Meganis an eBay header with a name. Waste of money. Just buy a straight up $50 eBay one or get a used one local.

I have the greddy evo2, sounds amazing but is pretty big. I'm considering going up to 3" with a vibrant muffler. Oem looking muffled so the cops leave me alone, I'll just have a resonator, and do a test pipe instead of cat. Might do an e cut at my downpipe too... And you don't really need 3" unless you have a k, or boosted around 300 hp or more. 2.5" flows fine for everything else, mine should hopefully hit 3-350 do 3" will help.

 

Just read scotts post right after i posted, so edit.

Ill just grab an ebay header with good reviews for now, easily replaceable at those prices and i can find one with really good ratings. Then it can be one piece which is what i wanted originally, ill probably get a 4-1 too!

Looking at the Apex'i WS2 now, i realized the n1 is too loud. Just gonna grab the magnaflow catalytic converter, I wish i could run a test pipe but that will not fly out here and with a recent mass increase in the local police force (apparently city people dont pay their parking tickets so they give them out in my valley now...) the last thing i need is attention on my car and a reason to crunch it -_-

This is bringing my overall cost down actually which is great, assuming i will not be disappointing with ebay header, I love the ebay intake (K&N filter) and this will be similar the way I see it, cheap tubing, decent components...

I am looking at 2.5" if i can, 2.25" if i must. I do plan on rebuilding my engine and boosting one day, but not in the foreseeable future (altho I will probably start buying parts here and there). One day 300HP would be amazing, and if i was at that point and the exhaust was starting to hold me back for whatever reason then ill cross that bridge when i get to it.

Really appreciate the input!

4/20 - okay, last edit for this post: I got a M2 manifold (megan brand) which i ordered from a local shop, he said that no one he has sold it too has had problems with cracks or blown gaskets and that I have to be really careful tightening the bolts because most people over torque and that sets up the gaskets to be blown, so I will just have to see how my luck goes.Also got 50 feet of 1" heat wrap. At the same time I ordered the Apex'i WS2 (70mm) so all that should come monday. Now this catalytic converter thing is stupid here in california... simply retarded. MagnaFlow told me I can only put the DX cata in my car (the one connected to the manifold) and no other cata is allowed in my car in CA and they will not discuss it with me, a got similar responses from a few other places too. So legally my only option is to buy another ~$400 manifold/cata combo for my car which is in no way high flow, technically everything else is illegal. Great. So screw them if they wanna make it that difficult, I was talking to a local shop that said they can probably make me a test pipe that will not throw a CEL and the output will pass a smog here, but not visually (since i know a few small chill smog shops nearby im not worried), basically I will have slightly filtered test pipe, probably no better than a high flow but ill save ~$350 and i might pass smog without having to swap my cata every 2 years for inspection.

Maybe I am making excuses now, because I do care about the environment, but this is making it more hassle than its worth to be "environmentally friendly". Not to mention I am set to this inane laws while city trucks and buses drive around here literally leaving a blinding cloud of black smoke every time they take off from a stop. High flow test pipe it will be.

 

did a coolant flush today, seeing as hose water has been in there while i was dealing with all the over heating problems which have not occurred in a while now. The water is very rust colored, looks pretty bad... I did 5 flushes yesterday and then did 6 more today and it is still rusty water, I tihnk the problem is that the water never cycles while im running it with heater one. Not once did I see the fan come on, in fact I do not think ive ever seen it go on unless i jump it yet I do not over heat when sitting still anymore so I assume it is working...



this is the 4th flush, mid flush:


5th flush, last few drops:


6th flush, last few drops:


I followed the DIY in the DIY section (do not know what I would do without it haha) but at this point I figured more and more flushing is just wasting my gas which is just too expensive right now. Note that the water is pretty clear till those last few drops that are murky as hell. I cannot find much info about the full extent of possible damage that would cause this but I assume worst case is rusted radiator and rust in the engine. Not that I would be in anyway happy about this but at least it would push me to actually get the engine rebuilt sooner rather than later >_>...

