I've been on vacation for 3 weeks. I got back last weekend, ordered a header and a few other parts, then went out and had some fun. So I decided this weekend i'd spend some time with my car. I got parts in for my header install. Friday, I got the loaner O2 sensor tool from Advance Auto Parts, along with some SeaFoam.

It was long and teedious. You know that feeling when you're having REALLY great sex, and she digs her nails into your back and scratches the hell out of it? Right now I feel just like that, minus the really great sex part. I did not have air tools. I figured, hell, I'm a pretty strong dude, the army makes me work out all the time. Heck no! Those bolts put the hurt on me. I put the smack down right back on them though with a little bit of tools and a whole lota good ol' fassioned american ass. But I did it... I actually installed my header with hand tools. Mods.. change my title please.

There will be some videos to come of different exhaust sounds. I took one of the AEM style intake with stock exhaust. I took another of the intake with NO exhaust, and I will be taking another with the new header installed. here's a pic of the parking lot I did this work in.



Believe me it sounds good with a header. And believe me it's loud without an exhaust. I reved my engine and believe it or not, my friend who was standing by the red car in the distance had to raise his voice to talk over my exhaust, or lack of one...



here's a good pic of the header installed.





After I installed the header and drove it around a bit, I decided it was time to run some seafoam! Whoohoo! So i pour the stuff in and the engine dies... I'm like, big deal so i pour the rest in. I sorta hydrolocked my engine. I had to crank it a few times and thankfully it got passed being locked and actually worked. It took about 10 "ehhhs" of the starter to actually make it through the compression cycle. It fired right up after that and I'd heard the stuff smokes before.... I never knew it smoked that much...



Idle...





Punched the gas real quick and let go.





Right after that pic, a cop pulled into my lot and turned on his lights. He told me that I was creating a road hazard. I respectfully acknowledged and moved my car across the parking lot where it idled for 25 minutes and stopped smoking.




My car is running awesomely now. the seafoam really improved my engine's performance and i recommend it to everyone. In fact, i think i'll run it again to make sure I'm getting the full potential out of my engine. Between the header and the seafoam, I'd say... it was a 20 HP day.

 

looks good DTN. nice job. the hard part with just hand tools is where it bolts to the cat and flex pipe. those rust and are a pain. ive always torched mine

 

Thanks.. I didn't use a torch though... I didn't have one.

 

what kind of header? looks good!

 

w00t, DTN has a header.. engine bay looks good.. now polish up your IM..

 

damn you did that without air tools? brave brave man. they had to cut one of the stud tips to get my gt headers on. i didn't feel like struggling with that... plus it was a custom exhaust so i had to get sh*t welded anyways.

what exactly is seafoam? you didn't get a ticket did you? creating a road hazard, maybe lol. i remember when my first AEM split CAI fell off and i ran it over doing a test run on my evap cannister, car behind me was like wtf. hahahaha. oops.

nice work man, hoping to get some sound clips. if you haven't already, definitely get those headers ceramic coated or they will rust to hell.

 

I really need to get some of that seafoam! Header looks great BTW! Only if they would stay like that forever! What brand header? SSA/OBX?

 

used hand tools too. i got my entire stock exhaust off then realized i should have left it bolted up to get the things i needed off it(cat, flexpipe).

anywho, i was banging a combination wrench with a mallet and slipped, one of the arms of the crescent end dug right into my thumb, taking a chunk of meat along with it. bleed all over the place, scared the hell out of everyone in my house. i just now finally lost the scar after a year and a half.

header looks good.

 

Damn man, thats a REAL CLEAN engine bay. GJ fing02.gif

 

Yeah, when I did the seafoam, it was smoking for about 30 mins, but hell it was worth the $6.... There was a noticable improvement in engine response and idle fing02.gif