My Plight
07-09-11, 01:53 PM
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My Plight
Simple proposition; buy Sikky headers, install Sikky headers.... Not so simple. Most of you may have put 2 and 2 together, and figured out that my headers were the ones that were modified because I was not happy with the welds around the inlets of the flanges. There is a thread or 2 containing comments from myself, Sikky, and as well as other members somewhere around the interwebs. Anyways, here is what I did.
When I got my headers, I was not happy at all. They looked like ****. The welds around the inlets had holes in them, they were uneven, they were of varying depth, they looked disgusting.
So I set about filing them down, sanding them down, porting the inlets. All done by hand. Air tools, hand files, a giant belt sander. This was basically the result.
I was much happier. Sikky was scolding me from the get go about what I had done. They said numerous times that my headers would leak everywhere. I had purchased a new set of gaskets for the install because I feel that if you change a component, it requires a change of gasket. Upon receiving the gaskets, I took some pictures.... (prior to finishing "fixing" the headers)
Not exactly the best fitting headers you will come across.... but at least I made them a little better for the most part.
Then after I was finished the "fixing" it was nearly time for the car to be put away for the year. So I was persuaded by someone, and be Elite to send my headers to them for the long awaited back to back dyno comparison between Elite headers and Sikky headers. Among the terms in the agreement were that Elite would perform the tests honestly, then re-weld my Sikky headers, and professionally machine the flanges flat with another port and polish to the inlets. Well that never happened. 5 months in from when I sent them away, I had not heard a single word despite numerous emails. When I got a reply it was always the "we'll try to get to it next week" answer. That flew for a little while. Then in March I said I wanted my headers back by April. That didn't happen. Then in April I said I wanted them back for May. Thad didn't happen. Then in May I said I wanted them back for June 4th. There was a luxury and exotic cruise I wanted to show up for. That never happened. Then I started getting angry. Then I started harassing Elite (Andy specifically) with phone calls and emails. Then I got his personal cell number. Then I got really rude. Finally after weeks of that, they were shipped away, only to have UPS accidentally overshoot my destination. Ended up way up north, added 4 days to the original shipping time. Oh well.
When I unboxed them, they looked exactly as they had when they left, plus a few more dings and scrapes I'm pretty sure. Here is them on my garage floor 2 weeks ago.
Also pictured, the exhaust diffusers I removed, scuffed, then painted with ceramic header paint seen here.
Finished with scuffing and painting the back of the Joe-Z exhaust mufflers as well.
As for the headers..... about 3 hours to wrap each one.
Then after 2 days drying in the sun. They got a few coats of header paint as well, to seal them from moisture, this turned out great until the struggle of getting them in the car managed to move some wrap around and expose some unpainted wrap.... oh well.
Now the install.... I have no pictures here because it was a lot of frustration met with swearing met with hatred for Sikky. The install was done on jack stands in my garage, approx. 20" off the ground. Not an issue, plenty of room under the car to move around and do things. Where the issues started was when I actually had to put the giant Sikky headers into this tiny little space where the tiny little stock manifolds used to be. I think I said FML about 73,700 times. Co-incidentally the full price I paid for the car. After taking with my friend who installed them on his car (he works for Lexus), he gave me a few pointers. First, I took the engine mounts right off the block, this gave much, MUCH more room to get the headers up and in. I could slide them in the subframe then lift straight up.
The driver side went up without issue, except for tightening a few nuts. I used all the stock manifold studs by the way. All 16 of them, much easier to start a nut on a stud you can feel while holding a header then try to put a bolt in a hole you can't see or feel. Also, I am very glad I had new gaskets. After seeing how crushed the stock ones were coming out, compared to a new gasket, it just makes me feel a lot better about the seal to the block. Don't ask about how much torque I put on the nuts, all I know is they were tighter than the stocks ones coming off, and that I went over each one 3 or 4 times making sure none had loosened off after tightening another one. I went until i could barely turn them. This point was usually preceded by a nice "click" from the gasket being compressed to its maximum. Then just a little more on the next check for good measure.
The passenger side. Oh, the passenger side. It was way more difficult then the driver side. Simply because the top 2 bolts on the back were almost impossible to get to. The only reason I was able to get to them was because I have large, yet slender hands, followed by wrists that aren't very big and fairly small forearms considering my line of work is very physically demanding and most guys in this business are fairly large in size. If you're installing these yourself, you best be small, and wear no sleeves or coveralls. There simply is no room to spare. I should probably mention at this point that I lowered the block by maybe 2 inches and shifted it to the driver side about another 2 inches to even accomplish this. Getting the header in there without moving the block over was impossible. It got caught on the starter heat shield more times then I care to remember.
