igor@af

My buddy and I took 13 grueling hours to install the XERD headers, Borla TD, and K&N intake in one sitting, in two days (5 hours Monday and 8 hours Tuesday).

I am yet to dyno the car for comparsion to baseline, and the weather has not been friendly enough for me to safely observe the gains, but I can surely say one thing, it sounds NICE!

Some pictures of our garage fun can be found here - http://files.automotiveforums.com/ga...3043&ppuser=61

I wish I had taken a picture of the XERD headers lined up with the Borla exhaust lined up in my living room for comparison with the stock system (http://files.automotiveforums.com/ga...at=3043&page=1).

Although it took quite long, there was nothing that was complicated in the installs. However, we ran into some barriers - some trouble with those "double hose clamps" on the coolant piping while digging down into the engine, killing about an hour, and also unbolting/bolting the headers with absolutely no space to work with.

exploder

Looks good man, how hard was it to disassemble the steering u-joint? Also, what other snags can you give me to watch out for when I install mine? You know, a quick cliffs notes of what to watch out for and anything to save me some time. Have you had any check engine lights? Sorry for all the questions, but I am installing mine myself in a few days.

Z PHAT Z

iTrader: (46)

Do you have that raspiness sound from 3.5 K and up ? I have the same setup except for the intake.

igor@af

Explorer,

we didn't disassemble the steering u-joint; the headers slipped right through the little space that there was.

For the headers, just remove all piping on both sides in the engine bay so you can get to the heat shields. The heat shields were easy to take out with some wiggling from the top. Once the heat shields are out, start the grueling process of taking the nuts off the headers - there are 2 for each cylinder, so 6 per header. Make sure you have the right tools, you will need a socket with varying tip lengths as there is absolutely no space for some of the nuts. Out of the 12, we had no choice but to use a wrench on 4 of them because the socket simply had no room. Make sure you have a breaker pipe to go along with the wrench, as the nuts are bolted on pretty tight.

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As for the raspiness, I am going to finally drive the car on a dry surface in the sunshine right now as it's been raining/snowing for the past few days. I will get back to you on that

igor@af

Z Phat Z,

After the install, I went to my local shop (Horsepower House) and got the clamps tightened with a power tool as I did not have much leverage in my garage underneath the car. That got rid of exhaust leaks I had in a few places and made the car sound significantly 'cleaner.' Also, I completely removed the metal arm that was holding the cats from the bottom as there is absolutely no need for it now.

Before doing this, I did have respiness beyond 3000RPM, but it is not there anymore - you may want to check yours for exhaust leaks.

Have you had a chance to dyno your car with this setup?

Z PHAT Z

iTrader: (46)

igor@af

I did some dyno pulls and the XERD headers gave me somewhere between 17 to 19 WHP. I did check for all the leaks and I did get some leaks but were welded up but the raspiness still there. I'm thinking of changing these headers cuze I can't stand the raspiness. I don't know if this raspiness only occurs with the Borla TD only or it would happen to any exhaust systems.
Glad to hear you got rid of the raspiness.

igor@af

Why do you think the headers are causing your raspiness?

Z PHAT Z

iTrader: (46)

I've talked to couple people and what they told me is that the Borla mufflers have comb like structure inside. When you remove the cats and create more airflow thru the mufflers which created the raspiness.

igor@af

hmm.... I'd make sure that the clamps are tightened again. What kind of intake do you have? I think there is a chance that the raspiness you are hearing could be coming from the intake. Or is it coming from below/rear of the car?

kamikaZ

iTrader: (19)

i have plans to get borla TD and RT high flow cats install =/ i was counting on no raspiness hopefully wont get any

Eagle1

iTrader: (2)

KamikaZ:
I have Borla dual exhaust, RT cats and Borla headers on my car, with FI, and there is absolutely no raspiness whatsoever, so it is not a combination of the cats and catback that is causing it, it would seem.

igor@af

I really think it's in the installation - if everything is done right there will be no noise issues.