Hey guys! I've been absent more from the forum as of late, been very busy with a wedding and work and trying to install all this stuff on my car. Plus with my new job I can't get on here as much, so that sucks.
Anyway! I'm happy to say that I FINALLY have my headers installed! It was a MAJOR PAIN IN THE AZZ. My case was a little bit special I think, it normally shouldn't be as hard as it was for me. I have learned a couple of things while installing these headers:
1) the Japanese engineer who designed the engine and bay deserves to be dragged out into the street and put to death. There is no room to work at all, no exaggeration I probably completed about half the work by feeling around with my hands. Everything is impossible to get to, and my arms and hands are sliced up from shoving them into small spaces.
2) The guy that had my car before me deserves to be dragged out into the street and put to death. The more I take my car apart, the more I realize he had the SAME EXACT mods as me. Installing my Stillen intakes? The holes are already cut for me. Installing FI CBE? The heat shield is bent back just enough to clear the muffler, and the lines are already wrapped with that heat shield material Tony sends with the package. Installing the FI LTH? The bolts are all stripped and things are in the wrong place.
Why couldn't he have just left everything so I wouldn't have had to do any of this?!
I digress...
So for this install of the headers, 1 bolt on one of the heat shields was stripped, and on the other 2 were stripped. Of course they couldn't be the top ones, nooooooo they had to be in the back and on the bottom. Then, one of the nuts holding the driver side header was stripped, and I had to buy a bold extractor kit to try and get it off. I finally got everything installed and I'm doing the O2 sensors, so I go to get the last one out and it's cross-threaded into the manifold. I finally get it out to find that the threads are shot beyond repair, I need a new one. I googled 370Z O2 sensor, and this forum was the first thing that came up, apparently it's kind of a common problem. I went with
RockAuto Auto Parts and got an NKT one next day delivered for less than $170
Also, another problem I had was with my steering column. I couldn't get the damned thing off to save my life. I had drawn the lines down the column, onto the knuckle, and onto the bracket to keep everything lined up. Well it wouldn't come off, so I hit it with WD-40, then played with it some more. Finally after like 2 hours it came off. So did all my lines. Then it didn't want to go back on, it was so loose that the screw wouldn't catch the other side of the column holder or tighten at all. Again, a few hours later, I finally got it. Now my steering wheel is at a 70* angle. This freaks my car out, and it's showing me the skidding car symbol on the speedo, and the VDC turns itself off cause it doesn't know what the heck is going on
I'm done for the day. Hell, I'm done for a few days. I may just take it to a shop and have them fix the last few problems. Thanks God this is it for engine mods, I don't ever want to use a jack again. Anyway, I'm just glad that it's done, it's running, and that it hasn't blown up yet. I'm hoping to get it Uprev'd in the next week or two, the only day I have off is Mondays, and this Monday I have to go to the DMV to get a temp tag for my truck since someone in my neighborhood called the city to complain about it not having a tag. Fuckin azzholes. But that's another story... Hope you guys enjoyed my novel and these quick vids I took with my iPhone!
Thank you to Tony for an amazing product!! Never have I been so impressed with the quality of a product or the character of a businessman like I have with Tony and his crew.
If you have any questions about the exhaust or anything having to do with Fast Intentions, pm me and I'll be happy to help however I can.