So after all that was done, installing the o2 sensors again. Driver side, screw in, tighten, plug into connector. Passenger side, screw in, tighten, plug into.... oh wait. WTF!? The wires are now 4" too short. Wowowowowowow. Followed by a nice string of choice words to myself, alone in my garage about Sikky. Nothing anywhere from them said anything about needing to somehow make this side longer. So I removed the o2 sensor again, got myself some nice thick gauge quality wire and soldered on about 6" extra, wrapped it all up, put some nice loom on it (that might melt off, but I'll check later, stuck it back in, and struggled for 10 minutes to plug the damn thing into the connector because its so hard to hold the plug, turn it, and push it in with only 2 fingers on it lol.
Now the dipstick. Instead of lengthening this essay by another 10 minute read I'll just say... it's a piece of ****. It hit the engine block, it hit the header tube, it didn't fit into the hole, when it did fit in the hole it was turned and crooked and the bracket up top was nowhere near the bolt to secure it. Thankfully, I have a father, with a little pipe bender. Between the 2 of us, and a couple hours of time, we re-bent the tube to clear the block, clear the header, around a bolt it was rubbing on, and go into the hole as straight as we could possibly get it before we lost our minds. The dipstick wasn't too happy going in, but it made it all the way.
Then bolting up the subframe again. I had no idea of the torque, I just know that it took almost all I had to break the bolts with a 1/2" breaker bar. When I tightened them up, I went fairly tight, then brought out the torque wrench and settled on 120ft-lb. It was really tight but I didn't feel like I was about to break anything. Everything else when I put it back together I just went tight until it felt right. If you pull wrenches you will know what I mean. Just until it feels like it's home. It almost tells you to stop turning.
Headers to Joe-Z exhaust was better than I expected, almost. It met up nicely on one side, flanges looked flat, but then the other side I had to bend it inwards, and put a jack on it to push it up so I could get it "square". Not that bad. So on first start up it looked like this.
Nice smokey header wrap lol. It didn't smoke nearly as long as I have seen some smoke before. So.... Did it leak!? Nope. Not one bit on the manifolds as far as I could tell. There was 1 small leak on each of the connections to the exhaust. This is the most common place from what I understand. I will probably get some better gaskets. I'm not too worried about it because after a minute or so of running the leak went away..... I went for a quick drive to make to feel the car out, see if my wheels were going to fall off. As you may recall, Elite "lost" my Sikky microprocessor. Andy basically has gone silent again, Sikky can't sell me one separately they claim. I called PPE. They had no problems shipping me one of theirs. Paul, great guy, even shipped it out that same evening when I called him. So I had no check engine light for the first little bit of it running. But I drove it maybe...20km to check it all out, enjoy the sound, all that. Then my lights came on. Bullocks. Back to the garage, unplug battery. Now I'm waiting for my PPE chip, and will clear the code (if any) with my friends OBDII code reader.
Now, was the wrap a waste of time? Will it cause harm? I don't know yet. I think, that it may have promoted more exhaust flow for sure. Anyone with Sikky headers and a Joe-Z exhaust can probably recall the "whistle/rattle noise" when you start it, and when you're on throttle. It seems to come from the middle of the car. It's really hard to pin down, but it doesnt come from the motor, and you can't hear it at the back. Well I have heard this noise on a friends car, same header exhaust combo, and I can tell you that this noise is much louder on my car. You could hear it on his, but on mine you can really hear it. Will we have a few pulls later to see if mine is faster.... probably, but for now, only speculation. I may dyno it sometime in the near future, but you'll have to go off of that number alone because I have no baseline.
So this is the end of this lengthy write up, I must go, because I have guests watching the latest Top Gear in my movie room lol. Enjoy. I will put a video clip or 2 up later....
When I got my headers, I was not happy at all. They looked like ****. The welds around the inlets had holes in them, they were uneven, they were of varying depth, they looked disgusting.
So I set about filing them down, sanding them down, porting the inlets. All done by hand. Air tools, hand files, a giant belt sander. This was basically the result.
I was much happier. Sikky was scolding me from the get go about what I had done. They said numerous times that my headers would leak everywhere. I had purchased a new set of gaskets for the install because I feel that if you change a component, it requires a change of gasket. Upon receiving the gaskets, I took some pictures.... (prior to finishing "fixing" the headers)
Not exactly the best fitting headers you will come across.... but at least I made them a little better for the most part.
