So I finally gave up two days to install these stillen headers with a friend of mine from work. So you get a rough idea of how much a pain in the butt and time it takes to install I will brief you now. I started the work around 4pm Friday, stopped around 9pm the first day with one header out. The second day I started at 2pm and got done around 9pm with cuts all over my hands and arms, bruises and a massive head being on my back most of the day for the install. I suggest get some deep 14mm sockets, unviersal adapters, long hand ratchets, extensions and a ton of patients. There are going to be times when you think its impossible without dropping or raising the motor, but it can be done. In the end you save yourself a ton of money for the install and you learned how to become a better mechanic.haha

 

Congrats. I would have supported and lifted the motor off the mounts to make life easier.

 

Good Job. I quit mine after the first day, and just paid Sonic to do it.

 

Congrats! Just swapped my headers over to the new engine today... course mine was a lot easier since the engine was already out.
Sure doesn't sound like fun with the engine still in though.

 

After I did a little research I found I didn't want any part of the install. Didnt even attempt it.

 

my friend spent 8 hours on my header install with the car on jack stands.

 

I spent 3 hours working on it, and all I managed to do was get the heat shields off, and bloody my knuckles haha.

 

Easiest way to do it, is to drain the A/C system, unplug the hoses, and remove the compressor. Than when you remove the compressor, you can just take out the headers thru the front of the car. I had to remove my old aftermarket headers when I was installing my turbo, and after hours of painful attempts and jacking up my alignment, I stumbled across the compressor bit. Since then i've replaced my headers again, and it's painless and takes only a few hours, granted, you need to have some way of draining and recharging ur A/C though... I guess that's the catch

 

What kind of headers are you running?

 

As a general rule of thumb, I tell people if they have the motor out for anything, install some quality aftermarket headers. Whether headers is worth it or not is up to the owner. Some people, like myself, love decent n/a gains. I see value in it, so it's worth it to me. Z1 had my motor out for cams / heads package install, so we installed Tomei V2 headers while everything was apart.

I do recommend Z1 or Tomei shorties, or PPE long tubes. The RPM and ISR long tubes are decent budget options. Imo, your header selection should be based on the intake manifold and cams selected for your build. For example, I have revup lower plenum, JWT C8 cams, Tomei headers, and Z1 test pipes. And even though I only have a single track day at Road Atlanta with this setup, this combination does scream up top. I love this setup, though it seems the PPE's would probably benefit me more than the shorty/test pipe combination. (need to schedule dyno tuning)

As far as stock exhaust manifolds are concerned, just compare the DE manifolds to stock HR headers. It's clear which set Nissan put more R&D into. The DE manifolds are trash, you could install the HR headers, and call it a day. lol

Edit; I didn't see the date of prior post, and mistook this thread as current lol. I checked the FAQ section, and didn't see anything, but mods can feel free to delete this post if resurrecting ancient threads is frowned upon.