New Headers for my '04 S

[fu03steve]

Originally Posted by jhandy

What does it take to map the DME and change our cars to ROW? Will the dealer do it? Aftermartket Indy shop?
James

dealer wont do it...
and i doubt aftermarket indy shop have it

[Jaxonalden]

As I said in my past post, I needed time this weekend to do the install. Well I found the time last night between 10pm and 3am.



This is the set before install



Drivers side OEM set



Both OEM sets removed and ready for the install



Drivers side installed, looks great and the install was fairly straight forward.



Now for the bad news. This is a shot of the passenger side, and as you gear jamming guys can see I have hardware where you don't. The two black lines you see next to the lower block, below the exhaust ports are coolant lines for the tiptronic transmission! The forward exhaust port is directly above the the line and directly in the way of the forward exhaust tube. These lines are "T'ed" into the main coolant lines on the forward bulkhead. I tried to move them but the T is rubber and the line is metal. I e-mailed the manufacturer in China and he said " i think we can modify the header for you, but we need you modify the headers first, and then plz send the sample back to me, and we will copy a header for you according to your sample. you only pay the cost of shipping,we will copy the header for you by free.ok?" So they're ready to work with me on the problem.

For the cost I think I'll just see what I have to do to clear the line and e-mail him with the results and have him make me one and pay for it and the shipping. It will be a wash if I had to ship mine back and forth. In the mean time I removed the other header and installed the OEM set so I can drive the car.

I'll keep updates coming when they happen.

[heyjae]

That sucks. That so disappointing. It great that they are willing to work with you, though.

That view, minus the tranny coolant lines, is so familiar now. I installed my new headers today. The secondary cat bypass pipes didn't arrive yet, so I couldn't finish the job either.

[j.fro]

For both of you who just installed headers, did you have any issues with the header bolts breaking? Anything that you did to help getting the bolts out?

[Jaxonalden]

A heavy dose of penetrating oil, WD-40. Any lightweight oil will do then let it set for a day or two to work into the threads. Then prior to loosening and removing the bolts, fire up the car and allow the bolts to heat up. This is done to severely corroded bolts, mine just took a couple of shot's of WD-40 and the bolts popped right out.
One thing to remember, the heads are aluminum so don't over torque the bolts when tightening.

P.S. Give the O2 sensors a shot also.

[heyjae]

Originally Posted by Jaxonalden

A heavy dose of penetrating oil, WD-40. Any lightweight oil will do then let it set for a day or two to work into the threads. Then prior to loosening and removing the bolts, fire up the car and allow the bolts to heat up. This is done to severely corroded bolts, mine just took a couple of shot's of WD-40 and the bolts popped right out.
One thing to remember, the heads are aluminum so don't over torque the bolts when tightening.

P.S. Give the O2 sensors a shot also.

I did exactly the same thing and the bolts came off without a problem. In my case though, I did install headers about 4 years / 40,000 miles ago, so there may have been less corrosion.

[pacific986]

I saw your post, followed your links, and pulled the trigger immediately on getting a set for my 2001 S. I agree that for $160 it's tough to go wrong (that includes tax and shipping). I'm sorry to see you ran into a hiccup (sp?) in your install. I have an appt. with Alex at Integrated Performance in Gardena (Southern California) on Tuesday. I'll try to take some photos and post them if I can figure it out. If I have the time I may get baseline dyno numbers from Integrated as well. (they have a chassis dyno (all wheel drive for anyone who may be interested) to compare with the post install set up. I doubt the horsepower will increase, but I suspect the throttle response should improve and the sound my change a bit.