Then after I was finished the "fixing" it was nearly time for the car to be put away for the year. So I was persuaded by someone, and be Elite to send my headers to them for the long awaited back to back dyno comparison between Elite headers and Sikky headers. Among the terms in the agreement were that Elite would perform the tests honestly, then re-weld my Sikky headers, and professionally machine the flanges flat with another port and polish to the inlets. Well that never happened. 5 months in from when I sent them away, I had not heard a single word despite numerous emails. When I got a reply it was always the "we'll try to get to it next week" answer. That flew for a little while. Then in March I said I wanted my headers back by April. That didn't happen. Then in April I said I wanted them back for May. Thad didn't happen. Then in May I said I wanted them back for June 4th. There was a luxury and exotic cruise I wanted to show up for. That never happened. Then I started getting angry. Then I started harassing Elite (Andy specifically) with phone calls and emails. Then I got his personal cell number. Then I got really rude. Finally after weeks of that, they were shipped away, only to have UPS accidentally overshoot my destination. Ended up way up north, added 4 days to the original shipping time. Oh well.
When I unboxed them, they looked exactly as they had when they left, plus a few more dings and scrapes I'm pretty sure. Here is them on my garage floor 2 weeks ago.
Also pictured, the exhaust diffusers I removed, scuffed, then painted with ceramic header paint seen here.
Finished with scuffing and painting the back of the Joe-Z exhaust mufflers as well.
As for the headers..... about 3 hours to wrap each one.
Then after 2 days drying in the sun. They got a few coats of header paint as well, to seal them from moisture, this turned out great until the struggle of getting them in the car managed to move some wrap around and expose some unpainted wrap.... oh well.
Now the install.... I have no pictures here because it was a lot of frustration met with swearing met with hatred for Sikky. The install was done on jack stands in my garage, approx. 20" off the ground. Not an issue, plenty of room under the car to move around and do things. Where the issues started was when I actually had to put the giant Sikky headers into this tiny little space where the tiny little stock manifolds used to be. I think I said FML about 73,700 times. Co-incidentally the full price I paid for the car. After taking with my friend who installed them on his car (he works for Lexus), he gave me a few pointers. First, I took the engine mounts right off the block, this gave much, MUCH more room to get the headers up and in. I could slide them in the subframe then lift straight up.
The driver side went up without issue, except for tightening a few nuts. I used all the stock manifold studs by the way. All 16 of them, much easier to start a nut on a stud you can feel while holding a header then try to put a bolt in a hole you can't see or feel. Also, I am very glad I had new gaskets. After seeing how crushed the stock ones were coming out, compared to a new gasket, it just makes me feel a lot better about the seal to the block. Don't ask about how much torque I put on the nuts, all I know is they were tighter than the stocks ones coming off, and that I went over each one 3 or 4 times making sure none had loosened off after tightening another one. I went until i could barely turn them. This point was usually preceded by a nice "click" from the gasket being compressed to its maximum. Then just a little more on the next check for good measure.
The passenger side. Oh, the passenger side. It was way more difficult then the driver side. Simply because the top 2 bolts on the back were almost impossible to get to. The only reason I was able to get to them was because I have large, yet slender hands, followed by wrists that aren't very big and fairly small forearms considering my line of work is very physically demanding and most guys in this business are fairly large in size. If you're installing these yourself, you best be small, and wear no sleeves or coveralls. There simply is no room to spare. I should probably mention at this point that I lowered the block by maybe 2 inches and shifted it to the driver side about another 2 inches to even accomplish this. Getting the header in there without moving the block over was impossible. It got caught on the starter heat shield more times then I care to remember.
So after all that was done, installing the o2 sensors again. Driver side, screw in, tighten, plug into connector. Passenger side, screw in, tighten, plug into.... oh wait. WTF!? The wires are now 4" too short. Wowowowowowow. Followed by a nice string of choice words to myself, alone in my garage about Sikky. Nothing anywhere from them said anything about needing to somehow make this side longer. So I removed the o2 sensor again, got myself some nice thick gauge quality wire and soldered on about 6" extra, wrapped it all up, put some nice loom on it (that might melt off, but I'll check later, stuck it back in, and struggled for 10 minutes to plug the damn thing into the connector because its so hard to hold the plug, turn it, and push it in with only 2 fingers on it lol.
Now the dipstick. Instead of lengthening this essay by another 10 minute read I'll just say... it's a piece of ****. It hit the engine block, it hit the header tube, it didn't fit into the hole, when it did fit in the hole it was turned and crooked and the bracket up top was nowhere near the bolt to secure it. Thankfully, I have a father, with a little pipe bender. Between the 2 of us, and a couple hours of time, we re-bent the tube to clear the block, clear the header, around a bolt it was rubbing on, and go into the hole as straight as we could possibly get it before we lost our minds. The dipstick wasn't too happy going in, but it made it all the way.
