Nissan 370Z Forum - DIY: Motordyne Long Tube Header Install

Forward: This may not be a DIY, or at least not a very detailed one...sorry for that. However, I hope it has useful information for someone. Sorry I have no pictures. Feel free to move this into a different section if need be.

Saturday my friend and mechanic helped me install a set of Motordyne LTXYZ headers and resonated test pipes onto my 2011 370Z Nismo with 22k miles on it. Prior to the install I had the headers sanded down and ceramic coated inside and out. It took us about 7 hours. The Z already had the Motordyne 370Z shockwave exhaust and upon installation of the headers, it matched right up to the existing motordyne exhaust. With just the exhaust on the Stock (but Stillen Super charged car) the sound was amazing, sounding much like American muscle. After install it sounded more like an Exotic. Anyway, can totaled the next day so here are some notes on how it went and what to expect.

Night before I dropped off the car at his shop, put it on the lift and we prayed down all catalytic bolts and heat shield bolts.

Next day we started on the passenger side...definitely the easiest side! First remove the 02 sensors from the cats...easy, just don't use an impact on them. Remove the bolts from cat and extract the cat...this came off not problem for us. Next remove the heat shield on the original headers. Two of the heat shield bolts broke off, but none of the catalytic bolts or header bolts gave us any issues (short of figuring out how to get access to them). Once the heat shield is removed it can be dropped out no problem. Then remove the passenger header, this was straight forward but to get it out we did remove one stud for the header in order to get the header out more easily. Then it slipped right out the bottom. Total time for passenger side...1.5 hrs.

Driver side started out the same way with removing O2 sensor and then the heat shield. However, we dorked around for about 20 mins trying to get the heat shield out but the headers were in the way so we left it sit up in there until we removed the headers. Once the header nuts were removed, dorked around with wiggling both the headers and the heatshield trying to get them around the header studs and the steering rod...20 mins later we decided to remove two of the header studs and then we easily removed the heat shield and the header. Just remove a couple of the header studs from the get go.

Putting the Motordyne headers in...
Passenger side was easy and fit right up in there. The Wideband O2 sensor was too short so I cut it and soldered in an extension...used old sensor wires and shielding to protect it from the high heat.

Driver side was different...can't get the headers in, the steering rod is in the way. We first tried to remove the two bolts for the rack and pinion and slide it to the drivers side...it gave us more room, but just ever so not quite enough. So we had to disconnect the steering rod. We marked it's positions with a white-out pen. Marked the notch it is in under the car and we also marked up under the dash. Underside you will need to unbolt the u-joint and slip it out the gear type of socket. Under the dash we removed the bolt up top. This allowed the steering rod to move around nicely and give us the room you need to get the new LT headers in. This isn't really that bad, if only we new that is what had to be done in the beginning it would had saved us hours. I extended the wire for the O2 sensor also.

Putting it all back together was straight forward. During this install, we put the lift up and down about 30 times in all. It DEFINITELY is not a home garage jack job. I can't tell you if it gave more power via a butt dyno since I didn't want to put it into boost until I got it retuned since it now breaths more without the stock headers and no cats. While it did sound sweet especially if you like the Exotic car sound. I prefer the American muscle sound so I liked the sound with stock headers and Motordyne exhaust...however, perhaps with just straight test pipes and not the resonated test pipes would give you the American muscle sound back. The sound with the new headers and the resonated test pipes seemed slightly quieter...just slightly...but perhaps that could be percieved due to a different sound between Exotic and American. Anyway, the next day I had an accident and the insurance company totaled it.

/Z/
Over and out.