Hi ! I'm sorry for the wait, I had so much things to do that I just finished the "how to" !
First, the tools and parts ! You will need :
-a pair of header (in my case, the cheap eBay ones)
-2 OEM porsche gaskets for the headers and the 2 others for the mid pipes
-a set of two O2 sensor spacers. Get the 90° bent ones as they will stick under the car if you get the straight ones
-a set of metric socket and ratchet
-a set of flat wrenches. Get the ones with a ratchet on the box end as they will save you a lot of time !
-a set of torx keys (you will only need the T30)
-a good blow torch, capable of concentrate really high heat on a small point
-an angle grinder with a cutting and a grinding disc
-a drill (I have a cheap chicago electric 1/2" drive, it's enough)
-10mm and 12mm drill bits
-a bench vice (solidly mounted, it will be easier)
-a set of broken bolts extracting tool (for M8 bolts)
-WD40
-good penetrating oil
-12 M8x30mm 8.8 bolts
-12 M8x50mm bolts with their washers (2 per bolts) and nuts
-some rags and brushes
-someone to help!
Now that you have gathered all of this stuff, you can almost start !
You have to choose a way to lift the back of the car, I chose 16000Lbs Rhino ramps, they are tough and will lift the back high enough.
The best though, is a lift ... but who has one!
Also, you will want to use a creeper, you can not go without one !
Okay, NOW we can start, be sure that you have EVERYTHING that I listed!
Read everything at least once before starting!
- lifting the car: find a flat spot, with clean concrete, it makes the job easier.
Verify that the ramps are aligned with the car, and start to climp them in reverse, ask someone to tell you if your front bumper rubs! If it does, put some wood piece under the front tires.
Be careful to not go past the ramps, my friend did it once... not fun.
Once the car is in place, you can use wheel chokes, they are cheap and provide an added security!
- Once lifted, you should see the entire exhaust system.
Before removing anything, apply penetrating oil on every one of the exhaust's system bolts.
If you live in a place that have a real winter unlike me, you may want to apply regularly some penetrating oil on the bolts the weeks before the job.
- Okay, now we can start the real job !
First thing to do, remove the flat bottom. Its a flat plastic part, just in front of the engine
It is held in place by 7 screws and nuts.
two T30 torx on each sides, then two other 10mm hex nuts (plastic nuts) on each side, and on hidden in the middle of the car.
Once the 7 screws and nuts are removed, you have to remove the part from the other part of the flat bottom.
- Then, we have to remove the two stiffening bar that are under the car and run from the front of the engine to the back of the gearbox.
It's just four nuts on each side, plus a bolt on the forward end of the bar.
Use a 15mm socket, this is the easiest part.
I recommend that you put back in place each bolt and nuts that you remove, so you can not loose them !
- Now we move on to the cooling panel, this flat piece of aluminium help cool the gearbox and CV joints (it also keep the dirt on the gearbox... so it can be pretty dirty !)
This panek is held in place by 8 bolts and nuts, you already removed 4 nuts, so you just need to removed the 4 last bolts, located on each ends of the panel.
Once removed, the panel can be really hard to remove, wiggle it and try to pull it, it should come ! the fact is that with time, everything moves, and the panel gets caught in the threads of the studs.
- To make some room, undo the sway bar, it's just four 15mm bolts.
You can clean it while it's off.
You can let it hang, or put it on top of the bolts, so it's not in the way when you are going back and forth under the car.
- Now on to the delicate part ... removing the bolts without breaking one !
Before doing anything, I squirted some penetrating oil on EVERY bolts that I had to remove.
I didn't break any bolts.
Before removing them, I use a blow torch to heat up the bolts.
Then I made sure to be as straight as possible when undoing them.
I left two bolts hand tighten so I didn't end up with a header in the face !
- You can now remove everything that was hand tightened with the help of a friend.
You can unbolt the headers from the back pipes to remove it in two steps, but there is a chance that the nuts are rusted and very difficult to undo when still on the car.
You'd better do it out of the car, you can remove the assembly from the back of the car.
- Once out of the car, disassemble the back pipes from the headers, there is a good chance that you have to change the stock studs (replace with M8x50 bolts).
To do it, you can use a vise, with the blow torch and a socket to press the studs out.
With enough heat, the studs will go out easily !
- Ok, Now you have everything ready to put back on the car!
First, screw the O2 sensors spacer and the sensors on the new headers (If you have listened to me, you bought the 90° bent ones) they are really useful to put the O2 sensors out of the way of anything and they will not set the CEL.
- Putting the headers back on the car can be a bit tricky with the new OEM gaskets...
Mines had a problem, and its possible, if you get them from ebay like me, that you will have the same problem: One of the hole is not aligned with everything else!
To check it, try to bolt the new header on, with only two bolts, then try to bolts every other bolts, one of them will not fit, meaning that this hole is not aligned!
To fix that, just drill this hole with the 10mm then the 12mm drill bits. Just be careful, you have to do it very cleanly, don't put metal chip in the header's tubes (or blow them well after to make sure!) and deburr the hole so you won't damage the gasket or head!
- Now go back under the car and really put them on! Make sure the head is clean, if not, clean it with WD40 and a rag then wipe everything off and let it dry.
Not too much difficulty here, once you have the two first bolts holding the header, it's easy! I don't remember the torque for the header bolts, but it's not much, remember, the head is aluminum, be careful.
To plug the O2 sensors back, use a long flat head screw driver (picture after) that will save you a lot of time !
- We are not done yet ! You will see that the header are way bigger then the stock ones, and they will hit the brackets that holds the under panel...
The better solution is to move the brackets away from the headers by drilling another hole in the panel (almost aligned with the two stock hole), If it's not enough, you can just bend the whole bracket downward, you need half an inch of clearance.
- That was the last thing to do, you can put everything back in, with the new bolts for the header's flanges and the slip joints (I didn't use metric bolts, you can use the equivalent of M8 in inches for the slip joints) and the back pipes brackets.
Now, you can start the car, there should be no leaks or rattle (I had rattle because of the bracket that holds the under panel, it was loose).
For the first 100 miles the sound will change, after that the sound will set.
The car sounds smoother and more metallic, no change noticed after 5000RPM though.
You should notice a slight increase in torque in the mid range, do a test in 5th gear, the time from 70 to 80 (or more... ) will be shorter than before !
You will also notice that the clicking noise when you shut the car off is almost gone
You should not have the CEL on, if it does, make sure you got everything plugged right !
Enjoy your new header !
The next step for me will be the back pipe, as the diameter of the header is greater than the back pipe and there is power to make here !
If you have any more question, ask
Ben
Porsche Boxster S
Porsche Boxster
986 Boxster
Linear Mode
