MURDAH350

so for a long time i pondered and pondered and researched and researched on what longtubes i wanted to get for my z. i am a long time z owner and i have always been borderline obsessed with the sound of a longtube single exhaust 350z. it is intoxicating. but in order to get drunk on the sound of VQ power, you must endure the pain of figuring out what headers to get and how the hell youre going to get them under the hood of your car. Well, as im sure any of you who have looked into headers know, you really only have 3 choices: choice A: (the best choice) know someone who knows someone who robbed someone and get a nice set of PPE's (or similiar) on the cheap used. Choice number B: inherit a lucrative amount of money and purchase a beautifully made set of PPE's or similiar. And finally, choice C: (the choice i went with) realize that youre not an oil tycoon in the early 1900's and buy yourself a set of OBX longtubes for quite literally a fraction of the cost of any other longtube. Well, because my last name is neither rockefeller or vanderbilt, i obviously went with the obvious choice. OBX. This decision was not made lightly, I painfully endured quite of bit of E-hate whilst trolling the internet and trying to figure out why these headers were so cheap. then came delivery day. headers arrived in a big white box that was instantaneously ripped off like honeymoon panties. inside was quite a pleasant surprise. the build quality was astronomically above the price point. quite pleasing. the welds are thick, the mounting surface was true and 1/4" thick. On top of that, it came with bolts and gaskets which is nice. now, i should probably prevent the internet trolls from coming out of their caves after saying all that by saying: these headers almost certainly offer no advanced scientific advantages that most internet trolls love talking about. such as wave tuning, perfect equal length runners, immaculate collectors or any above combination of those words. having said that, i will tell you what they DO offer: they look badass, they are pleasing to the eye, they will without a shadow of a doubt produce a long and loud and intoxicating exhaust note when combined with a proper post-header setup. these headers are to be used in conjunction with a driver who is less concerned about "gains" and more concerned about how F*&^ing badA** his car sounds when he is passing uncle ned on the highway in 3rd gear at 6000 rpms on the way to his local autocross. you may gain a few to the wheels in the end (which i did certainly notice) but dont expect a fast and furious vision blur when you hit the pedal.

FINALLY, to the real point. the technical part. the install. many people have voiced their concerns on fitment for these headers and i have read a virtual battle of the bulge between internet trolls about this. let me tell you first hand, the fitment of these headers is absolutely without a doubt, incredible. the tolerances that these have to be made to in order to fit the space you are required to fit them in, is absolutely unfathomable. so starting here, i will describe to you how i did the install in one night and how i would do things differently and lastly how impressed i am with the price to quality and fitment of these headers.

part one:

after doing a turbo build, a NA build and a supercharged build, i have pulled the motor on the ole Z quite a few times and am more intimately familiar with the engine compartment then i care to think about. having said that, i planned ahead of time to pull the motor in order to get these on. so thats exactly what i did. started by disconnecting the wire loom from the ECU. there are 2 things you need to worry about when doing this. first and foremost is the main ECU bus terminal. very self explanatory, pull the big white lever and disconnect it. the second part is a small white connector that comes off the main engine harness before the ECU bus. disconnect both and push that bad boy through the firewall. easy. then continue to disconnect all the other creature comforts from the engine that are typically necessary ( if you want details, feel free to PM me or email me and i will answer all associated questions). after you get all the fuel/ac/non main harness wires off the engine, pull that workhorse out of her stable. once the engine is out it will most likely look like this, unless youre on the wrong forum:
pull these guys off

then go exhibit on that engines *** and make her look like this:

and this is where your life starts to get really complicated if you did things the way i did. it is at this point i would like to tell all my E-trolls that at the end i will explain how i believe you can make this process easier than the way i chose to do things. anyway, onwards. the next step is to disconnect your entire steering shaft where it connects to your steering box and move the shaft to the side. THIS IS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY AND THE INSTALL WILL NOT WORK WITHOUT THIS STEP. once that is done, grab yourself a ratchet strap from your daddys strap-on drawer (what?). i got one from harbor freight for like 4 bucks. you may destroy it during this install so i recommend using one youre not attached to. take that ratchet strap and put it around the ends of your tubes and ratchet the living dick out of it to pull your tube ends closer together. this is only to clear the firewall and get your engine in the bay. once this is done, you may have to play with the straps and open/close your tube gap as required. i move the straps a few times but i assure you this is an absolutely critical step to getting this SOB to fit. if youre VERY lucky and you have a few friends helping you out, this process will take 1-2 hours (getting the engine in the bay) so overall install time with no hiccups, expect a minimum of 7 hours. obviously once the engine is in, spline that hooker up and bolt her down. another hour till running if youre experienced.