Then bolting up the subframe again. I had no idea of the torque, I just know that it took almost all I had to break the bolts with a 1/2" breaker bar. When I tightened them up, I went fairly tight, then brought out the torque wrench and settled on 120ft-lb. It was really tight but I didn't feel like I was about to break anything. Everything else when I put it back together I just went tight until it felt right. If you pull wrenches you will know what I mean. Just until it feels like it's home. It almost tells you to stop turning.
Headers to Joe-Z exhaust was better than I expected, almost. It met up nicely on one side, flanges looked flat, but then the other side I had to bend it inwards, and put a jack on it to push it up so I could get it "square". Not that bad. So on first start up it looked like this.
Nice smokey header wrap lol. It didn't smoke nearly as long as I have seen some smoke before. So.... Did it leak!? Nope. Not one bit on the manifolds as far as I could tell. There was 1 small leak on each of the connections to the exhaust. This is the most common place from what I understand. I will probably get some better gaskets. I'm not too worried about it because after a minute or so of running the leak went away..... I went for a quick drive to make to feel the car out, see if my wheels were going to fall off. As you may recall, Elite "lost" my Sikky microprocessor. Andy basically has gone silent again, Sikky can't sell me one separately they claim. I called PPE. They had no problems shipping me one of theirs. Paul, great guy, even shipped it out that same evening when I called him. So I had no check engine light for the first little bit of it running. But I drove it maybe...20km to check it all out, enjoy the sound, all that. Then my lights came on. Bullocks. Back to the garage, unplug battery. Now I'm waiting for my PPE chip, and will clear the code (if any) with my friends OBDII code reader.
Now, was the wrap a waste of time? Will it cause harm? I don't know yet. I think, that it may have promoted more exhaust flow for sure. Anyone with Sikky headers and a Joe-Z exhaust can probably recall the "whistle/rattle noise" when you start it, and when you're on throttle. It seems to come from the middle of the car. It's really hard to pin down, but it doesnt come from the motor, and you can't hear it at the back. Well I have heard this noise on a friends car, same header exhaust combo, and I can tell you that this noise is much louder on my car. You could hear it on his, but on mine you can really hear it. Will we have a few pulls later to see if mine is faster.... probably, but for now, only speculation. I may dyno it sometime in the near future, but you'll have to go off of that number alone because I have no baseline.
So this is the end of this lengthy write up, I must go, because I have guests watching the latest Top Gear in my movie room lol. Enjoy. I will put a video clip or 2 up later....
07-09-11, 02:05 PM
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Oh, now I can dress up when I drive it. 
Yes that is actually my car with my racing suit (actually a female inside of the suit). No she's not available, she's a lesbian lol.
Yes that is actually my car with my racing suit (actually a female inside of the suit). No she's not available, she's a lesbian lol.
07-09-11, 02:48 PM
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Yes, had I not bought Sikky headers when they were first released, I would have bought PPE headers now. I guess I'll have to wait until mine die.
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07-09-11, 04:12 PM
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Man I would kill a company if they held my ***** for months on end. Don't care how busy they are, you are doing them a favor and should have been taken care of in a timely matter, let alone taken care of. Thank you for your in depth write up of what happened, sucks you had to go through all that.
07-09-11, 05:41 PM
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Exactly. He said I was the third person to call recently for a processor for the ISF headers. He was more than happy to help me out. I even asked him some questions about installing the headers and he gave me what knowledge he had.
07-11-11, 05:14 PM
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While this is on my mind. What are everyones thoughts on the check engine light without the processor? What do you think the ECU is doing to compensate? I drove it and it felt down on power and sluggish in response. I'm waiting now until I have the processor... but I'm just curious. I think because the o2's are seeing the same gas now...that it is seeing way too rich and putting less fuel in.....
07-11-11, 10:18 PM
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First off I'd like to take a moment to say that this just goes to show that what I've been saying about Andy/Elite is true. Everything he says is vaporware, from intakes, to headers, to the supposed supercharged ISF that's done but has no numbers or proof whatsoever other than a few second video of a car driving with some supercharger whine (well that and splat's word who I'm not entirely convinced is not Andy himself or someone affiliated with the shop). I'm glad you got your headers back from that fraud.
Congrats on getting them finally installed and sorry for all your troubles.
