(PICS) M&M Header Install (PICS)

FLATOUT

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Well I want to first off say thanks for the Gen III header install doc here on the VCA. I picked up this set from the guys at M&M here on the board and got them installed this last week. All in all I'm very happy with the construction, price, performance, and fit and finish of the headers. The customer service I experienced was exceptional and install was a breeze as far as header installs go.

I went ahead and took a few pics during the install, nothing to detailed as we already had an install document on the site but thought I would comment on the things that worked well and or things I did differently.

First a few things I did before getting started. The M&M turnouts are 3 inch and my Corsa has the 2 1/2 inch inlets so I needed to get a reducer made at a local exhaust shop. Super cheap and quick. I went ahead and threw the catback in my Jeep along with both turnouts to make sure the fit was as tight as possible. I would later weld the reducer to the turnouts once cut to length but for adjustment purposes need these to be movable.

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Next per our install doc here I went ahead and ordered new Mopar exhaust manifold gaskets just incase my stockers separated upon removal (which they did.) These are cheap anyways roughly 36$.

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Next I went ahead and called up Summit and ordered new ARP hardware (not necessary, but recommended) along with some copper gaskets for the collectors. These are also not mandatory but they don't cost much and do the job well.

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Once everything came in, I went to work. I ended up doing the install alone which is doable, but I took my time over the coarse of a week to get everything done right. First things first, got the side sills removed and the catback off.

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Next I removed the windshield cowling, airbox, and the cabin airfilter plastic housing at the base of the passenger side windshield cowl.

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Here I kind of skip ahead in the pictures so i'll give a quick breakdown. Removed the wires, valve covers, loosened the coolant overflow and secured it out of the way. Removed and marked the throttle cable position, removed the break booster line and folded out of the way. Basically try and create as much clearance as you need to remove the old exhaust manifolds and install the new headers. I secured the fusebox heat-shield back with a long piece of blue painters tape secured to the fender (I know it looks hillbilly, but it works great.) From here, protect your rocker arms and cylinder heads from damage as you remove the stock manifolds and install the new headers. I didn't take any pics but I used tape and rags which worked fine. Here it is all torn down.

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From here I inserted a couple of set screws into the head to hold the new gasket in place and to hang the new headers on (more detail on that in the original install doc.) Use antisieze, and the proper torque specs and procedure when installing the new headers. At this point everything was left loose for adjustment purposes.

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Drivers side went in easier than the passenger side. On both sides I needed to remove the motor mount bolts and slightly raise the motor to get the headers past the frame rails. Really easy to do. Here's the passenger side with the valve covers back on.

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At this point I went ahead and torqued everything to the head and started working down stream, first with the collectors and the rear O2's. I grabbed a couple O2 block offs from the exhaust shop I used and used some loctite to secure them in the collector as they can come loose.

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Next I rigged up the rear O2's via a trick from Andres (345's Spinnin, Thanks Buddy for your help). I secured the rear O2's up and out of the way and used spark plug anti-fowlers to insulate them to not only protect them, but also to allow them to properly heat making the system "ready" so it wouldn't throw any codes, and still pass emissions. The rear O2's read plenty of oxygen in the outside air so the system thinks everything is great. So far so good, it works great! You have to drill out a significant portion out of the end to get them to accept the O2 but it works.

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After bolting up the collectors I moved on to the turnout pipes. These are supplied basically to cut to length for the customer. As with all things measure twice and cut once, or in my case do this a million times because your afraid to remove to much lol. I would simply mark the turnout where I wanted the cut, mark it, then mask it and cut it with a sawzall. The sawzall worked well even with the jet hot coating being so hard. After each cut I would de-burr it with the grinder or dremel and test fit.

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After that get everything tightened up with the supplied hardware and your done! I took the time to really insulate and or wrap anything that I thought might possibly get to hot with reflective heat tape. I also ordered a set of Koolsox (same as the ACRX wire boot covers minus the word "Viper") through Koolmat.com.

Here's the finished install!

