[RED ZMAN]

I'm not around on KSF that much these days guys, I'm sorry I didn't get this cross posted from Soulhamsters.com earlier. Guess my old age is getting to me. I'll subscribe to this post, but you may want to check out other information in the install thread at SH.

Diy - Doug Thorley Headers... Header - Soul Hamsters Forum


This DIY is moderately easy, and should take about 2 hours. Honestly, if you have a decent ratchet/socket set, and open ended wrenches, you can do this.


SUPPLIES NEEDED

Ratchets, 1/4 and 3/8 were most used during this.
Ratchet extensions. If you don't have a 3 inch for the 3/8, use the 1/4 and a 3 inch extension.
10mm, 12mm, 14mm, 15mm, 17mm, and 19mm Sockets, matching wrenches also a good idea.
One zip tie
1 Can of PB Blaster or other penetrating oil to help loosen nuts.
Rags
o2 sensor tool of choice, or you can use a 7/8 combination wrench.
Telescoping/Extending magnet.


This is the SOCKET kind of o2 sensor tool.


This is an alternate type of o2 sensor tool.

PROCESS

*Click the pics to see them fullsize*

Pull your car into place and either drive up on ramps, or jack your car up properly using jack stands and wheel chocks. Open your hood and leave the car sitting until the headers are completely cool to the touch.


Disconnect your ECU. Do this by pushing on the area shown, and then pulling the latch to the left. Lift the harness out of the way.


This will clear your ECU and allow it to adjust quicker to the changes you are making.

Using a the 12mm tool of your choice (perverts), remove the 4 bolts holding the header heat shield to the head.


Disconnect the upper o2 wiring harness by pushing the tab on the connector and pulling (always pull the connector, not the wires).


Bend the metal bracket that holds the wiring for the upper o2 sensor and pull the wiring free.


Leave the upper o2 sensor in place. Trust me, you've got a 50/50 chance of getting it off without damaging it while the manifold is installed, you can get it off easily when out of the car. Go ahead and remove the heat shield at this time.


If you MUST remove the o2 sensor at this time, do so at your own risk. This is how you use this tool.


The biggest problem with doing this IN the car is there is very little room to move and get the torque needed to get the o2 sensor loose. Worse yet, it is very hard to keep the tool level, and using a breaker or cheater bar may mean scraping up your hood or valve cover. Not worth it.

Using your PB Blaster or whatever penetrating oil you prefer (I personally do NOT use WD 40 on parts that get really hot), spray all of the nuts holding the OEM exhaust manifold to the head. Crawl under the properly supported car and spray all of the bottom ones too. Every nut you are going to remove, soak it down. Use the rags to clean up the drips. Carefully spray the o2 sensors near their base too. You'll be happy you did. No pictures of this guys and girls, it's a spray can, point it at the nuts you are removing, and spray them all. If you can't figure this out, put everything back, and sell the header before you hurt yourself.


While under the Soul, go ahead and disconnect the LOWER o2 sensor harness like you did the upper.


Now, disconnect the lower o2 sensor using your sensor tool or 7/8 combination wrench as shown.

 

[RED ZMAN]

Before you loosen any nuts at the top of the header, loosen the big ones holding the flanges together under the car. 2 are near the lower o2 sensor, and 2 are further back by the first set of exhaust hangers. 19mm nuts here, use whichever tool works best for you.


At this time, just loosen them to where you can take them off by hand in a few minutes.


Now, time to move the power steering pump on the left side of the car. Do you have to do this? Nope. Should you? Yup. Save yourself trouble, and move it. It's ONE BOLT, easy to do, and you'll save yourself an hour of fumbling 1/16th of a turn at a time on a single nut. Here's how. Remove the single bolt shown here. It is a 14mm bolt, and rather long. Just remove it.


Remove the plastic screw/holder that hold the washer fill nozzle in place.


The grey metal portion of the power steering pump that my finger is on is where the bolt secures. Push this to the BACK of the Soul, and you will get slack in the belt. Do NOT pull on the steel lines going from the pump, just push on the pump or the bracket.


You'll note my bolt is still in place, I was seeing if there was enough room with the bolt still installed. Just take it off.

Pull the belt off to the LEFT side of the pulley.


