Carl Fausett

+2

Mongo

I'm a little late to this thread, but have purchased OBX exhaust parts before. I have two of their straight through mufflers (one being a resonator) that will be installed as part of my single exhaust change over when I get my car back on the street. The quality of the metal and welds appears pretty good. However, those headers do look like a direct copy of the MSDS type as indicated in a prior post. While it is a shame that someone reverse-engineers the exact design of someone else's work, I do think there should be some sort of compensation to MSDS for them.

I've been mulling over the idea of headers for quite sometime but have heard numerous horror stories of installing them while the engine was still in. I guess that is what keeps me from getting them.

17prospective buyer

Rob on that shot of your motor, did you get your pieces replated? If so, was it cadmium or yellow zinc?

Rob Edwards

Yellow zinc. Greg's since found another plating shop place whose work he likes better, more consistent results.

17prospective buyer

How has it held up so far? I blasted a bunch of parts this past weekend for plating.

Rob Edwards

Reasonably well, though it certainly no longer looks new.

Before:



Blasted:



Plated:




it's been about 3 years since I had that bracket plated, the car has only been driven maybe 3000 miles since then, never in the rain , never gotten anything on the engine besides pure, clean California air and microfiber towels.

That bracket (and all the plated stuff) is still shiny, but there does seem to be a bit of surface dulling that has occurred. Same with all the other hardware that I had plated.

So it has _sort of_ held up, but I think it's going south faster than the factory plating did.


That bracket, March 2013:

MjRocket

Hmm... I was wondering myself weather the engine needs to be pulled to install the headers? Can anyone that's installed these or any other headers in the 32V 928 chime in?

Thx

17prospective buyer

Maybe i will clearcoat my pieces after plating Rob. Thanks for replying.

Mongo

Yep, I searched too on here with no luck. I found more on 16v cars than I did with 32v ones with MSDS headers. Old threads about Devek headers detail some about install, but nothing really specific.

Lizard928

No, these can be installed with engine in car. You might need to pull the bolts for the motor mounts and raise the motor slightly though

Mongo

Is there a link to a step-by-step process?

Ducman82

i did my msds in car. but when i re added the heat shields, i had to raise the engine up about .5 inches....

Ducman82

The driver side is the main issue. Steering is in the way.

MjRocket

Yes..+2 Please.

Thx

Rob Edwards

Beyond Colin's and Jake's comments about having to raise the driver's side of the engine a little bit, there's no one-size fits all protocol for this more detailed than:

1. Drop old exhaust and manifolds
2. Wrestle new headers into position
3. Struggle with many M8 nuts, washers, and gaskets

Because everyone's experience is going to differ based on:
1. The exhaust currently on their car
2. How rusty its fasteners are
3. How high off the floor you're working (needs to be at leat 18" but life is MUCH BETTER on a lift)
4. Whether you're willing to drop the alternator on the driver's side (not 100% necessary but I think it's worth the effort for the sake of getting to particular studs)
and
5. The diversity of your collection of 13mm sockets, gearwrenches, extensions, wobblies, magnetic finger gloves, and heavy grease (small dabs for holding exhaust gasket rings in the heads, and M8 washers on studs.)....