GSJake

iTrader: (21)

We didn't have to beat the crap out of it. More like a hit here and a bang there.
There is no comparison between the OBX and the PPE.
The old addaage of you get what you pay for.

badblackgs

iTrader: (1)

Not to sound ghetto but why don't you just put some alignment shims under the drivers side engine mount between the mount and subframe? Also, did you grind out the excess material inside the flange at the end of the headers where the cats meet up? for smoother flow.

rwheelz

iTrader: (2)

Guys this is not a trivial amount of "massaging" at all. He lowered the rack last night to get in there with an air hammer, after moving the engine mounts all the way to the pass side (not even close to preventing rubbing on its own, but every little bit helps).

Two of the runners have to be hammered in, next to the two "knuckles," for lack of a better term, on the steering shaft. The lower one is very near the weld to the connector. The air hammer makes short work of these cheap thin headers (be careful!). I wouldn't be surprised if the spots he hammered down ultimately failed from rust and heat cycling over time, as the headers are exceedingly thin as it is.

Even after all of our work, it is still rubbing on the lower knuckle, but now only on hard right turns. When I say hard, I mean I am loading up the suspension, but I am talking snow tires on the car and it had just rained, so this will NOT work with sticky summer tires at all (I run 255/275 Kumho XS).

badblackgs- we did port the cat flanges, had to, or the exhaust and everything would not even bolt up straight. Your ghetto idea would definitely help some, but shimming those mounts is not my preferred solution. I guess if I had a full thickness shim that slid right on it wouldn't be too bad, but I am not the type to settle for stacked washers!

BTW- stock motor mounts were SHOT and broken. Very low mileage car.

badblackgs

iTrader: (1)

I'm putting my obx headers on tomorrow 02 gs430 so I will see what you mean. There seems to be a split between people who have installed these without issues and those that had to replace engine mounts. I hope you get it figured out. Ill post what I run into regardless tomorrow. Would of done them today but had to pull a dash in an x5 so my plans got crapped on today. I did learn one thing so far. A carbide deburring bit is the greatest thing ever conceived. I went to town porting and smoothing these headers.

rwheelz

iTrader: (2)

Mounts are new urethane and already moved as far over as we can get them. The fitment on this OBX is the worst I have seen and I have owned and put manifolds on many cars. I also typically buy only the absolute best parts... correlation?

It is obvious that they just did not consider the steering shaft when they designed these. There is plenty of room there, but their jig or whatever is just off. I would love to have a custom long tube set made, but do not want to spend $3k to get them.

rwheelz

iTrader: (2)

OBX headers hit steering shaft.





Y-pipe extended is a perfect fit.




OEM manifolds were not heavy/cast at all, rather terribly designed headers with stamped flanges.

badblackgs

iTrader: (1)

I just finished putting on the obx headers and I see what you mean. I too thought I was going to have a problem with the u joint in the steering knuckle. when the wheels are turned the u part at the bottom of u joint would collide with the front exhaust runner. so I studied it and determined that if you slide the u joint up about and inch off the steering gear than it doesn't contact the manifold even with wheels turned both directions. you would need to put a thinner nut and bolt thru the lower u joint hole and for safety add a tack weld that can be ground in half if you ever need to remove the steering gear. however... after I wound up putting everything back together and reassembling the steering gear to subframe I found the u joint cleared the manifold with no problem. also removed the heat shield from the u joint. that being said something is wrong with your drivers side manifold. because too many people have installed these with only having to remove the heat shield. I could only imagine the nightmare in having to return these manifolds to obx especially since you've already gutted out the inside of the flanges to cats.

rwheelz

iTrader: (2)

Wait, you installed on a GS430..? Is there any difference between our cars or the OBX manifolds in this regard? The manifolds are listed as fitting both cars. And I have contact at the upper knuckle as well, on the corresponding runner.

badblackgs

iTrader: (1)