Pull the power steering pump to the front of the car, you'll notice there's a ton of room now to get a ratchet in.


Remove the 12mm bolt holding the dipstick in place and turn the dipstick to the left of the car. I didn't get a picture of this unfortunately, just follow the dipstick tube down and there's only one bolt holding it in place.

This is also a good time to put a jack stand under the exhaust pipe to hold it for later on.

Go back to the top of the header and using the ratchet/sockets and wrenches, loosen the nuts at the top end using whichever ratchet/extension or wrench you wish. Some are easier with a wrench, some with a socket. 14mm.


Remove all of the nuts and be careful not to drop them. Take your time, do it right. If you drop one, it is awfully handy to have an extending magnet to pick it up.

Continue under the car and remove the 2 19mm nuts you loosened under the first catalytic converter, and remove them.


Go back to the engine bay, and gently remove the header by pulling forward and up. Be careful to leave the gasket in place and undamaged.

Now go back under the car, remove the last 2 19mm nuts you loosened earlier.


Last thing holding the J pipe (the lower pipe) are the 2 10mm bolts on the exhaust hanger bracket here.


Remove those 2 small bolts and carefully fish the J pipe out. Be careful not to damage the gasket, as you will be using it again.


That's the hard part.


Easy part is next. Since you saved the bags the exhaust came in without tearing them (you DID save those, right?), wrap the parts with the bags.

Carefully slide the upper header into place, ensuring no plastic is between the header and head. The plastic will keep you from scraping or damaging the ceramic coating. The stuff is strong, but you don't want to scrape it, trust me. UGLY.


Put a couple of nuts back on loosely to hold it in place, and carefully pull the plastic off. DO NOT TIGHTEN THE NUTS YET.

Now crawl under the car and do the same thing with the J pipe. Carefully feed the J pipe into place and replace the gasket, using the supplied 17/15 mm nuts and bolts to LOOSELY hold the flanges together.


See it wrapped up and safe? YAY!

Move to the front of the car and do the same with the gasket and bolts that hold the header and J pipe together.

Now, move back to the top of the car, and put all of the nuts back in place. Gently tighten them, one at a time, from the the center outwards, alternating from one side to another. Sounds difficult, but just read what I said. Start at the center, tighten it a bit, and go to the one on the right, and then the one to the left. Keep doing this until they are all flush with the header flange and snug. In my case, one of my nuts (hahahahah) was binding a bit on the weld to the flange. To keep from damaging anything, I took that nut off and turned it backwards, using a combination wrench to tighten it back up.

 

[RED ZMAN]

^^^
LOOK AT THE ROOM!

Anyways, no pictures here folks, you are tightening nuts, deal with it. You can look up the torque specs if you want to torque them, but I live by the "I'll hear an exhaust leak" creedo. hasn't failed me.

Now you need to align the lower J pipe and gasket with the header. Hand tighten the nut/bolt combo while keeping the edges lined up. You need to do this at both sets of flanges, carefully tightening them until snug and aligned. Total of 4 bolt/nut combos. Re connect the exhaust hanger bracket to the J pipe with the 10mm bolts you removed earlier.


Install the o2 sensor you already completely removed into the o2 bung that sticks out. Ensure you are using the right o2 sensor folks, if you removed both at once. Each one has a different plug.

Go remove the other o2 sensor from the OEM manifold, and carefully install it in the upper o2 sensor bung. Reconnect the wiring harnesses for both of the sensors.

Now, a quick note.

YOU MUST ZIP TIE THE HARNESS FOR THE UPPER O2 SENSOR TO ITSELF!

If you do not do this...


There's a good chance the harness can get pulled into the radiator fan, and you'll need either a new fan, a new o2 sensor, or both. Just ziptie it to itself to pull out 1/2 of the slack. Problem solved.

Now we put the rest back together.

Push the power steering pump back to the REAR of the engine bay, and pull the belt back into place. Then insert the bolt that holds it in place and hand tighten enough to be close, but still let you move the pump.

Pull the pump back to the front of the car with the belt in place, and tighten the bolt. The belt should be snug, but still deflect a bit when you push on it. If it is too tight, you'll burn out your PS pump or shred your belt. if it is too loose, the car will tell you by squealing very loud. or throwing the belt. This is easy, as it is actually HARD to over tighten it.

