How much did you get charged for your header and or spring install? If your in the bay area that's a plus

 

i can't remember the exact price but it was in the ballpark of $70 an hour x 6 hours of labor on my last car. i did my TL myself so it was nice and free

SSTS

 

I did the header installation myself and it took me about 5-6 hours to complete.

For professional, my guess is they would take around 4 hours. Depending on the hourly rate they charge, you could do the math.

I have no idea on spring installation.

Good luck.

 

Damn... I think im going to have some nice install weekends this holiday.

 

Both are extremly easy to do and dont require fancy tools. You can rent spring compressors/buy them for like 30 bucks and do it all yourself in your own driveway. There are DIY's on those things on this forum. You could complete with a friend both in less than a day

 

I wouldn't say extremely, i've heard horror stories with cat bolts that won't come off for shit. Anyone want to help me with header install this weekend?

 

well if your any bit mechanically inclined and dont give up they arent that hard.

 

Im a graduating ATII technician at Sequoia Institute

 

well then shouldnt be a problem right

 

it took me 2 hours to install my headers..no problems..and 2 1/2 to install my springs...if you can put a tire on you can put a header on...just takes patience

 

 

2 hours?? that's pretty fast, you didn't run into any tough bolts? was someone else helping you?

 

thats fast but if you know what your doing and so does your assistant it would not be too hard to do in 2 hours.

having a good lift and the right tools

dont forget a leverage bar/breaker bar

 

What year is your TL? If yours is 2002 and newer, you should not have a lot of issue on the cat bolts. Those people that were having problem because they live in a snowy place where salt from the road has rusted the bolts pretty bad.

I live in Bay Are and I managed to get my off fairly easily. Still ... they required some force.

 

I see.... well I guess im going to tackle this myself than i've never looked under the car indepth, do I have any space to work with on the rear headers? what size breaker bar should I invest in? im going to need to buy a new jack also since the 20yr old one I have now can't get the car that high into the air.

 

A good floor jack and jack stands should do the lifting job. I have Sears 3-ton floor jack and jack stands which I bough 4-5 years ago and they work grreat.

Removing the headers will be one thing. The stock headers are easy to be removed out from engine bay. Putting the new headers in would need some creativitiy. Since the after market headers tend to be "larger", you need to be patient and be creative on how to "insert" the each header into the engine bay. I scratched up both my headers when I was putting them in .

I would recommend a torque wrench as well since you need to properly torgue the bolts on the header to the engine block.

Hope this helps.

 

It does, thanks a lot.

 

Update guys, installed the headers tonight, toke me around 5 hours total with cleanup/testdrive etc. my question is though, where can I buy an extra set of gaskets for the megan headers. I need the 2 manifold to downpipe gaskets and the downpipe to cat gasket.

 

Call them it will cost you about 25 bucks that's what I did and I got a set of gaskets and brand new bolts.

 

It's always nice to see someone who was going to pay someone to do their dirty work, do the work themselves. Great job...

Advance auto parts or any car auto shop carries gasket makers. I perfer these... Cheaper and you can use it to make more then 1 gasket...But I wouldn't use this for the header gasket, only for the pipes!



To me, a car isn't mines unless i do my own work...

 

Congratulation. You have made it.
5 hours is not bad at all consider you have to go slow and some of the bolts are pain to get to. Any resonance so far?

As far as the gaskets go, you could either call them up or bring your sample (broken gaskets) to NAPA auto store. There is one in Morgan Hill and the staff is very helpful. They might be able to find them in stock or they could order them for you.

Cheers !!!

 

Hahaha, thanks guy. It wasn't hard at all, all it is is bolts and I figured im going to be doing this on a daily basis come January. It's just time consuming, especially the rear header. Thanks for the comments, i'll probably use the RTV since that looks like the quickest fix without spending 25 bucks. I need to go get the first flexpipe fixed though since it has a NASTY leak, and people say that gets rid of the resonance. We'll see, thanks again everyone. Happy Holidays

 

your best bet is to cut that first flex pipe and put a straight pipe because you'll constantly have an issue. I'm on my 2nd pipe right now and my car sounds like a helicopter because I scraped the hell out of this pipe.

 

^^ I just got that done. I already bought gasket maker, now I just need to take off the downpipe and apply it. Hope it seals everything up.