OK, I am just being lazy now and don't want to move it over here, but the DIY is on page 6 of my cardomain page

http://www.cardomain.com/id/ohiogtv6

HEADER INSTALLATION

This page is a copy of my do it yourself page at newtiburon.com.

First, I would like to thank "The Man", TC from Next Generation Motorsports, for helping with this install by giving me valuable advice and hints.

Second, installing headers yourself is DEFINITELY not for the mechanically timid. Anyone who has seen a cramped front wheel drive V6 engine bay can just imagine how difficult it must be to install headers...

That being said, here it goes...

First thing to do is jack up the car on the front passenger side and spray all of the "Y" downpipe nuts with some WD-40. Then, removed the "Y" downpipe.





And no, I am not laying under my Tib with just the stock jack. I also have TWO jackstands under there supporting the weight just to be sure. (Also, do not pick up the WD-40 thinking it is your beer...)
Here are all the the header parts layed out, just itching to be installed




The next step is to remove the heat shield on the front exhaust manifold.




Once you remove the heat shield, you can take out the two O2 sensors. I just left them attached and hanging.

Start getting used to scrapes, scratches and bruised knuckles. Here you can see a good whack that my knuckle took while undoing the downpipe. This pic is as I work on loosening the top, right bolt of the front manifold.





Here is a pic of me taking off the middle upper nut of the front manifold




Now I have finally gotten off all of the 7 nuts (three on top and four on bottom) holding on the manifold, but it won't come off because there is about a 1/4" between the end of the head bolt on the bottom passenger side and the top of the AC compressor. Which is not enough to get the manifold off




So, I'm stuck... what do you do... call The Man, TC himself!




Hint #1
In order to get the stock manifold off you have to move the AC compressor out of the way. There are 4 bolts holding it in place. You need to take out the two on the bottom and the one behind this AC line on top.




This is the tricky part, the bolt is BEHIND the AC line (the one attached to the red bolt on the left). It can be removed with a 12 mm wrench box end without having to discharge the AC system. BUT, I couldn't get a good grip of the bolt and enough leverage to break it loose. Fearing that I might strip it trying too many times, I reluctantly decided to vent the AC system and move the AC line out of the way so that I could use my breaker bar to break the bolt loose.

Oh well, I'll just have to get my AC recharged later on...
(Ironically, this turned out the be the hardest bolt to break free for the ENTIRE install...)

Loosening the AC line... (dammit!)





Here I am loosening the last bolt on the compressor and it is getting late...




Now, you have to remove the serpentine belt. It is a VERY good idea to make a sketch of the path of the belt before you take it off. Plug your ratchet into the square hole on the end of the belt tensioner. With your knees against the bumper adjust your ratchet so that the line between the three points: belt tensioner pivot, square hole on the end of the belt tensioner, and the end of the ratchet, make close to a 180 degree angle. Now push down on the ratchet and take the belt off of the top -most pulley. Remove the belt from around the AC compressor.

Once the 2 bottom bolts of the AC compressor are out, as well as the PITA one behind the AC line on the top right of the compressor, loosen the last bolt holding on the AC compressor on the top left of the compressor (but do not take it out all of the way) and rotate the compressor slightly clockwise. This will give you enough room to remove the stock manifold.

The manifold can be removed through the bottom of the car between the engine mount and the oil filter. It will fit, just keep moving it around and adjusting its orientation...

finally got the $#%*er out





Now bring in the new front header from below and wiggle it onto all of the head studs.




Here I am lubing up all of the threads of the head studs with anti-seize grease.




And finally here is the front header bolted into place




Now, reattach your vented AC line.

A couple of pics from underneath.

Now for the back cylinder bank...

TC's trick #2 was to take out the top bolt of the alternator and loosen the bottom in order to swivel it towards the firewall in order to get the back exhaust manifold off. So, of course, this is the first thing that I do.

Also, if you remove the fenderwell plastic cover that has a neat little hole in it so that you can access the crank pulley nut through the fender well (those of you who have replaced their crank pulley know which cover I mean) you can see a whole lot more and have another window through which to stick your arm. The plastic fenderwell covering is held in by two 12 mm bolts directly straight up if you are looking up from the ground.

Here is a view through that opening toward the alternator with the two bolts indicated.

After "moving" the alternator out of the way I feel that I can see and feel a whole lot from underneath the car. So of course I start to take stuff apart before I dedicate myself to remove the upper part of my CAI, and my upper plenum of the intake manifold.

At this point, it really helps having finished the front side first (you know where all of the bolts, nuts, etc. are). From underneath the car, you can see a little less than half of the bolts that you know you have to take off in order to remove the stock manifold. But, if you squeeze your arm up there (on the driver's side of the exhaust manifold), you can feel them all. And, if you can get a finger or two on a bolt, you can get a 12 mm wrench on that bolt as well.