Make sure the bolt is nice and tight when you get the belt right.


Put the washer nozzle back in place with the plastic screw and holder, and reinstall the dipstick correctly.


Now's the easy part. Go and look at your work. Make sure everything is tight, and everything looks right.

When everything looks right, and you've collected all of your tools again, pull the jack stand out from under the car. Take the car down from the stands or roll off the ramps.

Start your car. Get out of the car while it is running and listen for exhaust leaks. They are very clear, it'll sound like a hissing/blowing noise, like a pressurized air leak. If you have one, or hear one while test driving, go home, let the engine cool, and check the tightness of your nuts and bolts.

Enjoy.


BTW, you may want to try checking out the nuts after a bit of driving, sometimes there is some more room to tighten nuts after they've been heated and cooled.


A couple of small additions, torque settings for the header nuts and you should use anti-seize on the O2 sensors and the header studs.


Tightening torque for header nuts:

42.1 ~ 53.9Nm (4.3 ~ 5.5kgf.m, 31.1 ~ 39.7lb-ft)

 

[bart]

Red,

I installed my headers today and have two questions,

1. I stupidly didn't follow your advice about being careful removing the o2 sensor from the manifold. While removing mine, I deformed it (twisted it). Does the o2 sensor need to be replaced now?

2. My CEL came on pretty quickly after the install. Probably within 500 metres. Do you think this is in relation to the bent o2 sensor or just the same issue as every over at SH are having?

 

[Headcase]

The only question I have is wouldn't removing the one catalytic converter make your car an automatic emissions fail for inspection? I'm not about to put the stock set up back on my car once every year for inspection and then take it back off.

 

[Headcase]

Oh yeah, would having no catalytic converter in between the two o2 sensors cause the engine light to come on?

 

[Roadwrench]

It depends on where you are. Here in Wisconsin, they don't do a visual inspection. My first inspection of any type is June 2013. They just hook up the cable and if all reading well, you pass. They do check that your cel [check engine light] is working with key on, car not running, and off when running. The car has two cats. It also has two O2 sensors, the first normally screws into the manifold, is now in the header. That one gives the engine info it needs for adjustments. The second O2 sensor, just looks for a difference from the first. It sends a voltage reading back to the ecm. You can electronically lower the voltage, or as most of us are doing, adding a piece or two that puts the sensor away from the main exhaust stream. It is still reading but getting less than the first. If the car didn't have two cats, I wouldn't consider this, but it does. There are other ways, you could at more expense have a bung welded in past the second cat, and run a longer cable to the O2 sensor.
If you have a visual inspection it could get troublesome. In my state after the first inspection in 2013, then I go in every other year.

 

[Headcase]

I don't know. I just can't imagine any Kia service department not having a problem doing this. I'll have to talk with them.

 

[Roadwrench]

^^^^^
What do you mean? Have them install it? They won't do it, not like that. As far as warranty goes, obviously the exhaust will no longer be covered, but legally, they have to cover anything not damaged by the header and exhaust. So they probably wouldn't cover the two O2 sensors either.

I'm going to find out soon, I have a free oil change coming, that I want done next week. I may not say anything and see what they have to say. If they notice;-)

 

[Headcase]

Cool, keep us posted.

 

[Headcase]

I think I found my answer. This is a leagal notice on Doug Thorleys website. Under downloads for this exact header.

The installation of headers onto any vehicle must be performed in accordance with all
governmental regulations that might pertain to the particular vehicle receiving the headers. Please call your Thorley Headers distributor if there are any questions regarding the legality of the installation. This header are not legal for sale or use on pollution controlled vehicles and are intended for RACE use only.

 

[tempest]

Get racing boys!!!!.....

 

[Headcase]

Well I talked with my service dept. yesterday when I took my wifes car in for an oil change. I must say i'm pleasantly surprised to find out they are not only cool with me installing this header, but excited and interested in it. They said as long as it doesn't throw a code it was fine. They looked it up on line while I was there. All they kept saying was how cool it looked and wants to see one. So, does anyone know if the group buy for the header and muffler are available? I'm going to buy one of each.

 

[Dandywankers]

yup on soulhamsters.com