Got them both put on on Friday. A local shop I trust put them on. I might have spent a little too much $$ on the install, but these guys do warranty the work, & as I said I trust them. A dealer was charging $260 plus tax for the header install. I had the parts, so just labor was $421 plus tax.($466)

The Exhaust tone is a little lower, & rumbles. The tach just PULLS after 5K RPM. I do not see much of a difference below 4K RPM. The pullies... who knows, I'll get a dyno done in a few weeks.

Note
I know there's this debate on weather to reset the ECU after mods. I really didn't feel any difference after I picked my car up. When I got home, I pulled the battery, & pulled out the #13 fuse on the passanged side fuse box(ECU) Connected everything back an hour later, & went for a drive. The RPM's were kinda erratic. I'd be at a light, & the RPM's would rise & fall by themselves. Drove for about 30 Minutes. Parked for the night. Today I feel the difference big time!

 

After you reset the ECU you should let it idle for three cooling fan cycles. There is an idle learn procedure the ECU goes through when it is reset. You may want to pull it again and let it idle for about ten minutes.

 

here is my theory: install with battery disconnected. go out for drive, find an empty street, floor out a couple times.
go park the car. drive 1 hour later and you will feel it. i did this after headers, and after intake.
dont expect to feel anything immediately after install. it takes time. and no you do not need to disconnect your battery to make power magically appear. it learns on its own

 

This seems to only be relevant for an automatic transaxles to help the adaptive shift characteristics. But it does nothing for actual power.

 

Looks good, fuzzy! All you have left is the supercharger, right?

I've got a new CAI going in soon, I'll be sure to try to reset the ECU and have it idle for 10 min - thanks scalbert!

 

congrats, headers are the shit

 

scalbert, i was being a little sarcastic. when i say floor it right after, i know inside it doesnt make a difference. the cool thing is that you will see the difference after you "rest" and that is a good feeling. otherwise, headers=power regardless of what the hell you do.

 

Isn't this only good for an auto? I did let it idle for about 5 minutes. Car is fine after 2 days. Idle's just like it should.

 

Both the manual and automatic have the idle learn procedure defined in the shop manual. But IMO, the car does learn on its own after a while. The warm up after reseting is simply to assure it learns the proper idle imediately.

 

so your saying after the header install you have to reset the computer? Do you do the same with the CAI?

 

It's an on going discussion one way or another. All I'm saying is for me, & my car it I felt more gains after doing it.

 

I got my CAI installed at an import mod shop and I asked if I had to reset the ECU, he said that I didn't.

I didnt notice any difference besides the growl until the next day. During the day that I picked it up...I floored it a couple of times so that I could hear what it sounds like, did some city and highway driving and went home. The next day when I took it out, I could tell a difference from the get-go

 

I do not know how you can feel an increase of 5-8 WHP when you you have 200 WHP... that's like 2-3% increase in HP! and less than variation of the weather alone. You are hearing the sound of CAI for sure!

 

i put my aem intake on 2 weeks ago and the only thing thats differant is maybe the growl thats it but do u really have to reset the ecu

 

No...

And I challenge anyone to come up with verifiable evidence or proof to the contrary. Not, I reset it and it felt faster because that is pure optimism. Even if there were a temporary change, the ECU would eventually go to where it is 'comfortable' regardless of resetting or not. Additionally, any possible difference would be due to fueling (excluding shift characteristics on a automatic) and this would not amount to more than a two to three HP for a short period. Certainly not enough to feel anything.

Could this change in feel be due to a cooler engine or weather and not the resetting??

As I have stated, by using a scan tool you can see what the ECU is doing. This is not an assumption or a guess; it is hard evidence to support the claim that resetting the ECU is pointless. Those fuel trim values will go to where the ECU feels they should be regardless of what we do to the memory.

 

Like I said on going "discussion"

 

for all you nay sayers about the ecu reset this is another example of the fact that it works. Yes the ecu will eventually learn, but it learns quicker this way.

 

Have you ever watched the fuel trim value adjusting; both the LTFT and STFT?? What are the trim values?? This is absurd that people would debate this without any knowledge of how or why the ECU does what. There is no nay saying about this; you either understand the operation of the ECU or you do not.

What does resetting ECU do, it puts the trim values back at 0. They will then adjust from there quickly, in a matter of minutes. So if just after the intake installation they were at -1% and adjusted to -5%. Next you reset the ECU to 0%; it will then go to -5 after a few minutes in roughly the same amount of time. The only way it would have been quicker as per my example is if the trim values were in the positive range before the installation. But even then it is a minute or two longer.

Literally the trim value can adjust a couple of points per minute with a range of +/- 21.5% allowing for a greatest adjustment time frame of about twenty minutes by going from one end to another. And if that were to occur you would be setting various codes and a problem exists.

 

 

Good info scalber!!! I've always wondered about the whole resetting ECU trick... if it really worked so good, why wouldn't they tell you that in the manual, or in the Comptech header installation quide???