Hi, I just wanted to write and confirm how much of a pain in the but it is to install headers on a 350z. Started at 10 am and did not finish until around 5pm. With all the right tools and air tools. So heres what happened. We started with the driver side header thinking that would be the hardest due to the steering rod blocking the way. First we took off the CIA and Got the heat shield off fairly easy and started unbolting the stock manifold. Wow tight tight area to work with. Had to use every angle ratchet and box wrench possible. Once in bolted we unbolted the cat and took them out completely to create more room. What do you know the stock manifold came right out. Getting a head of our selves we thought this was going to be a piece of cake.

Upon trying to put in the new header we realized it was not possible to get it up into the motor. So trying to avoid undoing the steering rod we unbolted the motor mount and lifted the motor using a jack and blocks of wood. With the motor at a angle higher on one side the header mysteriously worked its way in. After a quick breathe we realized the way the new header was shaped it was more awkward to get to the bolts now then it was before. We attacked the center bolt first to get the header on there. Then hand tightened all the others. Now the hard part getting some torque on these bad boys. The farthest bolt forwarded took atleast an hour. It was one under the car and another above guiding and pulling. Now all the bolts are finally in place and tightened good. its 1 pm. Wow, 3 hours for one header.

So we now go attack the other side. What do you know a radiator hose runs right down the middle of where we need to get to up top for the heat shield .... This side turned out to be even tighter. Once the shield was off we took the bolts out of the header and removed the cats to pull the header. Well what do you know while taking the cats off the bolts were rusted and warped to where we had to cut them off. The shop that installed my exhaust stripped the two rear bolts when putting them back on. Thanks alot to them. If i only had this set up back then i would have done that my self to. Well for any one that has removed our headers you know that our passenger side header the O2 sender wire harness is a pain to get down through with out bending the brackets on the top. Luckily we did it safely .... Finally romovel of the other header. The new one slid right in easily. Once put in place the angle of the tubes made it almost impossible to bolt down the new header. That took and hour and a half by it self to bolt down.

Yay, now the headers are in but what to do about the cat. Well we drilled out the holes and put a new nut and bolt in. But now worries i have new resonated test pipes coming in this week thanks to Dan at WeSellCarParts.com ......... So next sat we are going to install those and the utech. Then of to performance factory to tune.......


So to any people on here that think headers are a diy..... i would thing twice i would have gladely paid for some one to install these .....

 

I also wanted to add.... Wow what a difference in the diameter of the stock manifold exit and the new header exit. Double in size, it def lowered the note of my exhaust alot.

 

good work, sounds like you knew what you were doing. 7 hours actually is pretty good time figuring you were doing it yourself. Took a turbo shop 10 hours to put mine on. They had to lift the motor slightly also. Lesson learned for you, saved probably 300-$500 anyways, enjoy!

 

i notice in you sig you have borla headers ..... those are a little longer arent they ?

Also, it helped that the guy that was helping me was a mechanic...l

 

how many more mph you can get out at top speed.

 

nine million..... i hope that was a joke....

 

We are aware that headers are a headache. Nothing beats experience.

 

Yeah - Like giving birth... Or getting a Cervical scrape... Or taking a *really, really* *BIG* dump~ Lol! :-)

 

So... how is Top Speed brand holding up? I have their y-pipe, mid, and mufflers and they are excellent. Just making sure their more crucial components like headers and test pipes hold up as well as their other stuff.

 

Nice write up, its too bad that Nissan had to make the install so tough. You can find some headers for a decent price, but the install is what scares most people off. I think I will be doing the MD spacer after my exhaust install. Maybe some day I will headers on the list.

Nice job, are you getting it dyno'd any time soon?