CoopKill's Mistress Makeover Thread [Pic Heavy]

[futurevr4man]

I can all but guarantee that the precat/header is the issue. If you change factors X and Y but Z stays the same, and all of a sudden Z is the culprit... doesn't make much sense to me.

(for the ignorant ones) X is the header, Y is the precat, Z is the downpipe...

[niterydr]

Header doesn't fit in stock location and now the 02 housing? Scratch those off my list of potential parts.

[anyonebutme]

engine mount alignment can also be a factor. my mounts have enough play that I can loosen the roll stoppers and rotate the engine. In this case though, precats being made wrong wouldn't surprise me.

[CoopKill]

To be 100% fair, I am not totally sure it is the headers/mani's yet. It may be that with the poly mounts, the engine/trans went in tilted forward. Which may settle back to where it was. When putting the poly mounts in one by one the first time, they needed encouragement to bolt up. So with removing the engine/trans it may be that they just are offsetting the position of the assembly itself.

I am going to first double gasket it to get it off the sway bar. Drive it a bit, and recheck to see if it settles out.

[sergechronos]

Hard to say if it's cumulative or just the manifolds and precats, but you did say that the manifolds required a lot of clearancing for the rear one and that it moved the turbos about 1/4" closer to the head.

If it was made improperly and not supposed to be closer, then that's going to throw off the precats as well and amplify the difference. If it is supposed to be closer, then the precat, if properly made should make up most of the difference. I just find it odd that you're over half an inch off at the rear and the front mates up properly. You may be right about needing to let it settle though, not sure you'll get that difference back. Even if the engine settles a bit, it'd take a lot of settling for 5/8" with polys I think.

Your alternative may be to weld in 5/8" worth of material to the DP between the flange and the joining of the banks. Still, I know I wouldn't be happy if it was my car.

[FeaRpb]

Well maybe this gives you a reason to run open pre-cats

[CoopKill]

The DP mated up perfect on the stand, so it is the angle, whether the rear drop on the o2 is too short, the front drop on the o2 is too long, or the angle that the mounts are sitting at the moment.

The front turbo was definitely closer to the block, as I had to grind the O2 housing bracket to get it to fit as you seen in the pics. The rear must have been moved slightly as well due to the DP mounting up well on the stand. I did have to loosen both O2's to get it all aligned. This I guess would add big to the issue as it puts the merge angle of the rear of the DP closer to the X-member.



We had to loosen the drivers side mount to get the passenger side to line up. I loosened it a little more than the gap in the rear of the DP, so after thinking more about it, I am confident that it is the mounts, and the offset front to rear turbo placement that are setting it off. I will loosen the 3 nuts on the drivers side mount tonight to see what that does. they were snug on the mount backed off about 3/4" when we put the passenger side on. I actually forgot to re-tighten them until just before doing the DP.

[CoopKill]

Oh just a note on the coating I used. That stuff is tough! I took a hammer to the hanger tab on the DP to get it to align with the rubber/bolt mount, and chucked the DP around under there in rage. Took it like a champ, no marks at all other than copper anti seize, and greazzzzy hands prints.. Will have to see how the heat treats it, and report back.

[vr4tune]

Wtf Bill, that sucks.

[Jimvr4]

You went with new poly mounts right? I measured the old stock mounts and the rear roll pin was maybe 0.25 offset from center. On the 3SX poly inserts it's pretty damn close to center. My rear mount was clearly broken so maybe the pin is supposed to be centered. I just wonder if yours sits up a bit because of the new mount.