Followed xvipers excellent DIY instructions. It took him 4-5 hours, me almost double ... so about right You really need tiny hands and a ratcheting box wrench to get that last bolt near the firewall for the heat shield, and of course I have big hands I also wished I had a lift or at least a manly floor jack instead of my Crappy Tire cheap ass jack. I needed more lift to get the stock header to drop out the bottom, but eventually got it when I put the car on all four jack stands. I'm surprised that the header tubes didn't crush considering how much I had to force the header into position. The only way the header would go down was to unmount the fuse box so the AC lines could be forced out of the way. Finally, I had to buy a couple of washers to shim rear engine mount to the header mounting tab. You would think that fitment would be better than that.

Anyways, initial impressions. The new header is slightly louder, with the main difference a little more engine noise from up front. It feels stronger from 4k to around 7-8k RPM. That could be due to the ECU reset and placebo effect, but I don't think that's totally true. It's not exactly a blind test since I already expected better midrange. The car is getting dynoed again on Thursday, so hard numbers then.

Oh yeah, the car was washed after the install And Cobalt VR and C race pads do not corrode or cement. The dust came off real easy even after a week with rain.

 

Should be interesting Steve if you actually notice a chage from 4K-7K like you said. I put together my barbecue this weekend so I know what it feels like to have your hands work in areas where it's tight. Not an 8 hour job like yours but working on metal to say the least! hehehe

 

I'm definitely getting mechanic's gloves for the next DIY. After getting a shear bruise with bare hands, bad feel through the gardening gloves and just the pain of washing off car crap, the hands need protecting.

Hopefully, I can get a "diff" plot for the before and after, like I've seen with other Mustang dynos. It's not going to be obvious gains like a supercharger or turbo. Since the Toda has a second bung, Tapp can do a A/F plot too.

 

sounds like we all had PITA do-it-yourself construction projects this weekend - I assembled this flimsy-ass back deck screened in gazebo tent thing. Probably could have heard me cursing from your house!

 

So no one actually took a drive on the best driving weekend of the year so far

 

I went to cornwall, cleaned out the garage.