Here is where it is an advantage to have small hands, but a disadvantage to having short, stocky arms. I can get my fingers on the bolt, but I squeeze/scrape the hell out of my forearms trying to reach them.

Oh well... I have quite a few scrapes and patches of sore skin, but I was able to do everything from underneath the car and did not have to touch my CAI or upper intake manifold.

First, reach up and remove the 3 bolts holding the heat shield onto the manifold.

After removing the 3 bolts holding the heat shield in place I could not get the heat shield out of the engine bay. So, you kind of have to move it around and out of the way of whatever nut you are trying to loosen next.

After the heat shield, I removed both O2 sensors.

With the alternator and the heat shield out of the way I could loosen all 7 of the nuts holding on the manifold.

This is where patience becomes a virture, as you can only turn a wrench or ratchet about 1/16th of a turn at a time!! But, eventually I got all seven of the manifold nuts off.

Now that the manifold is free of the head, the heat shield can fall right out. (Watch out that it doesn't hit you in the face... :LaughHard: ) And the manifold will quickly follow...





*PITA, oh... I mean "Challenge"*
OK, three problems arose: the top middle, driver's side top, and driver's side bottom unscrewed with the entire threaded rod/nut assembly. (All the rest, including the front manifold, just the nut unscrewed from the head bolt, now 3 of the 7 nuts came off with the threaded rod they were bolted onto.) Now, I have a nut stuck on a threaded rod that is supposed to be attached to the cylinder head.

Here's a pic of my firewall-side cylinder bank with 3 missing head bolts.





After soaking the nuts in WD-40 and thinking for a while of how to break loose nuts seized onto a threaded rod without damaging the threads, my live-in girlfriend, out of the blue, suggests screwing them back into the head without a manifold or header so that the rod bottoms out in the head and the nut breaks free, and then the nut is "broken".

(You gotta love having a fellow experimental physicist as a girl friend...)

Low and behold, it worked beautifully and I broke the nuts loose from the threaded rod and got the rods to stay in the head at the same time. (It also took a little vice grip action on the non-threaded part to get the rod to stay in the head as I unscrewed the nut.)

Now, bolt up the new back header. Once again, patience is a virtue because you can tighten the nuts by about 1/16 of a turn at a time...





Once the back header is bolted on, install the pre-cat rear O2 sensor. Lube up the threads with anti-seize lube, but be VERY careful to never touch any part of the O2 sensor that sticks out past the threads (the oils from your fingers are not good for it...)

A good tip for installing the sensors is to twist the sensor about 5 or 6 turns counter-clockwise (as though you are unscrewing it). That way, when you screw it into the bung hole... :LaughHard:... (sorry, I just had too) the wires are not twisted or stressed.

Re-attach the alternator that you loosened earlier





Now reattach the serpentine belt (remember, you sketched out the belt path before...)

Connect the positive battery terminal back to the battery. (You should have disconnected it before moving the alternator.)

At this point, I think that I might have mentioned everything that needs to be reattached, retightened, etc. for anything that has been altered in the install process. But, I probably am forgeting something so keep paper or very good mental notes yourself of what you have done in the install so that you can "redo" it at the end.

OK, the only thing that should be left at this point is to attach the "Y" downpipe.





At this point I was so excited I just could not tighten the 6 bolts of the downpipe fast enough! ;D ;D

But, once again, my philosophy is to stop and think about everything that you loosened, reattached, etc. to make sure there are no loose nuts or anything you forgot.

Here is an undercar shot of the finished install of my prototype OBX headers to my GReddy catback.





After this, my brother (whom I have to thank for much needed help for many critical steps in this install, as well as all of the great pics) and I took it out for a test drive... and..

WooHooo! Holy Sh!t! G@d d@mn!

Definitely the most satisfying mod I have done! My first mod, my CAI comes in a close second.

To close it off, here is a pic of my current engine compartment





Total install time

Day 1 3-1/2 hours: remove front manifold and install header
Day 2 2-1/2 hours: remove back manifold and reattach head bolts
Day 3 2 hours: install back header, down-pipe, and cleanup misc. other reattachment jobs

But the satisfaction of doing it all myself...

worth every penny and every second!


----------------------------------------------------------------------------
This second DIY was contributed by "KrAzzi"

Just another perspective with some different stuff. Using both DIY's is pretty much all anyone would need and would answer any questions they may have about this install.

