OBX header

[Fast Eddie]

Store/Site purchased: SSautochrome via ebay
Cost/Shipping: 125/30ish
Store service, contact, delivery, problems, props: Paid Mon. was told would show next Wed we here that Wed so only three days to recieve

Initial product impressions, quality: purdy, nice welds think flange and polished SS
Instructions, good, bad, none, etc: none
Performance, appearance opinions: good gains, shiny and purdy

Installation notes, easy, hard, PITA / If not self installed, cost of installation
total PITA
(short story)
total labor $240
flex pipe $37
high flow cat $67
New O2 sensor (after wait) $39

total cost $536 USD
see next post for full story

[Fast Eddie]

The WHOLE story..............(a tale begins)

I picked this up for a little over $150USD shipped and the exhaust shop said 1-1.5 hrs to put on ($60-$90usd) so I thought heck not too bad, boy was I wrong. First problem the O2 nut won't work the engine mount is in the way. Solution: weld the hole shut and burn a hole further down the downpipe and weld in a nut which means the O2 harness needs to be made longer. Next problem (after everything is together this header has EGR port, my car has no EGR provisions, all the exhaust is coming out the front of the head. Solution: pull everything off and weld the EGR pipe shut. OK the man comes out and tells me everything is back together.....BUT the spring-loaded bolts we were using wouldn't move and tighten down enough to keep it from leaking, you need to get a flex pipe in...soon. So $125 and five hours later I'm out the door with a 1/2 complete project.

SOOOOO based on my plotting with the exhaust guy I come home and order up a high-flow catco cat from summit ($67). That comes in and back to the exhuast shop.

After waiting all morning they get a flex pipe put in there with the new cat and what have ya, all for the low low price of $127 USD ($37 for the flex pipe plus $90 for 1.5 hrs labor). Fire it up and look to hit the streets. Get the engine up to NOT and finally pull up to a stop sign close to home and give it a little gas and BWWWAAA somethings WRONG! downpipe and cat are no longer connected!!! call the shop and they say get it here if you can. So I wire it up and head back WITH NO POWER (whoever said straight header/exhaust manny whatever is good for power is full of sheeeet, period done it aint getting NOOO power). Turns out I blew the friggen flew pipe apart. they replace it with a different style and Now life is good?

SES light what is that???!! the autozone dude says its the upstream O2 sensor. Reset it and wait. After trip to KC it comes back on, samething. Dealer won't touch it (but will charge $47 to scan the code and say the header voids the warranty, duh!) So after spending $63 on the wrong O2 sensor that I can't get my $$ back for for two weeks since I paid with a check. So now that my car is up on stands with no upstream O2 senser I frantically call all the parts places in town and they tell me they can't even get it. Place a call to the good GM dealer in town and they can get it but not til tomarrow since its already 4:30. No biggie be there 1st thing in the AM. So $39 later and about 1hr under a car driven through a lovely midwest Dec. (think of putting ur face in the street and not being able to wipe it off.)

Well now everything is running good now. Good low end, not as much but I can still light em up. about about 3G pulls like a mule on roids. I chirped third on dry pavement with NEW GS-As (another story) so yeah it adds a tad bit of power.

[Oldsman]

No sweat had a similar story. what his exhaust shop did was weld the hole shut for the O2 and but it on the other side of the header. 180 deg from the intial one. They used the spring bolts for the downpipe but it still has exhaust leak. The exhaust shop put in the wrong O2 sensor so lots od SES but after getting the right one everything is good.

Labor costs a lot more that the header.

[brim]

hence why one of us with the talent in each area should be available for *discounted* labor costs when installs are needed =p

[sound_xtreme]

if you all lived closer i coulda done it.

[Oldsman]

forget moving for your job, move for labor costs.

well i hope everything lasts for you, eddie.

for the cost of header compared to the gain is well worth it but this like another part out there (body kit) the hidden labor costs will kill ya.

[Fast Eddie]

If I had access to a lift (I can get a MIG welder) it would have been MUUUCH cheaper. Its all good though, but I'm gonna get the stuff between the downpipe and cat re-done when I get a job; I'm not real happy with the butcher job they did on it. But can't wait to get to the track this spring.

[Redog]

I didn't do headers but I did do a high flow cat and my SES light came on. I bought an O2 sim. on PFYC.com pluged it in and on SES light since.

Very tight to get your hand up there and a wire tie holding it in, it's tight

[Fast Eddie]

was it your upstream (pre-cat) or downstream (post cat) sensor? It may just be that the sensor went bad; hell I've only got 34K miles and mine went out

[Fast Eddie]

just an update.......

Well my trac off light has been going on and off so when I was at the dealer for my 36001 mile (actually it was 360017) fix it they scanned it (and charged) again and said its a slow response from the O2 sensor and the PCM responds by a command to turn off the traction control. So if anyone else gets sporadic trac off and has a header it may be no big deal (on my ride the "traction control" don't do poop anyways)

[frozenchickendinner]

OBX makes cheap poop, so thats what you gotta take into account when you buy parts. You get what you pay for.

[Fast Eddie]

actually that's what I get for buying a part for another platform of vehicle so all of that would more than likely have been needed even for the most expensive $700 header, and these usually sell for about $300, so they are even more than the RSM ones.

If I could have afforded the best I would have got Stan's but I get the next highest priced (so the second best?) only at a break. Somethimes the most expensive is not always the best.

[frozenchickendinner]

ibe had problems with obx products in the past, so i dont really like em too much, i was also unaware it was for another vehicle...z24 or sunfire GT im assuming, since thats the case, im impressed.