Stillen Headers + Berk HFCs self-install report

Originally Posted by wstar

A bottle of JD might do me and the car both some good today. Been under there too long the past two days, need a real break



Yeah, so I just got done with the exhaust stuff again. It still hits the crossmember. I had it solidly 2 inches off of the thing when everything (boths sides of the cats and on back) was retorqued (with great precision to exactly "omfg I think I just broke my arm" ft/lbs), but then it falls right back onto the crossmember when I let the last bottle jack down. That's just where the hangers hang at. The jack is just lifting the whole thing up on the rubber hangers, and then letting it back down to their limit afterwards.

The upside is, I did find that 2 of the 6 bolts connecting the cats to the headers weren't properly torqued down when I went to loosen them (the hardest ones to reach, which makes sense). They were probably better, but insufficient, earlier on and had now shaken loose enough to notice. Getting that done right got rid of the ugly buzz I was talking about. The exhaust sounds perfect now. There's still a little odd rumble I can hear when the car is at crawling speed, but it's easily identifiable as the the center section vibrating against the crossmember it's laying on. Maybe I can just get some kind of rubber pad that can resist exhaust heat and stuff it between them? I donno at this point. Or shorten the rubber hangers (or bend the posts that go into them) somehow.

That "air pressure" noise I was talking about before is still there, most noticeably when gently engine braking around the 3k-ish region. I think it's just normal, as there's no other indication of a leak in the exhaust note anymore, yet if anything that sound got a little more noticeable. I kinda like it actually, as long as it's nothing bad.

Anyways, I'm not letting the crossmember thing get my spirits down. The car sounds and feels insanely good right now.

I think I'll do the intakes this weekend now for sure, although it may have to wait until Sunday, as I've got a big all-day drinking/bbq -type thing to attend during the day tomorrow.