I installed my sikky headers myself on a lift as is and haven't had any leaks except by the exhaust but sikky sent me new gaskets and everything worked out perfectly, I haven't had a single issue whatsoever and I am more than happy with them.
I had a tiny rattle with the JoeZ (pre sikky) in the middle of the car and it's because the exhaust was hitting the bracket, I think the headers might aggravate this or cause new ones altogether.
here is a picture along with JoeZ's solutions:
I hope that helps a little!
Congrats on getting them finally installed and sorry for all your troubles.
I installed my sikky headers myself on a lift as is and haven't had any leaks except by the exhaust but sikky sent me new gaskets and everything worked out perfectly, I haven't had a single issue whatsoever and I am more than happy with them.
I had a tiny rattle with the JoeZ (pre sikky) in the middle of the car and it's because the exhaust was hitting the bracket, I think the headers might aggravate this or cause new ones altogether.
here is a picture along with JoeZ's solutions:
Hi Z,
Ok so here is the clear background on this..
For the first batch of 25 systems from almost 2 years ago, we did have some minor tolerance issues.. Well only 2..
The reports were only from a handful of IS-F's
What we found was that every IS-F is not exactly the same. Since we had NO rubbing issues on the 2 IS-F's that we used during R&D.
So we quickly corrected the jigs to compensate for these 2 areas of concern..
This is what you can do:
The first area of concern which causes thumping only during agressive right hand turns is shown in the picture by "infinus".
The black bracket is actually just a bracket that holds the plastic transmission cover in its place..
Red Arrow is pointing to the drivers side...
***The issue was only a problem on the Passenger Side. But check both anyway.
If you inspect this area and there is less than 2-3 mms of space, simple remove the bracket and grind a few mm's off of it and spray it with some black paint..
or
You can may attempt to loosen the x-pipe from the manifold flange and see if you get some more space that way..
Now for possible squeaks.. The drivers side muffler face can get close to the inside lip of the rear exhaust diffuser/tip.. If you inspect the muffler or muffler tip and there are rub marks on it, than that is where the squeak may be coming from. (check the passenger side as well)
For this the muffler may be loosened and adjusted upward from the flange or the exhaust tip may need to be trimmed 1/4" inch to clear the inside diffuser.
or
If necessary you can trim the exhaust diffuser inside lip, but that is worse case scenario and last in my book..
If your during these inspections yourself, try to do it while the exhaust is still HOT.. The systems expands when hot and it will give you a better judgement on spacing when inspected in those two areas..
I recommend using a lift..
Good Luck!
Let us know what you find on your used system..
Joe Z
Ok so here is the clear background on this..
For the first batch of 25 systems from almost 2 years ago, we did have some minor tolerance issues.. Well only 2..
The reports were only from a handful of IS-F's
What we found was that every IS-F is not exactly the same. Since we had NO rubbing issues on the 2 IS-F's that we used during R&D.
So we quickly corrected the jigs to compensate for these 2 areas of concern..
This is what you can do:
The first area of concern which causes thumping only during agressive right hand turns is shown in the picture by "infinus".
The black bracket is actually just a bracket that holds the plastic transmission cover in its place..
Red Arrow is pointing to the drivers side...
***The issue was only a problem on the Passenger Side. But check both anyway.
If you inspect this area and there is less than 2-3 mms of space, simple remove the bracket and grind a few mm's off of it and spray it with some black paint..
or
You can may attempt to loosen the x-pipe from the manifold flange and see if you get some more space that way..
Now for possible squeaks.. The drivers side muffler face can get close to the inside lip of the rear exhaust diffuser/tip.. If you inspect the muffler or muffler tip and there are rub marks on it, than that is where the squeak may be coming from. (check the passenger side as well)
For this the muffler may be loosened and adjusted upward from the flange or the exhaust tip may need to be trimmed 1/4" inch to clear the inside diffuser.
or
If necessary you can trim the exhaust diffuser inside lip, but that is worse case scenario and last in my book..
If your during these inspections yourself, try to do it while the exhaust is still HOT.. The systems expands when hot and it will give you a better judgement on spacing when inspected in those two areas..
I recommend using a lift..
Good Luck!
Let us know what you find on your used system..
Joe Z
I hope that helps a little!
07-12-11, 06:30 PM
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Infinius,
I have not had any issue that you mentioned... the sounds I have are definitely caused by the exhaust gas flow... I will hopefully make a video that is of good enough quality that you can hear it soon...
I have not had any issue that you mentioned... the sounds I have are definitely caused by the exhaust gas flow... I will hopefully make a video that is of good enough quality that you can hear it soon...