Another DIY OBX Header Install

I didn't take off the AC or the alternator and did it in about, I dunno 7-8 hours over 2 days. Like 4 hours each day.

when we did mine... we didn't have to vent the ac... we simply loosened it and rotated it back... same with the alternator... worked just fine for us... DONT forget to remove the negative battery terminal

*~BuM~*

We didnt have to vent ac line either...took off bolts and let it hang...took 5 hours of straight work(2 beer breaks), and the guy that was helping me was f***ing awesome at getting at bolts u cant even see! good luck.

Hey guys... I need some help... I couldn't find the DIY that there used to be on these boards somewhere that had instructions on how to convert the stock cat into a usuable cat with the SSA catback/header setup... I'm getting ready to do this and I dunno where to get the appropriate flanges for it... I thought it was a part of Dingleweeds DIY... but I couldn't find it... if someone has a link or knows how to answer my quesetion, please post it/PM me... I'd really appreciate it. Thanks

*~BuM~*

That diy was definitly helpful for disassembly but as far as re assembly... could have been better here is what i would have added...

When putting the front manifold back in... it doesn't just wiggle up ion there... you have to take the starter and the starter cover off. once you do, the manifold slides right in but you have to put it all together as a unit... what i mean it get the first half of the manifold in and then place the starter and starter cover in place with it then you will be able to move the rest of the manifold up in there... if you don't do it like this you will never get the starter or the cover in place.

i will post more when i finish the back half and y pipe

yeah i don't the injen cat back diy because i was doing the headers... but did finish the project last night. just one question what did you do with the rear lower O2 sensor... how did you run it... It didn't fit at first then i loosened up some slack on it and it still burnt some of the wire loom. i thinking maybe just adding some more wire to the existing ones and then just re running the whole thing around the wires because even though it is not burning now it is kinda close to the manifold.

Dingleweed and anyone else,

After installing the headers, did you get a slight rattling noise and a little roughness when driving after you first installed? I have heard that this is natural and that all that must be done is to re-tighten the bolts again after the car is slightly warm. What bolts do I tighten, all of them? Just the bolts that connect the headers to the down pipe, or the bolts connecting the headers to the manifold as well?

Yeah, what do you do with the extra O2 sensor bungs with these headers?

i just zipped tied mine out of the way.

okay, maybe a dumb question, but here goes, will this diy work for the hotshot headers as well? it seems to me that the design of the headers can't be much different due to space restraints in the engine bay, but i thought i'd ask anyway.

thanks,
steve

yes it will........

well we had a lift to work on and it took about 2 hours one of us did the front side the other one did the back. Wasnt too hard to do.

Hey, I haven't done a header install but my friend has done a few civic header installs...With myself and his help, if we follow these directions should we be able to put on the KRD header and cat back, with just bolting on,,,,??


Ed

Yes.

The instructions are a "guide" which works for all Tiburon V6 Headers.
My Instructions are more guided towards OBX headers becuase of the no-bunghole thing ect. But if you can look past the OBX specific stuff then yes, these instructions will work just fine.

Dingleweed V6 Header Instructions

Mine (KamloopsRazzi) V6 Header Instructions

So is doing the header install with a lift very beneficial? Because I have access to a lift, or I can just do it in my driveway. So would it be a lot easier, maybe take less time, if I were to take advantage of the lift...or are the advantages limited for a header install?

Do you guys have any tips on getting the bolts off for moving the air compressor? A regular ratchet isn't working for me and it's starting to strip the bolt. I can't seem to find any clearance. Anyone have any tips?

use a 12mm (i think) closed end wrench. You should be able to get the closed end over the bolt your trying to get out. Then take another closed ended wrench (doesnt matter size) and place it over (in) the open end of your 12mm wrench. Depending on which way you place the wrench on your 12mm will give you leaverage for tightening or loosening the bolt. Dingleweeds DIY has a good picture example of what Im talking about. (I think) Use this method to "break-free" the bolt. After which you can go back to using your socket.

Tried that. Just ended up stripping the bolt.

Mang, I followed this DIY to the T and my CEL is still coming on!!! I just zip tied the lower O2 sensors out of the way in the engine bay, both obviously getting the same A/F reading but still the PCM diagnostic showed some sh*tty sh*t goin down in my exhaust. I had to extend the wires of the lower rear sensor but I'm now getting weak a$$ torque in the 2700 and below range, but anything over 3700 is balls to the f*ckin wall! Overall, my CEL is on and a pain in the a$$ but I likes the sound, and I like the pull of my new OBX headers with EvoFusion exhaust, which the pro who helped me install this said was very well made but poorly designed, i.e. the missing bung hole after where the stock cat would be. . I didn't get anything welded in my headers like at a muffler shop as suggested for the extra sensors, and that might be my problem. So in order to get my CEL light off do I have to take my car to a shop and get extra bungs welded in or is there perhaps a much easier fix for this?? thx 4 hlp

you zip tied the lower front and lower rear O2 sensors up in the engine bay (this only works for 2003 cars, 2004+ Tibs had different O2 sensors which had to be placed in AFTER a catalytic converter).

