Originally Posted by
natethebrown Joe what were you disappointed about in your engine bay?
When I bought the B14 from Rodney it needed an exhaust. It had an ebay header that was welded together to a mismatched, cobbled up, catless exhaust. I picked up an ASP budget header really cheap and dropped it off along with a header wrap kit from DEI and a new cat.
I know how to wrap a header correctly, I wrapped the SSAC on my NX back before the Chicago convention:
You wet the wrap, wrap tightly, use steel zip ties, then let it dry totally and finally spray it with a sealer. The header install and wrap were supposed to be a favor for leaving my car to do the carbon fiber fitment stuff. I was buying an exhaust from them (Overkill). Here is what I found:
Also, if you remember that I said I heard exhaust leaks when we picked up the car. The leaks were due to the fact that there were only 5 of the 8 bolts holding the header to the motor. 1 exhaust stud was broken in the block and 2 other studs were missing altogether. To be able to pass emissions, I had to hook up all the egr stuff so the ASP had to go anyways. I thought I would be able to ride the rollers, but '97 has to hook up and read the ecu so all codes had to be cleared. I was able to remove the broken stud, replace it with a new in the box Hotshot header I picked up from Greg several years ago:
I was saving it for Tiffany's B15, but that car is staying 100% stock
I also had to replace the O2 sensor and get a new egr tube. I forgot how much more room the HS leaves compared to most other headers I have used:
In any case, the exhaust leak is gone now. And on a positive note, the 2.5" exhaust I bought from Mark fits well, doesn't drone, and is quiet so it was not a total loss.