The rear was a little low (under 13") even with some extra rubber shims, so I swapped rear springs from my favorite 6.5" GC eibach 550lbs to some QA1 high travel 7" 550lb (both 2.5" ID). I removed the extra rubber shim (only using stock lower spring pad and GC top nylon cone), so the car has now settled at 13.25" rear ride height which gives me a little rake which I like. I also like the car being a little higher since this is my daily.
Took off the front reinforcement plate and cleaned it:
It was missing the oil drain cover, so replaced that:
With that out of the way, I could finish my suspension refresh with OEM FCABs. Originals actually looked ok, might have been replaced at one point, but doubtful.
New. Nothing like fresh FCABs!
Why did I wait to drop the reinforcement plate? Because I wanted to put these in!
Randomly perusing Ebay, I found a used set of Fabspeed headers for $300 lolwut. They had a dent and were kinda dirty, but so what?
All but 1 of the aftermarket headers for our car are replicas of Supersprint's long tube "tubulare" header that was the upgrade for euro or csl guys (before stepped existed). Or they're a rep of euro/csl. IMO, Fabspeeds are the best, truest replica made. Best sound and power. Lightweight, perfect fitment, thin flanges. Just perfect.
Took the strut bar off. Already had the beauty cover off. Undid the SAP and the coolant exp line - I plug the tank and hardline with cork or rubber stoppers so I don't lose much coolant. Heat shields and o2/egt connections and you're ready to remove the manifolds.
Car has been in Socal for 17 of its 20 years, so removal was easy. Only one stud came out with the nut!
Be gone with you. Got new o2s as well. Will reuse EGT.
Precats were done lol
Changed out the CPV O-ring - thanks John! mpower22. Mine wasn't actually leaking, but best time to do it. However, while in there, looking up, I could see oil coming out the Exh CPS, so I'll need to get another o-ring for that.
New Bosch pre cats installed. Capped the post cat bungs.
Catted sect 1. Euro cats got harder to find and more expensive. I wasn't gonna spend $2400 on SS HJS sect 1. I found a listing on ebay from a German company who fabs up 100 & 200 cell metallic race cats in 2.5" piping for Sect 1 for only $400! ($100 shipping)
Link: https://www.ebay.com/itm/23335313314...53.m1438.l2649
Let's check them out!
Initial quality looks nice. Clean welds, everything is straight and smooth. post cat o2 bungs and egt just like factory euro setup. They didn't come with bung caps, however.
Let's look closer:
Cat looks good. They were very clear about the cats being metallic, not ceramic. These are the 200 cell. My goal was to cut the smell almost completely, but retain half of the gains of removing stock cats (400 cell). I also love that they did these in 2.5" (63.5mm) instead of typical 2.25" or 2.365" (60mm) - there's a fair amount of power to be had here - I want to say Hassan demonstrated an 8whp gain here.
All the insides have been smoothed out. Very nice. Overall, very very pleased for $500 spent!
Post cats capped for now since I just passed smog and have 2 years before I need to do anything (not sure of this car's future tbh)
I mentioned EGT earlier. I already installed the sensor in the header location, so I'm capping this location. I couldn't be arsed to extend the egt and o2 wiring down the driver side tranny tunnel since I wasn't bothering with post cat o2s at this time.
Anywho, luckily, I keep things, and have an extra EGT sensor that I could cannibalize to make a bung cap.
The spacer is so the cap doesn't bottom out on the pipe before sealing. The solid, thin piece of metal is used since there's a hole in the sensor's nut.
Headers went in pretty easily. First bank slid on, second took a little effort. Got the sect 1 pipes up, but their increased size caused the tranny cover to make contact.
Just nipped off some of the plastic at the bend:
All done:
All done! Heat shields back in, SAP and exp line back in. Added a little water back to the tank. Removed the post cat o2 plastic holder. If you slide a little nylon washer over the beauty cover studs, you can replicate that plastic sensor cover's thickness so that you don't over tighten the little chrome nuts at the end.
Ah that throaty idle
Took off the front reinforcement plate and cleaned it:
It was missing the oil drain cover, so replaced that:
With that out of the way, I could finish my suspension refresh with OEM FCABs. Originals actually looked ok, might have been replaced at one point, but doubtful.
New. Nothing like fresh FCABs!
Why did I wait to drop the reinforcement plate? Because I wanted to put these in!
Randomly perusing Ebay, I found a used set of Fabspeed headers for $300 lolwut. They had a dent and were kinda dirty, but so what?
All but 1 of the aftermarket headers for our car are replicas of Supersprint's long tube "tubulare" header that was the upgrade for euro or csl guys (before stepped existed). Or they're a rep of euro/csl. IMO, Fabspeeds are the best, truest replica made. Best sound and power. Lightweight, perfect fitment, thin flanges. Just perfect.
Took the strut bar off. Already had the beauty cover off. Undid the SAP and the coolant exp line - I plug the tank and hardline with cork or rubber stoppers so I don't lose much coolant. Heat shields and o2/egt connections and you're ready to remove the manifolds.
Car has been in Socal for 17 of its 20 years, so removal was easy. Only one stud came out with the nut!
Be gone with you. Got new o2s as well. Will reuse EGT.
Precats were done lol
Changed out the CPV O-ring - thanks John! mpower22. Mine wasn't actually leaking, but best time to do it. However, while in there, looking up, I could see oil coming out the Exh CPS, so I'll need to get another o-ring for that.
New Bosch pre cats installed. Capped the post cat bungs.
Catted sect 1. Euro cats got harder to find and more expensive. I wasn't gonna spend $2400 on SS HJS sect 1. I found a listing on ebay from a German company who fabs up 100 & 200 cell metallic race cats in 2.5" piping for Sect 1 for only $400! ($100 shipping)
Link: https://www.ebay.com/itm/23335313314...53.m1438.l2649
Let's check them out!
Initial quality looks nice. Clean welds, everything is straight and smooth. post cat o2 bungs and egt just like factory euro setup. They didn't come with bung caps, however.
Let's look closer:
Cat looks good. They were very clear about the cats being metallic, not ceramic. These are the 200 cell. My goal was to cut the smell almost completely, but retain half of the gains of removing stock cats (400 cell). I also love that they did these in 2.5" (63.5mm) instead of typical 2.25" or 2.365" (60mm) - there's a fair amount of power to be had here - I want to say Hassan demonstrated an 8whp gain here.
All the insides have been smoothed out. Very nice. Overall, very very pleased for $500 spent!
Post cats capped for now since I just passed smog and have 2 years before I need to do anything (not sure of this car's future tbh)
I mentioned EGT earlier. I already installed the sensor in the header location, so I'm capping this location. I couldn't be arsed to extend the egt and o2 wiring down the driver side tranny tunnel since I wasn't bothering with post cat o2s at this time.
Anywho, luckily, I keep things, and have an extra EGT sensor that I could cannibalize to make a bung cap.
The spacer is so the cap doesn't bottom out on the pipe before sealing. The solid, thin piece of metal is used since there's a hole in the sensor's nut.
Headers went in pretty easily. First bank slid on, second took a little effort. Got the sect 1 pipes up, but their increased size caused the tranny cover to make contact.
Just nipped off some of the plastic at the bend:
All done:
All done! Heat shields back in, SAP and exp line back in. Added a little water back to the tank. Removed the post cat o2 plastic holder. If you slide a little nylon washer over the beauty cover studs, you can replicate that plastic sensor cover's thickness so that you don't over tighten the little chrome nuts at the end.
Ah that throaty idle
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