Anyway at this point i decided to just throw the coolant in there. Split the fluid .55/.45 gal and made the .45 half water.


So that is that, I guess, for now... I will have to see what happens with the rust, I will probably check the coolant color once in a while and as always keep a close eye on my temp gauge (which has stayed right at the bottom of the flag thing since i replaced everything).

Took a look at my brake fluid since I want to swap that next, it is black and the new stuff is clear. this is probably a good sign i need to change it? haha... But since I will need someone to help me with this, it is going on hold till for a couple more days, also need to get a turkey baster and more brake fluid.







Probably wont update the actual brake bleeding, maybe just a picture of it not being black anymore haha.

Then I remember seeing nasty rusted bolts on my header and refused to look at it while working in there because I did not want to think about taking those off... but huge relief, the rusted bolts look like where someone ripped off the heat shield haha... yea, dont even wanna know how that came about. But all the other bolts look like it will be fairly easy, I remember being worked about LCA bolts and they popped off like a walk in the park.



Tomorrow I have court for no drivers license, the time I renewed it on the phone while getting my ticket, will be funny to see how this plays out... then class, then I pick up my header/wrap/exhaust!! Gonna follow cvcrcr's heat wrap DIY and trustdestruction's midway gasket fix (except it will be install not a fix). Catalytic converter should be here wednesday which means I am looking at a thursday or friday install, i hope. Guy says he wont install headers or non CARB cata conv, so im just gonna show up and see if he will just do it, otherwise I will have him just make the tubing and do all the install myself. No lift will not make that fun.

 

Pictures!
^Photobucket's says I have too many and they are gonna close my account unless I start paying, $30 a year is not bad but since im broke right now my pictures MIGHT disappear and if that happens I will pay to get them back up. It is all based on monthly bandwidth.

M2 Performance (Megan) 4-2-1 Header (2 pc)

















I know nothing about welding, but I tihnk it all looks okay. When compared to the Apex'i welds though it is obvious the M2 could be better.
Apex'i WS2 (70mm)









This thing is a work of art haha. I keep looking at it, then at my stock muffler...
I got some accessories with the header!



Could not find steel zip ties at local store so I went with the hose clamps...



extra gasket...



Started wrapping last night, doing bottom half first...



Did kind of a half wrap down here since I go over it twice, I went down one tube to the end and then back up the other tube...







The whole time I tried to overlap by a half inch, but alas I did not have enough wrap (50' was not enough, should have got 75') so when i did the header I could only do 2 pipes and 1 is over lapped by ~1/4" so save material. Gonna have to go buy more today or tomorrow... Also there are parts where it is just too tight to get the wrap through, it just is not possible so I have small gaps, I hope that does not defeat the entire process but I cannot image that a small heat leak will cause much damage to the flow.







Not the most flashy looking wrap but that is not why i bought it! Although I will probably rewrap the ~1/4" part to make it better, also i really should have followed DIY better, should have worn gloves IM SO ITCHY!!!! and it does not help that i did it on my couch!! agh, luckily my couch has a cover i can just wash. I will finish wrapping this week, catalytic converter is in the mail somewhere in the mid-west and should be here Friday the latest which probably means install next week which gives me time to find someone that will actually install it or at the very least make me piping. I have one small shop that says the will do it and do not care but we will see what happens when I actually show up (friend of a friends families shop). Everything else is great, no squealing from brakes since I cleaned them, no over heating, bushing going hard, knock on wood.

Meant to do this way back but always forget somehow. My car shifts pretty rough and has lag in throttle so I finally adjusted the cable which was absurdly loose (i could lift it inches about where it rested)...

Before:



After:



Adjusting this is probably common sense for a lot of people, but I have to say, this made a HUGE difference in performance. The car responds much better to gas pedal, it does not jerk when i let off the gas (slowing down and shifting was annoying). I highly recommend checking this thing fairly often for too much slack (youll notice too little driving). Tranny is still a little sticky in 1st gear and I may not be the best driver but many people have agreed with me that 1st gear is a little sticky, that will have to wait until I do major mods.

