Header and Exhaust installation - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

Acid_J · 12-19-2006, 01:34 PM

Hi - i recently purchased the exhaust and headers from Che. They arrived and look great and I am ready to attempt the installation. Does anyone know of a good write-up of how to remove/install the headers? From searches I believe the muffler is pretty easy to do but the headers sounds more involved. How long do they take?

TIA Jason.

blinkwatt · 12-19-2006, 02:28 PM

The headers should be easy but alot of people run into problems removing the old bolts and installing new ones.

http://986forum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8612

Acid_J · 12-19-2006, 03:17 PM

Yeah...after posting my question I saw dcporsche99's post and felt a little stupid. Looks like he had a fair bit of trouble with it. My car may be in for a clutch soon so maybe I will just install the muffler and let the shop do the headers.

j.fro · 12-19-2006, 05:04 PM

The headers really aren't a tough job, but there's a couple of things to be aware of. The bolts holding the headers to the head have probably seized a bit. This is common when you have steel bolts going into aluminum heads. A kind of chemical welding takes places due to the two materials reacting to each other under high temps. You absolutely don't want the bolt heads to break off! The cure for this is more heat. You'll need to use a torch to heat them up enough to break the bolts free without shearing off the heads. A propane torch will work fine.
Another thing is that the factory welded some of the nuts on the header collectors. The bolts to these may need to be cut. A Dremel tool with a steel cutting disc will do the job.
If things get to be a PITA, I recommend Sam Adams lager on tap.
Cheers