DPI SPEC I Exhaust Install - 5875

[5875]

My staff sent off a pair of bushings and extra hardware just in case. Stay in touch and let us know if we can assist further. Most of all.... Enjoy your awesome exhaust!

Thanks Josh - great news and much appreciated! I'm almost there on the install.

[wyatt81dmc]

Try using left hand drill bits, it worked like a champ on my broken manifold studs. Harbor Freight sells a set for around $10.

[5875]

Try using left hand drill bits, it worked like a champ on my broken manifold studs. Harbor Freight sells a set for around $10.

Thanks for the tip. We decided to move ahead with them in. It's a shorter driving season up here, so itching to get it on the road again! I may order a set this winter when my folks live in Florida since shipping rates to Canada are nuts.

[5875]

Some good progress last night. We cleaned up the heads really well with a combination of PB Blaster and brake clean. Scrubbed them with a Scotchbrite pad and used some very fine sand paper on some stubborn spots. The heads are nice and flat and perfect for accepting the gaskets now. For some reason the two forward ports on both sides were really bad. I wonder if the bolts just weren't tightened enough back at the plant since the frame is in the way. Both of them looked like they had minor leaks which resulted in more corrosion build-up.

[5875]

We also got to installing the driver's side header on last night. How sweet it is to finally be working with new SS parts! The new header fit in there like a glove. We also put back the oil filler tube since we removed it when the old header came off. The tube fits a bit tighter in there, but it should work okay. One thing I'm puzzled on is the Lambda sensor wire. Since it now sits farther from the original spot on the Y pipe, the wire is too short to reach the wheel well. I'll probably have to splice an extension on the wire, or find a shorter route near the spring without it getting tangled in there.

[Chris 16409]

One thing I'm puzzled on is the Lambda sensor wire. Since it now sits farther from the original spot on the Y pipe, the wire is too short to reach the wheel well. I'll probably have to splice an extension on the wire, or find a shorter route near the spring without it getting tangled in there.

I routed my O2 sensor wire around the spring and attached the wire to the ledge of the upper spring platform. I used some of those clips the old outer door seals used to grip the door perimeter better.

[5875]

I routed my O2 sensor wire around the spring and attached the wire to the ledge of the upper spring platform. I used some of those clips the old outer door seals used to grip the door perimeter better.

Thanks Chris - that's a great suggestion. I have a few of those clips lying around, so I'll try that out.

[5875]

So I took Chris’ suggestion and routed the O2 sensor wire behind the spring rather than through the frame and clipped the wire using one of the spring clips. It worked well for getting it out of the way.
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Next we tackled the wiring harness on the pass side header. The wires were zip tied together and located on the outside of the frame. The SPEC I header pretty well grazes the outside edge of the frame at this spot, so we needed to tuck the two red wires away from here and push those to the front of the car. We snipped the zip ties and manoeuvred the red wires to come more from the front of the car rather than down the side of the frame. One red goes to the jumper and the other to the battery. There’s lots of room towards the front of the car by the axle since the cross-over pipe is no longer there. I zip tied the thicker battery wire further back so the slack wouldn’t get caught up in the new header.

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The brown wires leading to alternator were a bit tricky as well. The taped “Y” in that harness was fraying, so I cleaned it up and retaped the whole run nice and tight. I located those wires so that it would go up and over the header, then down against the inside of the frame, then across the bottom into the starter. That’s the only way those would work and still leave at least an inch of clearance all around.

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[5875]

Up next was actually getting the header in place. If I could recommend one tip for this, I would do this install when you have the oil filter off during an oil change. It was a royal PITA to get the header in there with the filter in. The only way we were able to get it in was to NOT put the header bolts in first. Instead, we put the header in first, and then worked around the header to put the bolts in second. If you put the bolts in first, there’s no room to swing the manifold into place – at least for our install.

The brown alternator wires look like they are touching the header, but it’s an optical illusion. There’s actually about 1-2” of space in between.
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[5875]

Next we tackled mounting the muffler since the cat pipes slide into the muffler on either end. First we mounted the two muffler hangers on the car along with the rubber mount inserts. TIP: don’t install the rubber mounts to the brackets first. We made this mistake. There’s not enough clearance to slide the mounts in if they are in place. Not a biggy, so we took the rubber mounts off and slid them onto the muffler studs, then held the muffler in place and bolted them into the brackets.

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