after 3 hours of fighting and headaches, look what finaly went in Options

[Valo666]

I FINALY installed my pacesetter headers today with many headaches, a few burns and a couple of cuts. I brought it over 2 my buddys place to put it on. So first of all, just as im comin up 2 his house, it starts 2 piss rain..like thunderstorm and all. So we worked with half the celica in the garage, the other half out. We brought the car in, spent like a good hour n a half tryin 2 pull the manifold and cat off cuz it was so hot. So we finaly get every thing off, we go 2 put the header in, slips on nicely where it meets the block. Then we go 2 line up the downpipe to the bottom flange...sure enough, the flange on the bottom of the header is about an inch smaller. So, we get on the phone, try and find some exhaust shops near by that are open that might have the flange, then we relize, my cars not driveable, my buddy's dad is takin their van in 2 min, so we gotta find a ride. We call my other friend up, he gives us a ride, i wait like 20 min at this exhaust shop, sure enough they do have a flange thats the exact same as the OEM style. So i pay $20 for it, we go back 2 my buddys place to start workin on modifying the header. We put it in the vice, cut the flange off, then 2 of our friends show up tryin 2 steal his tools. We finaly get back 2 work, and relized we didnt cut the flange off straight, so we sand it all down. Finaly get to welding it together, we weld it, brush it, throw some paint on. We go to slide it on, slides on perfectly on the block, go 2 bolt up the down pipe..and we welded the flange about 5 degrees off from where its suppost to be. So we jurry rigged it up by twisting the flex pipe and the exhaust piping enough to get the header attached to the block, bolted it up to the block, then bolted the downpipe to the header, then as we are ready 2 start it up, turn the key...VROOM!! exhaust leak. The header and down pipe didnt meet perfectly, so we slapped some exhaust system sealer on it, let it sit and dry and now..shez perfect. The car reacts sooo different now. Runs alot smoother, drives better, accelerates sooo much faster. I had 2 friends in the car with me, we booted it down his street and we were goin as fast as i usually did with just me in the car b4. Headers = Big big difference. Now i just gotta hit up the exhaust shop tomorrow or wensday and weld in my new cat and ill be set.

[Valo666]

I didnt order the headers, i got them off Matt (96c-onevert). They are pacesetters, i think they are off a 5th gen or a camry though. They were made a few years back and are hard 2 come by. Ill get the part number when its not raining out. I paid $210CND for them+ a set of nology hotwires. To make it fit, all you need is acess to a mig or tig welder, or an exhaust shop, and a OEM style toyota downpipe flange (around $20 from a local exhaust shop). All we did, spent about an hour n a half takin the 40 nuts n bolts that hold the exhaust manifold on, off. once the manifold and cat where out, we found out the hard way it didnt fit, so to make it easier for you, after you get the manifold out, bring the cat, or the entire chunk with you to an exhaust shop and get them to find you or make you a flange. Next head back to your shop/where ever ur duin your work. Take the new flange, line it up with the welded seam ontop of the collector portion of the header(right near the flange). I marked mine with a sharpie. Then, break out a cuttin tool of any sort, we used a sawz-all. You can use an angle grinder with a cutting disk, chop saw, plasmacutter, hacksaw, w/e u have availbe, but im just warning you now, the welds that pacesetter put in are really deeply penetrated. Therefore, we cut just above the weld. When we cut it, it was uneven, so we headed to the belt sander and ground it flat. Next, we got the new flange(pre-marked), out, lined up the markes, had 1 person welding it, another holding it flat. The way we did it was we had a pizza box on the floor of the garage, Me, holding the header straight and lined up, and my friend tacked it 4 times. Once it was tacked, we started to weld it. If you weld it, make sure there is alot of penetration, it has to be air tight. Watch the heat on the welder though, we burned 2 small holes while duing this. Once it was finished welding, we took out a wire brush, cleaned up all the charred areas around the weld, took out a grinder, cleared all the excess spatter off, gave her a quick shot of paint at the bottom (use high heat only). Then, when we tryed to mount her in the car, we relized we welded the flange about 2 or 3 degrees off. So what we did was we took 3 bolts, loosely fitted them onto the new flange, then we picked up the top of the manifold, twisted it to get her on the block, then tightend it up. to the block. Then we took an impact gun to the bottom bolts where the flange was and tighten them up. Then, when every thing was good, we fired her up. We first had a few exhaust leakes around the flange, but some exhaust leak sealer took care of that. Next thing your gonna have to do/i still have to do, is go out to an exhaust shop and buy a new inline cat. Im lucky because i have a pretty much brand new one sittin in my garage on my old supra exhaust. Im gonna be using a magnaflow 2.25" high-flow cat. Right now, the only things about this header i dont like are, 1. it took about 20 min of running for the smoke from the paint to stop coming off. It starts 2 smoke while its curring. THe second thing is theres still a bit of smell left from the paint, but it should go away in a few days, and 3. my exhaust is louder..alot louder. But that should be fixed once the new cat is welded into place. Right now im essential running straight pipes. Its not really hard to do, but if your not good with a welder/dont have access to one, i would suggest going to an exhaust shop. Im lucky becuase my friend is a big do-it-yourselfer. He builds mini bikes, motorized kick scooters, go-karts, drifting go-karts, snowmobiles all by hand.

Oh, just to let you know, theres gonna be a few things ur also gonna have to do, 1, ur gonna need a few bolts, 2 for the o2 sensor (they have to be a bit smaller than the oem sized becuase the o2 doesnt bolt up 100%. 2. your gonna need to cut the clip holding the o2 sensor plug onto the trans. Its gonna be a very tight reach, but it should reach to the new location, if not, u might neeed to splice some wire in. 3. Theres one bolt that drove me nuts when i was gonna pull the manifold off. Right before the cat, theres 1 bolt that looks like a bolt, but turns out to be a nut on a stud coming out from the manifold. If you look right behind it, there should be another bolt that looks to be welded. It is, theres a stud that goes in through the transmission thats about 3 or 4" long..this thing is hiden and is the one thing that really got me when i was pulling every thing appart.

Enjoy, hope this makes it easier for every one.