now for the important part so i can quell some of the hater-trash thats flying around the interwebs about these headers. the fitment on these things is absolutely insane. if either of them had been off by only a few MM's these things absolutely would NOT have fit. and for the court room, i now present my evidence. because i didnt specifically name any of these pictures and i am now a few sierra nevada torpedo IPA's deep, i am not going to explain what they depict. you should be able to tell what the story is. bottom line, VERY tight tolerances.









so as you can tell, the fitment is absolutely perfect. however, i made my job easier by cutting off the mounting tabs for the silly bracket that comes stock to link the 2 sides of your exhaust, this may be visible in the pictures. i took a cutoff wheel and went to town on the little tab in order to make the engine insertion into the bay easier. trust me its necessary and the tabs are worthless.

WHAT I WOULD HAVE DONE DIFFERENTLY?! glad you asked. i believe overall, this install went almost flawlessly and i am very pleased with the results. however, my recommendation for future ambitious z owners is this: rather than completely pulling the engine, i believe that things would have been quicker if i would have simply left the engine in, removed a few choice components then disconnected both motor mounts via the 1 nut on the K member and simply moved the engine all the way to 1 side while pulling the old headers and installing the new ones one at a time. if anyone chooses to heed this advice, please let me know how it works out. pulling the engine was without a question the easiest way to get access to the header bolts which i knew ahead of time were a nightmare to pull with the engine in the car. along with that, i was under the impression that i was going to have to helicoil a few of my stud holes after the PO put a hodge podge collection of insane looking bolts into the holes but i got VERY lucky and they were all metric and NOT cross threaded or seized.

my ultimate conclusion is this: if you want your car to have the longtube sound and not dish out your life savings to a fabrication company then take out a second mortgage on your house to get someone to install them, sell your gilfriends stupid rug or her cat or something, buy some OBX's. mount them on your wall and look at them for 2 months like i did. then when yuor lust/motivation levels peak, get 3 friends and a few cases of beer and some loud music and go to town. for 300$ you will have yourself a longtubed 350z. as long as all that scientific mumbojumbo isnt a concern to you, this is hands down the best way to go. haters, gawn hate, but these headers are PREMIUM for the money. highly recommend.

Conway_160

iTrader: (1)

Good review, sounds like its not that bad to do with the motor out.

MURDAH350

GRACIAS. however, let me be the first to say, it was not "not that bad" lol it was a major pain in the ***. however, all things considered, if you plan on a 7 hour install time before you start, you may not be as angry when it turns out to be a major pain in the *******s.

Resmarted

iTrader: (2)

YEAH STRAPS FTW.
Only way to get those fawkers in there.

Nice job meng. REPRESENT the LONGTUBE EBAY NATION YO

tommy smith

After my car got flooded & sand got into my muffler I removed that muffler. That Z sounded as "bad azz" as can be. Loved to give it a rev once in a while.

Everyone is different & you spent so much time and hard work that I'm really glad that you're so happy with the sound.

As for me, I only skimmed through your post because FOR ME it's just to long to read it all.

I will complement you on what you did because I (an old man) wouldn't be able & wouldn't do it, even read your whole post just for the sound.

terrasmak

iTrader: (8)

You forgot the real choice A. SGM longtubes.

Resmarted

iTrader: (2)

You sir, have a time machine?

cashmoney03

Glad to hear some good feedback on these. I'm never going to turn my Z into a fast car as it's my daily and I learned my lesson long ago about heavily modifying your dd but definitely want some more sound from it. Even used the PPE's are ridiculously priced. Not knocking them but come on folks. Like you, I have long been eye balling the OBX headers. I think you just pushed me over the edge.

