Ef that, just wait until LT's come out for your car.

 

xXHotelCrazyXx, you said "Megan Racing makes quality products for a great price." I bought a POS s14 for ****s and giggles with a megan catback and megan headers. The megan headers on it are rusting and they're about 18 months old. id post a pic now, but its too dark for a pic. ill post one tomorrow. also, if you google megan headers there are a lot of instances of them cracking (at least their turbo manifolds). megan = garbage ...

 

Exhaust port shape and bolt pattern are the same between the DE and HR motors. There are HR Z owners running DE aftermarket headers. Also, Forged Performance confirmed the fitment of DE to HR and HR to DE manifolds.

 

Many turbo manifolds are known to crack, even some OEM manifolds. I know that in the DSM world the OEM manifolds cracked often, so did just about every other stainless setup.

 

I just finished installing these on my 05 sedan. To help the OP ill give a quick review and write up. My camera is broke so no pics to be had as of know Ill try and get some up though. First the headers look great, the welds look pretty good as do the ports so I felt pretty confident about installing them and not having to worry about cracking down the road. Like a few people said the price leaves you wondering where they cut corners but Im a megan fan and have a few of there products as do many of my buddies and never a problem yet. I attribute their low prices to being a relatively young company and trying to make a name for themselves in a competitive market. Anyway on to the install.

You will need to get 4 spark plug non foulers before starting the install. As to prevent your after cat o2s from throwing a code. Heres a good write up on what you need to do with them http://www.energeticforum.com/renewa...n-foulers.html

Also you have a lift so your in good shape. Ratchet wrenches and breaker bars are gonna be your friends.

Drivers side(easier side):
Disconnect battery, pull the airbox, intake tube, intake going across the radiator. I also unbolted the ac compressor and moved it to the side with all lines attached to get a better angle on the front bolts. Also get underneath and unplug and remove o2s, remove the cats, brace, y pipe and mark the position of the steering column with chalk or marker and remove the lower bolt(with the wheels straight the bottom of the bolt should be facing you at least on mine). Once you remove that bolt just lift up and it will slide of the gear on the steering rack. Now you can undo the 4 bolts holding the heat shield on and then undo the six nuts holding the header on. They are 14mm. Pull the old header off, throw it across the shop(this step is very necessary..haha). Remove the o2s off the old header and cat. Remove the o2 plugs on the new header. Put the gasket on the studs(you can use the old gaskets as they are multi-layer steel and seem alot better than the supplied gaskets. I used oem one on one side and supplied gasket on the other to see which one leaks first if any to see which is best to use, so far no leaks) Slide the new header on the studs. You have plenty of room, one of the easier header installs Ive doen as far as room goes to get the header in. Reinstall nuts, tighten in a criss cross pattern:

<<<<front of engine
3 1 5
6 2 4

Install o2s and feel free to reinstall your ac compressor at this time. Next on to the passenger side.

 

Passenger side:
I removed the ps pump, alternator, the radiator fans and the coolant pipe running across the top of the headers from the heater hose to the radiator so you can reach all the bolts. All this is pretty easy to get off. So drain some of the coolant, not all just about 2 gallons or so, as the lines are high up so with just that much drained the no water with be up there to leak out.

Loosen belt: Theres a long bolt by the alternators going straight up, turn it counter clockwise and it should loosen then tensioner. If not go the other way. hehe

PS pump:2 bolts by the header, 2 on the front of the motor, leave the lines connected just move it out of your way.

Fans: Take the out before the alternator as the alternator bolt wont come out far enough with out hitting the fans. Disconnect 2 sensors at the bottom left of the fans(as your looking at the car) and cut that zip clip. Remove the 2 screw up top holding the fans. Remove top coolant hose going to radiator and unbolt the ac line bracket on the frame rail by where the airbox goes. Now the fans will just lift out.

Alternator: disconnect the plug, unbolt the ground, remove the 2 8mm bolts on the bracket on the backside of the alternator, then you have 2 more bolts one at the top and one at the bottom. This can come out and be set somewhere.