In your pictures, it looks like the u joint is not contacting the exhaust runners. If it is, than try raising the u joint up off the steering gear just enough to clear the u part of the joint. as long as the u joint assembly doesn't go above the indented part where the thru bolt goes than it won't be a safety concern. I'm not sure what else to tell you but I wouldn't go banging on those headers or heating them. Not sure if you wanna hear this or not but after I got everything together I took it for a drive and I'm blown away at how throaty the car sounds now with my magnaflow exhaust. The craziest part was when I was going 20mph in traffic and went to punch it and change lanes, the *** end literally kicked out sideways and my traction control threw up on itself. I think they were totally worth it. In regards to your comment on how you lost your low end torque I.e. takeoff. I can tell you its because of that megan racing pipe setup that you got. I personally tested a 2 1/2 inch set up on my car also I made real quick at work and lost my lowend a bunch. When JBRADY talks about his experience with exhaust he wasn't lying when he said to leave the factory y pipe alone and the cats. my car kicks the *** end out at take off and passing gear kickdown and I'm rocking big hre 20's with 275/45's in the rear. Just for kicks why don't you put your stock Y pipe back in and see the difference.

rwheelz

iTrader: (2)

Interesting I wouldn't have thought that the Y-pipe mattered much if you also kept the factory cats in place. I will dyno the car with both Y-pipes in the end.

badblackgs

iTrader: (1)

Its all about velocity. And in my prior experience I've determined that one at least one foot long piece of straight pipe will outflow and out perform an x pipe. I believe the only reason you would want an x pipe is if your going for the choppier sound. I put in a 2 foot long piece of 2 1/2 pipe after my factory y pipe than merged it back into two using a high quality splitter that has smooth transition going back into two.

badblackgs

iTrader: (1)

by the way, on the drive home last night after I put the headers on I noticed a rubbing when turning the steering wheel to the right. I immediately jumped out of the car and looked down on the drivers side and saw the header for the front port was touching slightly the u joint. but when I installed everything when I swept the wheels from left to right theres was not a chance it was going to touch. I determined that when the engine heats up the headers expand to the point where it will touch. so this morning I got to work and put it up in the air and removed the lower bolt and slid the u joint up just a bit. maybe about 1/4 of an inch. I than used a smaller diameter nut and bolt with lock washers to resecure the bottom of the u joint to the steering gear. that allowed the u part of the u joint to have enough clearance to clear the runner when it expands from heat.its now good to go.

rwheelz

iTrader: (2)

Yes mine does not rub when the car is on the lift at full droop. We have beat it up so much already that a little more air hammer won't matter at this point.

rwheelz

iTrader: (2)

UPDATE: we adjusted the steering linkage as you described to gain a little more clearance. We also shimmed the motor mount and gained a mm or two. Now, it is only rubbing on the hardest of right hand turns (autocross style -turning very hard and abruptly).

Bottom line: this still isn't good enough. The driver's side manifold has to come off the car to be hammered. We cannot do any more with it on the car due to limited access when trying to reach the proper spot. It will definitely cost me some money, which sucks, but I just want it fixed and working properly at this point. It is scary and dangerous when the steering "catches" and you have to force the steering wheel to unwind when pulling out of a hard right hand turn.

I CONCLUDE THAT THE OBX DRIVER'S SIDE MANIFOLD FITMENT IS ATROCIOUS. And it isn't because there isn't space, there is plenty of room! The jig must be slightly off and/or I got a manifold from a bad batch or something. That said, I still would buy them over $900 PPE headers after reading above that someone had to "clearance" those as well.

NorthStyle

iTrader: (16)

After looking at the difference in just how the headers are constructed from your pictures vs. having a PPE on hand to compare... their is no comparison. The welding and construction alone is reflected in the difference in price.

I can see if you have a friend or someone who can fix the welds (on which header/area may need it), grind the excess material and smooth the runners for little to no cost. But for those who don't, the cost of having those areas taken care of, in addition to adjusting the steering linkage and adding shims to the motor mounts will most likely equal the cost of purchasing the PPEs... and that's not even factoring in installation costs or any possible extra costs if you have to remove the header, hammer (massage) it, then reinstall it.

As for the "massaging" that GSJake had to do, I'm not sure how long he's owned his set but PPE started adding dimpled sections in their headers a few years back to alleviate the steering shaft issues. Only he knows whether or not they were before or after they started doing that. Either way, I'd still purchase the PPE over the OBX but that's just my opinion.

Either way, I hope things workout for you.