YOGURT!

iTrader: (1)

Whats up everyone.. I dont post that much here simply because I dont have the time to do so...
But me and my Z (winston) just went through a bunch of modifications together and I wanted to share my story with you all.. since im sure some of this non biased info would have helped me making purchasing decisions/install decisions.

Where to start, well, I purchased ebay headers a little while ago (bout a year) and was just waiting for the perfect time to instal everything..

then my clutch went out at 57k miles... so I thought, this is the perfect time to install these silly things.

my friend has a garage with every tool/air tool/ etc.. you could ever want. its a real man cave...

Ordered the clutch (exedy, OEM replacement circa $250 bucks) and like I said, I had the headers laying around for a year or so. .

I took the shiney chrome headers off to a master welder to inspect etc..
Expecting him to tear these things apart, to my surprise he actually praised em, said "theres more than $100 worth of material here.. I cant believe you got them so cheap, they look like $500 headers... " I asked him to check out the welds, he said they looked great etc.. put a magnet on em.. yup real stainless steel.. now dont worry.. THERE IS a catch, Ill get to that.

so we get everything torn down.. tranny, shields, x member headers off coolant drained etc...

Now its time to stuff the headers up into the engine bay..
yea. WHAT A PAIN IN THE A$$.

These are the china made dc sports headers knockoffs... btw.

not much room for anything in there.

if you have these and want to install them, make sure you unbolt the fuel lines, and remove the steering shaft from the inside of the cabin, makes things a LITTLE easier.

heres the catch with the headers. THE BOLT HOLES WERE TOO SMALL... so after wrestling to get them up in there, and having to hog the holes out with a carbide bit, we got them to fit snugly.. test fitted up the cats... to my surprise they were pretty much in the right spot (only issue was the cat bracket, but its just TIGHT, doesnt NOT fit.. you gotta massage it in..

After the clutch was installed, and ive been breaking in the clutch... i decided to open it up..

heres the thing.. FOR THE MONEY... and if you HAVE the TOOLS to PROPERLY MODIFY these things to work... I have to say.. theyre worth it..

I feel as tho the car has made some serious gain in the mid and top range.. it honestly feels like a new car.

NOW im wondering when these will crack on me.. (if at all) but.. until then, I say these are worth every bit of the 100 or so bucks youll spend.

for all the nay sayers.. think about this.
EVERYONE LOOOOOVES Megan racing... well guess what, THEYRE MADE in the SAME factory as all the other china BS parts. DONT BELIEVE ME?
check out these two websites.. alibaba.com and ioffer.com

all ur payin for is a name. metal is metal, a weld is a weld, and IMO, if its staineless, it shoud be fine.. I painted mine with hot paint, sooo.. check back in 3 mos to see if theyve cracked or not!

CON#1 China made headers for the 350z dont have the proper head stud size holes... hog em out...
CON #2 the install is a pain in the ***...

PRO#1 CHEAP AS DIRT
PRO#2 honestly.. there IS a gain in performance.. much needed.

on to the ebay short shifter....
this little nubmer was 35 bucks shipped to my door, and is a replica of the $300 B&M shifter...
initial quality was good... looks really nice... firm, no loosy goosy parts...

upon instal, the guide for 5th and 6th wouldnt hit the guide plate at all.. .sooo... we had to do a little modification to the guide plate (stock one) itself.. basically smashed down the little raised hump so it would hit the guide on the shifter.

a few other modifications had to be made to get it to fit in the hole..
took a fine grit angle grinder to the plastic shift cup, and cut it down a little so it would fit in the tranny hole.. sanded it smooth, and greased the ever living you know what out of it, and it fit.

another one.
take the shifter apart because there was some play in the stick (get one youll see what im talking about) so we took it off, found a bunch of rubber O Rings in there, moved a few of them down the shaft, and wrapped it in 1 coat of tight electrical tape.. walah no more play in the stick.

CON #1 much modification required to ebay short shifter for the 350z to make it work
PRO #1 this thing is SOLID after you modify it. GREAT piece for the price IMO


to sum this thing up, if youre lookin for a cheap alternative, that needs a little massaging to go in then i dont see any problem with some of these ebay parts..

i have found them all over the place, www.ebay.com, www.nissanztrader.com, www.alibaba.com, and a bunch of others...

remember, theyre all the same!

davidv

iTrader: (2)

Cliff notes please.

YOGURT!

iTrader: (1)

Cliff notes.
Ebay headers...
Cheap, Pain in the *** to install, requre some modification to the bolt holes to fit.
BUT
Great performance gains. check back in 3 mos to see if they cracked.

