First of all, a big thanks to gmblack3 for mailing me his extra hardware kit from his Kooks install. The promised package from TSP actually did arrive on Friday, but was missing the nuts needed for the muffler flanges. Grrr. Anyways, his kit arrived yesterday and saved me from having to go to the hardware store.

I pulled the coolant sensor and stuck a vacuum plug in the opening. No worries and only a small amount of coolant escaped. A new wrap of teflon tape on the sensor and it went right back in after the job and doesn't leak and didn't require replacing. :jester

Installation took all day, with a significant amount of time being wasted on my having to extract the bolts from the drivers muffler flange that the muffler shop had so kindly WELDED to the flange.

On jacking the motor, I was a bit less timid than we were with gmblack3's car and that helped a lot. I raised the motor to the point that the cowl was barely deflected. I also bungie corded the steering wheel down so marking the steering shaft wasn't necessary.

The clamps I recieved for the x-pipe were the nice and beefy accuseal units that some of you may have seen on the GHL systems. They clamp the sections together real well and twisting things from the rear with the muffler tip is difficult. However, I can feel a small leak above the driver's side clamp that persists even after tapping the rear section of that side up a bit with a bfh. The clamp on that side is **** tight, so I'll try some copper seal next.

Performance gains are excellent, naturally. At full honk, the car starts making some great noise at a little over 3500 and really pulls like mad on the freeway where the vararam comes into play. This is all on a stock internals LS1, so I'm pretty happy. There's a noticeable increase of noise even in granny mode at low revs, so we'll see whether the wife unit complains. She sure had a comment to make when we fired it up with just the headers attached. :reddevil (Hey, I had to make sure there wasn't any shipping debris still in the tubes. Three times. :lol: )

Anyways, a HUGE thanks to Patches for spending the day with me putting these in. Without his help and working on other things while I got hung up on stuff like the welded bolts, I would still be working on those today.

Dyno results at the end of the month, but no before runs, unfortunately.

Pics later...

Cheers!
Dan

 

:cheers:

 

congrats on the install.

 

You will enjoy them I'm sure at WOT, you will now have a perma-grin...and Patches is a great guy, and toooooo darn knowledgeable! Hi Patches :seeya :lol:

 

Well, the wife verdict is in.

"You've made this one as unpleasant as the last one!" "I won't be able to stand riding in this for long." :smash:

The system got a bit mellower on warmup, so we'll see whether she really finds it that unbrearable after all. The last car had a much more radical setup in it, so I'm not sure she's recalling correctly. :blueangel: If nothing else. I have some ideas to help out in that department. And no, a divorce lawyer is not part of the current plans. :jester

Cheers!
Dan

 

put KOOKS on a couple of months ago& it woke my car up,cant wait to put a tr224 cam in :D

 

i slight BLOWER WHINE will get rid out that unruly exhaust sound hehehehehehe.....or put some electric cut outs on it and then she will love the sound of the headers when they are closed up lol lol lol

 

Well Blorton, thanks for the write up. I am on the verge of pulling the trigger on these myself and need as much info as I can get. Especially regarding the noise level, additional heat, leakage and resonance. I took a long road trip in mine during the 50th and I intend to take more road trips. Will the noise be tolerable over say a 2000 mile round trip? I have Corsa Indys now.

 

Does anyonne have pictures of the Kooks headers installed on the car??

 

seems like my stingers got a little mellower with the KOOKS,the entire system isnt loud ,it sounds good,no problem at all listening to the radio.

 

I just installed the Kooks over the weekend. Took about 2 hours just to get the left side in. Kooks said to jack the left side of the motor until it barely hits the cowl. Hell, I was lifting the car though the motor with the intake contacting the cowl. Finally, with a bit of tapping with a LFH, she droped in: no need to use a BFH. Had to use some wooden wedges between the collectors and the frame to get the ends to line up with the exhaust pipes. With the difficulty of tightening the header bolts threaded into aluminum heads, I did not want to leave these loose then draw them in later. My impression on the sound was no difference at idle or 2000 RPM cruise. At 3000 RPM WOT she really comes alive, but it all comes out the tail pipes. I'll have to arrange a dyno-tune soon. :cheers:

 

:cheers: Teddy has some Borla straight pipes he'd sell you. :D After running them for a few days going back to your existing system will sound stock.

You could put on a Z06 exhaust system to mellow the sound out also if it comes down to that.

 

If she find it unbpleasant I could take her for a ride in mine. I'm sure she would find yours much more enjoyable :p: :jester

I still need to meet Patches :cheers: for helping everyone out.

 

Yep, after the commute in this morning, I'm considering doing exactly that. What would be neat is if I could find a local Z06'er that would be interested in doing a straight swap.

:cheers:

Dan

 

Congrats Dan on the install.... :cheers:

Mine w/ the borlas and kooks/cats sounds great. :D

Bit louder at idle and sings real nice when you open her up.

Do you have a partition?

I have yet to meet the "world famous" Patches myself. :D :cheers:

 

A quick side note for the Atlanta group. Come on out to dinner Weds night. IM me for more info.

Can't wait to hear the Kooks and GHLs :yesnod:


[Modified by 93Polo, 12:49 PM 3/8/2004]

 

Yep, I've got a partition. :yesnod:

Don't get me wrong - the setup sounds great when you're getting on it, and emits a lovely tone at upper rpms. I'm just interested in less drone at cruising rpms.

And I'll see ya'll Wednesday unless something blows up at work again.

:cheers:

Dan