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I put a few heat cycles on everything and went over all of the fasteners again. I also decided to move the passenger side O2 wire back and away from the rear passenger side primary just to be safe, there's plenty of room to tap the frame rail and install a nice hoseclamp out of the way.

Andy Wheeler
 

bross

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Looks good. M&m has a nice product, it's nice when it all fits like it should.
 
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FLATOUT

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Looks good. M&m has a nice product, it's nice when it all fits like it should.

Yes sir, you like I sound like you've experienced some not so fun installs. They did a nice job.
 

Wiretech

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Hey Andy looks like your a pro at this,great job, thanks for the step by step info and great pictures for this, I wanted to ask if you had to remove the valve covers and how long was the total job by yourself . thinking I may attempt this one day,thanks.
 
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FLATOUT

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Hey Andy looks like your a pro at this,great job, thanks for the step by step info and great pictures for this, I wanted to ask if you had to remove the valve covers and how long was the total job by yourself . thinking I may attempt this one day,thanks.

Definitely not a pro but I've done enough installs to be dangerous. As far as time goes and doing the job alone I would say a full day easy. It takes awhile to make the cuts in the turnouts, clean them up and test fit everything again. It's not hard just time consuming. It's much easier to just spend a few hours over a couple days.

As for the valve covers, yes remove them no reason to risk gouging them up with removal or install of the new pieces. Lifting the motor off the mounts really helps to snake the new tunes in.
 
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FLATOUT

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Thanks for the reply Andy, this post will us all out in the future,:2tu:

No problem, the install doc here on the site is more detailed in some areas so put these two together and your set:D
 

SlayerLS1

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Great writeup Andy. Great example of how to install headers. You saved a bunch of money doing it yourself. Ask me how I know. ;)
 

fqberful

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Well I want to first off say thanks for the Gen III header install doc here on the VCA.
Andy Wheeler

Thank you, I wrote that. I'm glad it was of assistance. It's unfortunate that VCA decided to make this information "members only". Knowledge isn't a member thing, it's a Viper Owner thing. I believe that is wrong.

And congrats on the headers, you will love them.

--FQB
 
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FLATOUT

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I understand your sentiment, and I do appreciate your hard work on the document it helped me out a great deal. Great,idea using the sets crews to hold the gaskets in place :D. That alone saved me a ton of time. I did also see the thread on the other site:)

Andy Wheeler

Thank you, I wrote that. I'm glad it was of assistance. It's unfortunate that VCA decided to make this information "members only". Knowledge isn't a member thing, it's a Viper Owner thing. I believe that is wrong.


And congrats on the headers, you will love them.

--FQB
 
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FLATOUT

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Great writeup Andy. Great example of how to install headers. You saved a bunch of money doing it yourself. Ask me how I know. ;)

Yep and it's great to get to know the car a little better.

Looks good Andy :2tu: Hope to hear it soon ... are you still running cats, and what catback are you running?

No cats through a Corsa track with the 2.5 inch inlet.
 
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Thank you, I wrote that. I'm glad it was of assistance. It's unfortunate that VCA decided to make this information "members only". Knowledge isn't a member thing, it's a Viper Owner thing. I believe that is wrong.

As has been mentioned previously, we are more than happy to COPY an informative thread to the Illustrated Upgrades so that the original stays intact in the general forums. If the original author is okay (and we always ask) with moving it instead of copying it, then we go that route. And if it is posted by an Enthusiast at the time we simply copy it: It would be pretty lame if the author couldn't see their own post.
 

fqberful

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As has been mentioned previously, we are more than happy to COPY an informative thread to the Illustrated Upgrades so that the original stays intact in the general forums. If the original author is okay (and we always ask) with moving it instead of copying it, then we go that route. And if it is posted by an Enthusiast at the time we simply copy it: It would be pretty lame if the author couldn't see their own post.

And I can't even see my own post now. As I said, knowledge is an Owner Thing, NOT a member thing. You run your system how ever you see fit.
 

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