Ebay short shifter,
B&M Knockoff.. requires modification to work... not much, but its worth it once you modify it. solid piece.

Zolid

ebay headers = FAIL

davidv

iTrader: (2)

Thanks.

cg04350z

ive had my ebay headers on for a while now and they have not craked or given me any kind of trouble. it definately did give me a noticeable power gain on the mid powerband

Zolid

^ keep telling yourself that, unless those were crawford headers, you didn't gain crap.

KingBaby

iTrader: (3)

buttdyno's do count for something....no'

Spork

iTrader: (6)

What's with everyone being cheap?

Too much ebay in this thread.

Andrei

iTrader: (7)

Can someone tell me what the outlet size is of the OEM headers? Is it 2.25 or 2.5? and what aftermarket headers have the biggest outlet?

Ragingbull350Z

iTrader: (7)

Several years ago I took the plunge and purchased ebay test pipes and y-pipe. It took about 4 months for the y-pipe to crack, and it took out the pass. side test pipe with it lol. I praise you for having luck with the headers so far. IMO its a hit or a miss and if you don't mind doing the work yourself it's worth the dirt cheap prices. Thanks for the post

YOGURT!

iTrader: (1)

no, I havent unfortunately... at the end of the day, Ive been around, and modified quite a few cars, mostly twin turbo dodge stealths, and 3000gts... for quite some time..
I know when a car is responding to a modification or not.
The placebo effect went out the door with the 3000gt FIPK lol..

you probably wont see any PEAK HP gain on a dyno. but I CAN tell you that the midrange, and the top end are DEFINITELY better... ive kicked this cars *** for close to 40k miles... I like to THINK im in touch with the way its performing.

ZOLID, nice post bro. good insight.

Ragingbull.. owch.. that sucks... whatd you replace with? I had the "topspeed" resonated test pipes, they cracked, then got the HELIX (OOOOO BRAND NAMMMME) and THEY CRACKED TOO.

ANDREI, they LOOK like 2" outlets on the stock headers, ill have to measure for ya.

yes, too much ebay in this thread, BUT, so far, so good with these headers... im not complaining one bit (UNTILL THEY CRACK, which im sure they will.. not saying they wont)

its a cheap alternative, seems to function well for now. I WILL post track times.. last time out was a 13.8 at 101 with just testpipes, spacer, and filter. that was with a 2.2 short time too..

now we added pullies, trudual catback, headers, and ETD.

shootin for 13.5 at 104ish.

davidv

iTrader: (2)

So lets get that bad boy in the Top-25. And I don't mean the pathetic Top-25 dyno racers either.

Spork

iTrader: (6)

I wasn't aware the Z came with headers stock.

Greddytwin350Z

iTrader: (15)

I personally have tried Megan headers and I wouldnt spend a penny for them!!!!!! I bought a set of headers and test pipes. The pass side fit ok but the driverside was up against the steering linkage. Then once I tried to mount the test pipes the 02 sensors were pointed way to close to the ground instead of being straight across. I immediatly pulled them off and called Megan. But to my surprise they kept blowing me off. So I called my CC company and did a charge back. Then about a month later Megan had the nerve to call me and ask for the items back! I asked why all of a sudden could they find time to call me when a month before they ignored me? I told them if they would have refunded my money and paid for them to be shipped back a month earlier they would have had there crappy parts! I pitched the crap and ordered a set of Nismo headers and a set of Stillen test pipes. And for all the guys saying that there is no noticable power gains. With my Nismo headers, stillen test pipes, Nismo exhaust, and Nismo CAI. The power was very noticeable and responsive. Plus the sound was 10 times better than my z now that I am FI! Case in point if you go cheap it will eventually come back to haunt you!

Andrei

iTrader: (7)

I would appreciate it a lot. I am fabricating an exhaust and need to know the size. http://g35driver.com/forums/intake-e...catback-2.html

Zolid

I only speak the truth. We're not modding ricer civics here, when it comes to mods for the Z, its a better idea to spend the extra $ and get some good quality parts and not some egay rip-offs, or lower quality/cheaper parts.

you couldn't spend the extra $200 or so on actual DC headers? Doesn't matter anyways, headers on the DE dont add any noticeable gains regardless.

yea, maybe 2 or 3 HP, good job.

Al Kapwned

BakaN20

iTrader: (26)

Hey yogurt, i remember you from 3si a long while ago i think. Saw a lot of 3/S guys go to either z/g or corvettes, lol.