Got a honda tuner magazine since the month i saw in the store was all about D series being boosted
The cover car is a hatch HK 92 i think pushing 800hp and 500ish tq with a 9.6 second 1/4 mile at 150mph haha what a lovely car. Anyway, it has a few others with part lists which is what i really wanted. That car i was talking abouts owner actually sells a custom tranny conversion to use b series tranny, so ill probably look into that when i swap engines.

Next update should be the before-after pics of new exhaust!!

 

That is odd. I was able to wrap my entire D series header with only 35'. However, the wrap was 2" wide, too.

If that is a cloth header wrap, you can soak it in water to stretch more. Install it while wet and when dried, it will be technically tighter than if wrapping dry. Lastly, do you plan on spraying it down with header wrap sealant?

 

I did not get it wet, I am gonna redo the 4-2 part, the 2-1 section was not wet either but it pulled it really tight, the shape of the 4-2 was too awkward. I will get it wet and redo the entire 4-2 and I ordered another 10' of 1", which in the end will be about the same as 35' of 2". I did not know there was spray for it, gonna call the shop now and see if I can get it with the extra 10' of wrap.

Got alignment done today and good thing i did, my specs were bad...
(also for the people i know that insist only 4wd cars need 4 wheel alignment, wrong)



6 month warranty and the guy that did the actual alignment was very helpful told me to come in every 2000 miles to check the alignment and see if anything is going off again. Hopefully there is not real frame damage but if there is it is very minor

Also really noticed that my rear passenger quarter panel is pretty dent up (from when i replaced the front passenger fender) and hits the wheel on bumps but has a rubber protective seal. I really think I am going to just get a metal rod under there and bend it out. Also a little rust under the rubber not sure if I should take it all off and sand it down (still have duplicolor) and just let it be for now (not gonna leave it but i am scared ill find a lot more rust )





Had a good discussion with a few exhaust shops. Looks like I am gonna go with the only shop around that does mendrel bends. And they will do my exhaust set up for about ~$250 if I throw the header on there myself. I need to find a job at some sort of car shop -_- so I am on the look out for one now, even though I assume most places want you to have more training and experience than I do but I gotta start somewhere.

 

Just be careful when wrapping a header. I am sure you have read pros and cons about them, right? They will accelerate wear on the manifold and possible cause the cheap-er manifolds to cracks easier. That is what happened to mine a few years back.

 

So i have read mixed opinions of this. Most of the information is from motorcycle site though. Anyway, the consensus was that cheap headers are gonna crack, thats that, and that with proper install (assuming you dont live underwater) the wrap dont get wet and cause water issues and in fact it will help the warm up/cool off times which would possibly avoid cracking. But for it to work in this nature a proper install is necessary.

Edit: Just gonna go with the silicone spray. I guess some people just insist that the cans lie and will not last at even 400F, but i think that is an absurd claim. I cannot imagine a company getting away with that especially when many people say they used it fine. Re-wrapped the header both 4-2 and 2-1, used gloves, got it wet, a million times better wrap but same difficulty which is just time. Looks better now though. Drying and waiting for more wrap to come. Will paint the 2-1 tomorrow once it has had ample time to dry.

 

Finally plugged in the air bags properly -_-
Looked for stereo harness to fix dome light but i cant find it even with most the dash apart, i think i stuffed it behind the heater core to avoid rattling but forgot dome light fix so oh well for now, I never use the door option anyway. I like it all dark =P

Catalytic Converter came:







Silicone sealed the header:













Just gotta find out what day the shop can throw it together. Gonna do the header myself to save money, so since the liquid gasket needs 24 hours to set I will need to do it the day before I get piping done and just not have a car for a day. Then I will have to drive it to shop without cata or muffler -_-
That should get me some attention... Just hope I dont get pulled over on the way there (only about 4-5 miles away). Stoked to not here the crap I have now (that crack makes it so much worse sounding). Only 2 fairly thick coats of silicone sealant, 1 can evenly dispersed across the entire header. Some parts you cant even tell its a wrap just looks like textured coating, that is the part I only over lapped be maybe 1/8" because I was running out of wrap. But it all looks good anyway so I do not think I will buy anymore spray. Tempting to paint muffler black but eh, I will see what happens and I can always just pop it off at a later time and paint it or just the tip or just get a tip, kinda want it to match the H on the trunk.