MURDAH350

Good! I'm glad. Thats kind of the reason I wanted to write this up, I read A LOT of trash talk and warnings about these and my experience was the complete opposite. Well worth the money.

Freise

I've always heard that the reason OBX (and other generic companies) can price similar products at such a lower cost is because they simply copy the existing products and skip the whole R&D. Whether or not that's true I can't say, I read it on the internet, but the idea makes sense to me.

terrasmak

iTrader: (8)

Quality, quality control, thickness of material, fitment and of course R&D are concerns. You may get a set that lasts, you won't get the full achievable gains , but they may be good for the owners application.

Resmarted

iTrader: (2)

So 16 gauge is thicker than 16 gauge? WOW I HAD NO IDEA!

No offense, but if you've never even seen most of the 'cheap crap' headers in person, you shouldn't be commenting on their quality and build.

Beyond that, OBX longtubes have a similar "OH DON'T BUY THAT CRAP" *guy buys and is happy with no real issues* kind of reputation in other communities.

And on another note, these things were around before PPE's. So they're not "knock offs". As far as I know they're also older than SGS lth. But I can't remember perfectly.

And furthermore, most of the people on this site say that about a lot of crap. Yet, many 'respected' members buy expensive coilovers with complete sh** shocks, and nobody says a thing. Because 90% of the people on here, judge a product by the name and price associated. Which is why this community in particular has had such a HORRIBLE issue with these bubble shops, screwing people over day in and day out.

It's a big joke really.

And if you're going to talk about primaries? LMAO power gain? Of these over proper primaries probably isn't even a real 10whp. Even if it is, that's fckn nothing. The SGS car runs crazy rpm and has a ton of other mods. For 90% of the community having these, a full exhaust, and intake/spacer and a tune is 'above and beyond'. Most people just put parts in, not even getting it properly tuned. We're talking about a minor hp difference on a bone stock engine (that will at most see 7krpm with a tune), that really won't make a huge difference. These cars put down what 220-240whp stock? The difference isn't worth it. And if you really think less than 10whp is a huge difference you're kidding yourself, and should learn how to drive better.

terrasmak

iTrader: (8)

Not all are 16 gauge, some don't specify. Just a general statement, same with test pipes.

cashmoney03

Definitely agree. This "community" is all about the name/image/look and completely forgets about functionality and practicality.

2bad240

iTrader: (6)

What if I told you I ran faster with obx long tubes than anyone ever has with ppe's......

Resmarted

iTrader: (2)

The cheap ones I have are 16 gauge stainless. The ppe's advertise they're 16gauge stainless. I know op, I can ask him; willing to bet they're 16g stainless.

Even with poor collectors, the long tubes increase exhaust speed coming out of the head over shorter tubes. Less turbulence. These all have mandrel bends as well.

The schedule of the material really won't matter on a street car.
If your building a track only car then it makes sense to look at the material (like Sasha a's car). Where you're driving the **** out of the car, lap after lap, track day after track day. Blowing through slicks. Even autocross I don't think you'd be cracking headers all that often, simply because the loads the engine will see aren't nearly as great as a full track with high speed and hills etc.

Resmarted

iTrader: (2)

More power and faster times lmao

Quoted for truth

The_Assassin

Call me checp but def not spending 1300+ on ppe to gain 5 more hp. Ordering a set of these 370z obx tonight only $435


http://www.ebay.com/itm/OBX-SS-Exhaust-Header-Fit-for-2009-Nissan-370Z-VQ37VHR-Long-Tube/171669928111?_trksid=p2050601.c100271.m3466&_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20140716145905%26meid%3De6da51c72257445b804d60e1a2d8501e%26pid%3D100271%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D4%26sd%3D171669928111%26clkid%3D4106359624744423300&_qi=RTM1963929

Conway_160

iTrader: (1)

Post up a review when you get yours installed as well plz.

MURDAH350

assassin, are you going to do the install yourself?