Stillen Gen3 Intake, Berk Hi-flow cat, and Stillen cat-back exhaust

thispecialk

has these problem been fix yet i just now saw this and i just recently order the exhaust this morning

axio

Yes, the issue has been fixed. You should have no problems with the Stillen exhaust. Enjoy

Denny McLain

Not so sure....... Ordered Gen III intake, Stillen headers and Stillen exhaust on Monday and did the install over the last three days based upon the advice. (already had the Berk cats)

After spending much, much time laying flat on my back readjusting the exhaust, adding 8 washers to each bolt as a spacer to the brace, it still on occasion rattles and vibrates. Now to be fair, instead of the Stillen Y-pipe I used an existing one that I had that appeared to be of much higher quality. Go back and do the realignment with the Stillen Y-pipe and see if it solves the issue. So far everything people are complaining about are still issues.

Honestly really quite surprised. Every vendor on occasion has issues or problems with new items, but exhaust clearance is not rocket science and misalignment of parts should never go out the door as this is a known issue. As everyone has pointed out, you shouldn't need a phd to fit an exhaust.

Headers....Warning! The factory 02 sensors do not come out easily and one seized during removal, I went to the dealer to purchase a replacement. They are $425.00 and according to the dealer and an independent muffler shop, seizing during removal is a common problem. One of the parts guys told me he always quotes a new exhaust manifold along with the 02 as he said usually you cannot remove the 02 and it's easier to replace both. Upon taking the stock manifold to the muffler shop, they got it out but the threads were destroyed during the process, so it's another $425.00 that you didn't expect plus the hassle.

Warning, Warning! Pretty handy and do my own work as I'm very fickle about getting things right and not banging up my car. Also have excellent tool collection. I would never attempt the header install again. It might be OK if you do them all the time, know the tricks and have the special tools. But it was one of the most difficult things I've ever done. You need to have the hands of a five year old to reach things as it's so tight.

Header quality vs stock. Stock is high quality but a poor design. Small tubes, crappy merge collection point and unequal length. Problem I've had is shorty headers typically do not help much. Dunno?? The dyno never lies.

Last note.........throwing 1168 MAF codes obviously from the Gen III intake. Do these go away on their own after the computer learns or is it another issue they don't tell you about??

Overall I honestly don't know what to think. Old established company, OK prices and the quality goes with the pricing. Vast difference in the welds and material of the Y-pipe that I purchased prior. Call them Monday and see how the mop flops and trying to get into Cobb for dyno tuning. We will see, but it would be a cold day in hell before I'd do headers again.

wstar

The intakes shouldn't be throwing any codes. 1168 is an O2 sensor code, which you mentioned you had problems with...

As for the Stillen exhaust, my problems with it were unending really, but they made design changes after that first batch, and most people are reporting no install problems anymore using the complete Stillen CBE (including their Y-pipe).

Also, I wouldn't recommend using washers to space off that crossmember, that's got to affect the rigidity.

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NIZMOZ

Just a hint for O2s that won't come out easy. Heat up the bung that is welded on the exhaust where the O2 is with a torch till it gets hot maybe even slightly red, then turn the o2 sensor out. Learned that from a ASE Certified mechanic friend that put my Berks in and the driver side O2 got stuck coming out. Did that and it turned out with ease.

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Denny McLain

Tried heating the 02 base with a butane torch and two things happened: I chickened out as I don't like to singe anything and the other is, it didn't help. Was very disappointed the muffler shop didn't try and heat it with their gas torches before they took it out as it sure stripped the threads.

Update...... Removed the JIC Y-pipe, took the cats off, installed new crush header/cats gaskets and installed the Stillen Y-pipe. Think a big trick is to tighten the top two bolts first on the cats/exhaust manifold to create more of an upward angle and do the bottom bolt last. I tightened the dog poop out of the top ones and snugged firmly the bottom ones.

Loosely fitted everything, jacked the exhaust up and retightened everything. There is more clearance but the washers will remain as I just don't think it will clear completely w/o them. Drive the car a bit to see if the exhaust sags and make a decision later but there was definite marks where it rubbed in only 18 miles.

Also.....thanks for the heads up on the 1168 code. My OBD II code reader said MAF but it's a general code reader and not Nissan specific.

wstar

The Nissan description is:

P1168 - Closed Loop Control (Bank 2)

(From Nissan OBD-II Trouble Codes )

Forum threads here and there say it's likely an O2 sensor (the header ones that are real AF meters).

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thispecialk

Just got Stillen exhaust put in and I heard a clanking noise after driving like 3 minutes maybe 5 please help o yea the instruction said move silent damper from oem to new Stillen exhaust and the instruction mentioned that there is 4 silent damper but the mechainc said only 2 where found? does anyone have a picture of the silent damper so i can make sure that was the mechanic pointed to was the silent damper. and also when i was parking my car i look out the passenger window and saw smoke is this normal in the begining?

axio

There's just two dampers. Also, the smoke is normal. For clanking, you can check for install issues. Make sure things are clearing and that all hangers are in place, bolts are tightened up, etc. Make sure that bolt that acts as a hanger for the driver side part of the muffler is mounted correctly and hasn't somehow come out.

thispecialk

well im going back to mechanic tomorrow to pick up rest of my stock exhaust ima see wat they say

thispecialk

i fix the clanking noise myself i went to a shop and rented the lift. i guess the exhaust place i went to rush it and didnt read the instruction. but i lifted the car back up lossen the bolts up and raise the exhaust up with a support stand as high as it goes then tightened it from front to back. when all bolts was i thought i **** up again cause the cross member wasnt touching but the sway bar was but when i remove the support stand it move down alittle giving space from the sway bars. now i regret paying those exhaust store to install when i could of rented a lift and install everything myself

thispecialk

What tool do u use to cut the space for the intake to fit

Denny McLain

High speed pneumatic grinder using a porting carbide tip. Took maybe 4-5 minutes at most to do both sides including clean-up. You need a compressor, but the tools themselves are quite reasonable.

Used to do my own intake porting and some mild head cleanup so I already had porting tools. In fact, I was tempted to do some cleanup work on the header inlets as they are pretty good, not perfect.

wstar

You could stand to be a little less abrasive about the situation. I'm not sure what's going on with your situation, but even the first batch of Stillen CBE's (which I have), which lots of people had issues with clearing the crossmember, didn't seem as bad as you're describing this, and it's been quite a while since forum members here started reporting a higher success rate due to the design changes. Lots of them have gone in fine in the past couple of months, haven't really seen any fitment issues reported lately until yours.

Maybe try loosening the slip-joints a lot and freeing them up with a mallet to make sure they slip well when you jack it back up into place to retorque again, that would be my next guess. In order to raise the center further than the last place you torqued it too, the slipjoints would have to go "shorter", which if they made any impression on the underlying pipe means they need to slip over the bump of that impression to adjust now.

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Denny McLain

Would describe it best as "irritated" as the headers really kicked my butt and the 02 from Nissan still has not arrived. Need to do more with my life than lay under a car in 100 degree heat and as mentioned.....my play time ran out.

Still feel that it should be a "non-issue" and even though others are claiming success, others are not (like me).

Wondering how many other brands of exhaust you have to jump through this many hoops with? One of the reasons I favored the JIC is not having slip joints as for some reason, really never trusted them. We'll play with it and make it work, certainly didn't expect to have to.