Coolant pipe: the front hose should be off the radiator already, then there is 2 more lines attached to it, just you some needle nose pliers to pinch the clips and pull the hoses off. there is a bolt you can get to from the bottom holding the pipe into the other pipe(youll see it) Remove it and the pipe should be able to be swung on top off the engine with the back heater hose still attached.

Now we can attack who we came here for, the header. Take off the the heat shield, o2s and cat. Take off the 6 nuts holding the header on. Remove header, and proceed to throw across the shop. Let me reinterate the previous said step is crucial. Now put gasket on studs, slide header on, bolt it down in criss cross:

Front of motor>>>>>>>
3 1 5
6 2 4

install o2s(dont forget the non foulers the the one after the cat). Connect them and reinstall y pipe(dont forget gaskets), install brace going from header to header. And now reinstall in reverse order the coolant pipe, alternator, fans, ps pump and tighten the belt, connect battery, double check and triple check everything. Also back on the drivers side reinstall the intake system. Fill radiator back up with water and coolant. Check owners manual for the process as it is a self bleeding system. Our cars rock. And enjoy your cars new signature.

Now the top o2 sensor connector had a hard time reaching so I had to cut the clips on the front of the intake manifold holding the wiring harness to give it some more slack to reach. So might have to do that.

 

Impressions:

I love the sound of the long tubes. I have a motordyne xyz y-pipe, stock mid pipe and hks muffler. It has a bit of a rumble and when the variable exhaust timing kicks in it reminds of the sound of my wastegate opening on my 240. It is raspy under acceleration but I really like it. My buddy and I noticed a good bit of gain in top end and a little loss of down low torque according to our butt dynos. But it feels and sounds great.

The fitment of the headers was really good. The passenger side did sit uncomfortably close to the frame rail down by where the cat used to be but no rubbing after a few spirited drives last night. I also have the stillen damper so with out it Im not sure if the clearance would be an issue. I recommend to anyone to pick up a set of these. The install isnt that hard at all just alot of stuff to do but nothing to difficult for most. For me my car came from Mass before I got it so there is some surface rust so the nuts were next to impossible to get off. If anyone knows what a bolt off socket is, I had to used that and a breaker bar on just about every header nut. I hope this helps the OP and anyone else looking to do this mod. My write up wasnt totally in detail but it gives you what you need to get it done. Good luck!

 

^^Nice writeup!

 

To prevent rust and corrosion, I'd have the headers ceramic coated by Jet Hot first before installing. I have a '98 Firebird with an F1 Procharger Supercharger that's an all out beast. The first set of Hooker LT Headers rusted over in about 6 months. The next set of Hooker headers I had ceramic coated first by Jet Hot in their sterling finish. Added an addition $175 to the cost of the headers. However, if Jet Hot coats a set of brand new headers they will gaurantee they will never rust for life. Dude, for a $175 that's money well spent in my opinion! I'd suggest anyone getting headers to have them coated first. Headers by nature and design will always be inferior in quality to an OEM manifold. That's why you have to figure on replacing your headers about every 5 years or so. Oh, Cyrus at Megan racing finally returned my email and said that their headers will not fit the 2008 model year. CRAP!

 

Quick story about Megan racing and it's reputation. So I had to call Procharger about my Firebird set-up and was inquiring if they had a supercharger for the '08 G35. She said no, b/c it's a dual intake set up and they haven't put the R&D into developing one just yet. So while we're discussing the whole air-fuel system of the G35, she told me that many people are using Megan racing headers and that I should give them a call. If a reputable, well branded name (Procharger) is giving out referrals/ recommendations to call Megan Racing, then I'd say that speaks VOLUMES for Megan!!!!

 

Great writeup and very much appreciated! How long did this take you from start to finish?

 

These Megan headers are about a year and a half old. The egr bung was located in a bad spot and could not be used. The headers sound okay but you ultimately get what you pay for.

 

Thats a whole different engine you posted. That wont do any justice for the VQ

 

Haha. You dont want to know. About 18hrs, however, 85% of that was fighting to break the header nuts loose. So with out the header bolts being seized on there it would have take no more than 6 hours.

 

Ok a few more questions for you.

1) How many miles on your G?
2) Do you own a complete set of tools? (Or did you make do with what youve got)
3) Any sound clips?