doshoru

iTrader: (3)

Maybe I missed something, but I thought that the headers were already making contact with the stock mounts? I see that your mechanic "tightened a bolt" to provide some clearance...you need to figure out exactly what he did. May not be able to do that with the aftermarket mounts? May also put more stress on one bolt/component and cause a failure over time :shrug:

350Zdj

iTrader: (3)

One of the header pipes on the driver's side touches the steering column while doing right hand turns

My mechanic fiddled with the engine mount bolt on the passenger's side and was able to clear about 5-10mm.

I will visit him in a couple of days ask him what exactly has he done. Maybe take some pics if I could.

CLyons0203

iTrader: (1)

what brand headers?

350Zdj

iTrader: (3)

Topspeed

One of my friends who ran these said he never faced any issue at all and loved it. I guess it's hit or miss when it comes to these

Senofsins

I had the steering shaft problem too with these TopSpeed headers on my 04 coupe G35.

Here's my story...

LHD = left hand drive (US cars)
RHD = right hand drive (international cars)

After taking off the stock headers, finding out the holes didn't align with the bolts, drilled the holes to fit the TopSpeed headers, put everything back together, added new coolant, and get the car off jack stands. The dam steering wheel wouldn't turn because of the steering shaft. At this point I was way too mad and tired to do any more work, drilling the holes bigger annoyed me enough.

I took it to the shop for them to hit/bent/dent the driver side header in and shave the excess metal off the steering knuckle to a certain limit (picture below), they still wouldn't clear each other. Any more shaving would be dangerous and any more bending to the headers would be very bad for the engine due to the limited exhaust flow through the dented header pipe.

So I went back to Top Speed office in Addison TX and talked to them about it, they said it was a defective item, they gave me another set. While I was there, I heard another worker talking to another of their customer with a 350Z having steering shaft problems, surprisingly I wasn't the only one, this one had a different story though about the company sending him a RHD header by mistake instead of a LHD which I concluded that there is a possibility his problem was the same with mine too so I brought up this subject with the guy I was talking too, but he said that wasn't the problem, I was like okay whatever. Took these headers to have my local shop install them for me. I compared the two driver side headers and sure enough they were a huge difference at the drive shaft clearance area (picture posted below). Problem was that they frking gave me the RHD headers instead of the LHD, wowww.... The guy I was talking to denies that was the problem. Bipolar company much?

I can think of two explanations for this contradictory. 1) They had ads on eBay selling the RHD headers for about $80 and stated about the steering shaft problem and bending it in if it was to be installed on a LHD car. So I figure they are trying to screw over their customer by sending them RHD headers that they can't sell and hope they just accept it.
2) Or it was just their shipping person is really dumb to have two people in the same week or month receive the wrong headers which I doubt because of previous incidents that happened with other individuals.

Of course when the shop was installing these set of headers, the holes had to be drilled, again and fitted in to line up with the bolts, but this time the headers cleared the steering shaft. Glad this problem was finally over. These pictures shows the difference between the LHD and RHD headers so future people don't go through the same chaos as I did as several other individuals in the past had the same problem (google the topspeed header problems and see for yourself)

‎^Summary: Next problem after alignment holes: steering shaft clearance problem. Had local shop hit/bent/dent headers in for clearance but too much was bad, still no clearance, problem not solved. Top Speed gave me different set of headers, had local shop change out driver side headers, problem fixed, lots of money, time, and energy wasted.

LHD (top one) vs RHD (bottom one, all dented up) driver side headers. You can clearly see the difference where the steering shaft clearance is. (please ignore my fail ceramic coating attempt)



Steering shaft clearance problem. Note the shaved knuckle and nut.

350Zdj

iTrader: (3)

^great info thanks for sharing.

As for me, I set my my engine damper to max setting, which basically gives no chance for the dampler to move. It made a pretty big difference. Only time it touches the steering column is when I take the car for autocross/track day but it's not that bad.

350Zdj

iTrader: (3)

update:

Im always distracted everytime the column hits the headers at hard cornering.

So, I got a set of solid engine mounts (Forged) and settled this once and for all!!! Zero engine movement now, so case closed for me!

350zPharmDstudd

I ordered some of these TopSpeed headers and recently put them on... It was a grueling process; took my father, brother and I a total of 7 hours to do (taking turns on disassembling and reassembling bolts etc., they are hard to get to.) I was worried after seeing this thread that I would encounter the same issue . We did get everything bolted up and they did clear the steering column. I called the company too before I even started this to make sure I had received the part number for the LHD headers, thank you for that post Senofsins. So long story short, It's all bolted together no issues with clearance. Sounds a lot throaty-er and seems to climb through the rpms more smoothly. I am curious as to what the WHP is now that I have these plus: Kinetixs SSV manifold, HKS true dual replica exhaust (TopSPeed Ti burnt tips), K&N drop in; my car does definitely feel faster than the day I bought it, lol.

350zPharmDstudd

which could be bad for the nuts backing out.. ( I have an '03 Touring) I'm not sure if this would be an issue with this car like others since they have studs and not bolts mounting the headers. Hopefully they have enough tension that this is not a concern.

macs350z

iTrader: (1)

I have this issue with the Stillen headers=Rt had turn" bank 45+ MPH( 09 G37X sedan) and the drivers header collector tocuhes the shaft and vibrates, going to try Z1 poly motors mounts

Thomas.

HeidiBunches

Dammit the video is gone. What were the results??

DaveJackson

iTrader: (5)

The loss was within the measurement error of the dyno. Essentially, no loss.