I thought I would wrap everything up in on thread. Replaced my cabin filters. There were some wet leaves in the bottom, sort of rotting. I removed all of that, put in the new filters, the nasty smell is gone. (explains why it was worse when it rained hard). Did my first 1X3, fluid came out medium pink, not light, definately not brown. Car seems to shift very smoothly, not that it was having an issue, but it may just be me. Finally installed my headers. I'm not sure about most of you, but I immediately noticed better low end torque, even under 2K RPM. I still have the stock cat and exhaust, but it is a noticable difference. I honestly wasn't expecting this much. After looking at the tiny flat stock manifolds, they are definately a choking point. I am very pleased with that mod. I do have a slight noise, like a cat shield rattle, when the car is cold. I may take it to a shop with a lift to investigate. Overall, very pleased so far...

 

A little maintenance on our rides pays off. Keep up the with the oil changes, keep an eye on your fluids and always do a lot of research before doing repairs or making upgrades on your ride.


Keep on trucking!

 

Yeah, just keep plugging away at stuff. Sounds like everything is working out well.

If the rattle underneath the car isn't coming from the cat's shield, then check the exhaust rubber isolator hangers. Sometimes they harden and lose their resilency, causing vibration.

 

It is still soft, I had to pull it when installing the header. I had to pull the cat shield too, and then re-install it. I am thinking that it is somehow the culprit. I will check it out soon, as it is an annoyance. I tightened it down pretty good, but you never know...

 

When you removed the shield were the bolts rusted? If so, a little spray lubricant can go a long way.

 

reminder to recheck torque on exhaust manifold bolts after 500 miles or a few weeks
bad things happen when you don't !!

when you do the egr system cleaning of intake manifold, you can dremel the intake ports edges smooth- match hole opening to gasket opening size, install a thermoblock intake spacer/heat insulator kit ~$110 to improve torque and runs better in high ambient temps