Originally had my XS headers installed last august by Excelerate. There was a small exhaust leak initially, which I mostly cleared up by tightening some bolts a week or so later, however after my rear header cracked, I finally decided that my temporary patch job (which I did back in January) should be replaced with a new header. Bought the new set for $88 online, and spent this afternoon installing the new rear header.

Upon pulling the old header, there were clear signs of the leak that apparently had never fully gone away. Under each pipe, I could see blackened areas showing that the exhaust was leaking out there. Once everything was bolted back up, started the car, and it sounds almost stock, absolutely no more leak. 100% gone!! I'm so happy to have the car sounding completely normal now!!

Thats all, just nice to have my car running as good as possible.

 

what did it sound like before and did you feel like you lost performance a lil?

 

Always torque the exhaust bolts to spec then drive a few days to 500 miles and retorque them.
Thats why most leaks happen- warpage and failure to properly retorque.

 

My headers waiting for me in the box to put them on - I've got no time - spring/summer such a f***g busy time for me!
I cant wait to do it!

 

Sometimes its just easier to pay a pro to install headers rather than let them sit, and save several layers of skin on your own hands too!

 

curious to know what leaks sound like. When my car is at idle after its warmed up it sounds stock. But I just cant figure out the resonance. I re torqued everything to.

 

tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick

 

o ok then i have no leaks ,

 

I got mines last week, installing em hopefully tomorrow.....any advice for a smooth install? how much lbs of torque should be applied

 

just reuse the factory gaskets, and spray pb blaster on the bolts. I took my heat shield off the night before and sprayed pb blaster and made the job a lot easier.

 

the hardest part of the initial install (which was done by Excelerate, I really just watched) was getting the O2 sensor out of the y-pipe. Otherwise, most of the bolts came off fairly easily, and everything bolted back up pretty nicely.

When I re-installed the rear header the other day, the toughest part was undoing the bolts from the header flange to the y-pipe because of the very limited access. Took a lot of patience, and a ~10 inch socket extension, but otherwise not too bad.

I ended up using the factory gaskets and the supplied gasket on the re-install of the rear header, mainly because the whole flange was slightly warped and I wanted some extra "padding" between the header and the engine to ensure a solid seal. It seemed to work just fine.

I could tell I had a leak before because 2 things
1. When I had the hood open, engine running, and I revved the engine, it sounded overly loud, kinda raspy note coming from the engine bay, and
2. could smell the exhaust leaking in the engine bay when the engine was revved.
And the 'tick tick' sound when driving

Now its nice and quiet when I rev the engine, so nice!!!

 

Do you have resonance?

 

No, not anymore. I did originally, but it was caused when I had the hanger on the y-pipe connected to the car. I had a new hanger in a different location welded on, that took care of the resonance issue.

 

I completely removed the hanger mount from the bottom of the car so it no longer hangs, but I still have resonance. I'll have to figure out what's causing it.

 

wrap the headers with thermo tape, jcwhitney or krugs fore details on insulating wrap.

 

tried to install today but the nuts holding the stock headers to the cat was too stubborn, I sprayed it with pb blaster just doesn't budge even with a breaker bar

 

Careful with the breaker bar, you could snap the rusty bolts right off. Rusted bolts are not fun to get loose. Good luck with them, might need to bring to a shop.

 

actually they're not rusted, they just are really, really in there I bought a impact wrench just waiting to buy a compressor that'll hopefully do the trick...

 

Well thats good they're not rusted... sounds like the bolts I had to remove when I installed my front sway bar - not rusted at all, but i broke 2 sockets, and spent ~3 hours soaking in liquid wrench and trying to turn. Finally moved, but man what a bitch!!

Good luck with the bolts!