Also took a hammer, wood and metal and popped out the dent on the rear right wheel well so that it does not rub the wheel anymore. After the exhaust I will rotate tires and get alignment done again mainly to see if the rears have gotten off again in a short time (ive done some canyon driving and want to make sure there is no serious frame damage).

 

Okay new update because everything...

Head gasket blew/has been blown. I was just ignoring it because I did not want to admit it. Thus delaying exhaust install obviously... Engine is also making a weird noise like pieces of plastic bouncing around a can, today was the first time I noticed it because it was the first time I drove without music in a while because my CarPC motherboard broke (but thats okay, it was a test mobo i found in my closet the one that i wanted to put in is still brand new in the box )

With the head gasket problem many different options occurred to me, firstly being selling the car and buying a motor/chassis and throwing it together myself (i have seen my car go for $4k during summer gas prices out here, people are way too impulsive >_> ) but that was mainly if my frame was damaged like the shop said it could be last alignment. But alas the frame does not seem damaged:



Thus I have gone to plan A, but before that... Plan C was to just repair my head gasket until i read that my engine block (post-150k miles) it fruitless to just repair the head gasket as it will either cause other problems or blow again. Anyway... Plan A if what my main page has listed except I actually have been researching it. Here is a list of what I am looking at and some rough prices (i found a way to make money...) ::

z6 head/IM/TB (~$250 maybe less if they take my y7)
APR head bolts and rod bolts (~$175)
p29 Pistons (~$125-150 wrist pins i think included)
crower stage 2 camshaft (~$325)
crower springs/retainers (~$350)
crower adj cam gear (~$125)
walbro 255lph (~$100 what about a fuel cell? idk about the smell)
z6 or y8 injectors (not sure price, i think i can get a good deal while getting the head form the junk yard and i will have them cleaned ect)
hasport engine mounts (~$300)
hondata s300 P08 or neptune (~$500 i think this is my best bet?)
coolant hoses/ngk sparks, cables/coolant/oils (~$100 i will use y7 distributor internals in z6 body)
gasket kit (~$200)

custom exhaust tubing/install (~$250)
mill/port/polish (~$1000)
tune (~$500)
HO alternator (maybe... ~$300 i really should if i want to continue using my carpc)

Some things are over estimated, also i will be buying in bulk from a dealer so i am hoping for some discounts, somethings i am just not sure about and guessing close as i can. I was reading a lot of good things about crower and not many good things about bisi (price vs performance) or skunk2 (reliability) and since i want their camshaft i figured it would be a good idea to match some other internals. P08 looks like as decent an ecu as any other once chipped? looking at a place called mak-speed to tune, they are over in the inland empire and the owner was the guy from rev-hard (old school honda turbo company) i was reading about them in a honda tuner magazine and seems like it would be a good place to go for tuning, disregarding the 150 or so mile distance -_-... Still looking for a machinist that is well recommended out here.

I have been reading about NA vs turbo and compression ratios. I do want to turbo the car but that is not going to happen right now. So the plan is to make this NA for now. I am looking at 75.5mm bore, and after minor mill i am aiming for either 12:1 or 11:1 (i think this would avoid the need for high octane) and once i want to turbo I can just get a thicker head gasket and will probably just buy a golden eagle sleeved bottom end at that time too. Found a few equations to figure out what my compressions will be and what size gaskets i will need or mill i will need. I will probably also switch to a SRI if i cannot modify my CAI to work with this set up.

I am hoping for some input on this set up and design, i am sure there are things I am missing, ect. SO LET ME KNOW!!

It will be a month or more before I even start ordering parts so I will of course still be researching. But I think i have a good base start here.