone, and those snapped coming off. I don't think there is enough liquid wrench in the world to have gotten those off.

[2.0L Monster]

Liquid wrench dissolves rust. :D

How many miles do you have on your car because when I put my new header on I had only 10,000 miles so maybe thats why it was easy for me and harder for you.

[Lucid Moments]

I've only got about 22k miles on it. I don't know why those damn bolts were so rusted, but it was definately rust, on the ends that are still sticking out of the old header you can barely make out the threads, just looks like rusted lumps.

I would expect that if I lived up north in the land of salted roads, but down here they only put stuff out like once or twice a year, and it usually washes off with the first good rain.