Questions for those with CIA headers

[Skinny]

Looks like this is going to be my next purchase. The shop is closed right now until July, so I'm looking to you guys for answers. How much did you pay for them, and how much was the shipping? How was the install- any difficulties? Are they coated? Does anyone have them in chrome? Is the coating good? Did you have to do anything different with your spark plug wires? Anything else I might need to know?

Thanks. [img]graemlins/burnout.gif[/img]

[John_D.]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by 96BeastV6:
How much did you pay for them, and how much was the shipping?<hr></blockquote>

$670, included shipping.

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>How was the install- any difficulties?<hr></blockquote>

The old manifolds were a pain to get off. It went pretty smooth overall, especially after getting the old ones out of there.

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Are they coated? Does anyone have them in chrome? Is the coating good?<hr></blockquote>

Yes they are coated. Choice of three colors. I don't think he does chrome, but I suppose you could always send them off somewhere. Coating was great, and the shipping packaging was excellent, so there were no scratches or dings from shipping.

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Did you have to do anything different with your spark plug wires?<hr></blockquote>

I kept the same routing on the plug wires. There were some aluminum heat shields on some of them, so I reused those too.

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Anything else I might need to know?<hr></blockquote>

You will probably run into some possible cross-threading of the bolts into the heads, due to a very slight misalignment of some of the bolt holes. There are a couple on the drivers side that will try to cross-thread, but if you get a socket on them and push the bolt over sideways to start it, it will probably work. On the passenger side, I had to slot the lower bolt hole on the middle cylinder to keep it from cross-threading.

The exhaust manifold gaskets will probably have to be ordered, I couldn't find anyone who stocked them.

You will have to bend one or both of the a/c lines coming off the back of the a/c compressor.

Dan at CIA says the y-pipe is a little shorter than stock, so you may not meet up with the catalytic converter. I replaced the whole system at one time, so I don't know how much shorter it is.

[Dominic]

Do the RKSports require bending of any AC lines?

[Cale]

I didn't have to bend my AC lines to get my headers on.

Install was smooth.

Great quality headers.

I went ahead and cross threaded two bolts, one on each side. PUT EACH BOLT IN FIRST - THEN TIGHTEN! [img]smile.gif[/img]

[RacerJ]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>How much did you pay for them, and how much was the shipping?<hr></blockquote> I originally bought just the headers (ceramic coated) without the Y-pipe. That was something like $500 shipped. Later I decided to get the Y-pipe from Dan too, and that ended up being something like $180 shipped, with the gaskets, nuts, and bolts. (The bolts were actually a bit short, btw...)

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>How was the install- any difficulties?<hr></blockquote>Biggest pain in the @$$ ever. Then again, I had to do it with the car on jack stands only about a foot off the ground. Anything is much easier with a lift. But getting the old manifolds out was about 2/3 of the entire job - just ridiculous. Putting the new headers in was relatively easy compared to the removal.

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Are they coated? Does anyone have them in chrome? Is the coating good?<hr></blockquote>I don't know about the chrome. I have the grey color. It looks very nice, and it's a quality coating job.

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Did you have to do anything different with your spark plug wires?<hr></blockquote>Easiest thing to do is buy yourself some wire separators. (I ended up using a set and a half - but they're only like $2/set). You'll need the separators to keep the wires pulled back away from the headers. Otherwise they'll start melting and/or arching and fry the wire. (You do not want that misfire...)

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Anything else I might need to know?<hr></blockquote>Well, like was said before, you'll probably have to nudge the A/C lines a bit. No big deal, I just had to pull mine over about a half of an inch.

Have a friend give you a hand - things will go more quickly.

Liquid wrench and a box-end, ratcheting, 13mm (I think it's 13mm) wrench are your allies.

AND NOW FOR MY OVERALL THOUGHT ON THE HEADERS:
They're a nice set of headers and I would buy them instead of the RKSport headers for their quality. But in my opinion (in retrospect), it's not worth the time or money to run headers on our cars unless you're running NOS or a blower, etc. Save the money and use it for something else.

[Skinny]

With the A/C lines being so close to the headers, do you have any problems with the A/C not being very cold? A good cold a/c is a MUST here in hell, I mean Florida.

[John_D.]

I haven't noticed any difference, it always seemed a little weak, but no worse now than before. I will probably eventually take a piece of aluminum sheeting and mount in there somewhere as a heat shield, just in case.

[RacerJ]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by 96BeastV6:
With the A/C lines being so close to the headers, do you have any problems with the A/C not being very cold?<hr></blockquote>

Nope. The A/C lines seem unscathed. The ceramic coating does a very good job of keeping the headers cooler. (They'll actually be cool to the touch about 45min after turning off the engine when it's hot.)

[Cale]

New Question:

Who has the headers w/ high flow cat and has retained the stock 02 Sensor w/ NO problems w/ SES?

[RacerJ]

Mine's throwing an O2 heater circuit code on the passenger side manifold sensor. But it looks like it's the O2 sensor that's the culprit there. I bought a new one, but just haven't had it installed yet.

Other than that, no problems with the O2 sensors.

[Cale]

So you do have the stock 02 Sensor in place after your hi-flow cat w/ no codes?

That's excellent to know. Thanks.

[RacerJ]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Cale:
So you do have the stock 02 Sensor in place after your hi-flow cat w/ no codes?<hr></blockquote>

Yeah. No codes from that one.