You then extended the lower rear O2 sensor? What for? Isn't it zip tied up and out of the way? Did you mean the Upper Rear Sensor?

Problem #1

How is the idle? Rough? Smooth?
Is there hesitation when you mash the throttle?
Does the CEL light come on (when cleared) right away or does it come on as soon as your temperature gauge hits "normal"

If your idle is rough, theres hesitation, and you get the CEL when the Temp hits normal, then your rear UPPER O2 Sensor wasn't soldered or connected properally and is giving false readings. Re-wire your O2 sensor.

OR
Problem #2
EVOFusion doesnt sell OBX Headers. EVOFusion sells SSAutochrome.
SSAutochrome Headers are notorious for having a small exhaust leak over the 5th injector in the rear Header. It was suggested in a couple of other threads to use Header Gasket Sealer (Silocone?) to fix the warped flange.

First off I do have an 03 Tib, with OBX Racing headers and EvoFusion Exhaust, I got them from different places and know they are from different companies. It does idle pretty rough too. I didnt do anything with the O2 sensors, my friend did all that, but he said the EvoFusion exhaust had a O2 bunghole halfway down the mid pipe and thats the one he had to extend, honestly I'm not sure which O2 sensors are plugged in and which arent, but the CEL is on constantly except for occaisionally it will blink and when it does blink it seems like I have no acceleration. The more I've been driving it I've been noticing that unless I peel out from 1st with hi rpms and keep it full throttle I get mad pull, but if i take my foot off the gas but don't shift then try to accelerate again I sometimes have no pull in any gear at any rpm. Yesterday I tried to merge onto the highway and it took me almost 25 seconds to get to 55mph! Thats ridiculous for a tib and I know something's wrong. My buddy at the shop told me to bring it back in and he'll plug it into the computer to see where exactly the bad reading is coming from. Either way, any help you can offer would be appreciated, I'm fairly new to working on cars and didnt do most of the important parts of this DIY and let my service tech friend do it. So if there's anything you think he should check on or redo then I can tell him so that he has a better idea of what needs to be done when I bring it in to his shop. Thanks

The Bunghole on the downpipe (midpipe?) isn't supposed to be used by your cars O2 sensors but is there for tuning via a A/F Meter.
Your OBX should have came with only one O2 sensor bunghole and that is in the downpipe. You should have had to weld in two bungholes in your OBX headers (one on each header, towards the top, on the middle pipe). These bungholes are for your top two A/F O2 sensors. The A/F O2 sensors were the top two on your stock manifold as well. The bottom two O2 sensors are for checking if the catalytic converter is working and can be zip tied in the engine compartment with no side effects (cuase your car is a 2003).


Can you confirm that
A) He doesn't have three zip tied in your engine compartment by crawling under your car and looking at your "firewall" header to see where he has those O2 sensors (A/F and Catalytic, one in the header, on zip tied). Then you can confirm that he has the two the front, one in the header and one zip tied (A/F and Catalytic).

B) IF there is one O2 sensor in EACH header (front and back) then its a good chance that one set of O2 sensors got mixed up and you have an A/F O2 sensor zip tied in fresh air, and the one in your header is a catalytic converter O2 sensor. You will need your friends computer (OBDII Code reader) to find out which set is mixed up.

C) IF he does have three zip tied in the engine compartment and one in the downpipe, you will need to remove your headers, get O2 bungholes welded in. Then re-install your headers and put the A/F O2 sensors in the bungholes and zip tie the Catalytic O2 sensors in the engine compartment.

D) IF everything seems ok, the only thing to check for is exhaust leaks between the manifold and the header. Also verify the connections on the lengthened O2 sensor (16 gauge wire should have been used I believe).

Hi, I've been doing the DIY after work these few days. I bought the SSA headers, which I would think the version 2, or version 3? 5 gaskets for the downpipe, and bolts came with the package. Anyways, so far I've used the old gaskets for the manifolds and they fit on fine. The front went in fine without removing the starter shield. The back one went in fine too. I wondered afterward if it was even necessary to move the alternator...

My problem:
I can't get the top bolt for the alternator into the hole, any body had this problem? I did a careful aligning and realized that when I push the alternator towards the placement hole, the whole alternator body moves up by 1mm at the joint that it rotates on. I'm gonna try it out today again w/ my buddy who knows nothing about cars, hehe. But we are both science geeks, considering that we were pretty good at university physics and chemistry, so I figure we'll solve this problem sooner or later, but any hints from you guys would be awesome.