Got my header done...finally

[ISPKI]

Well I finally got the time to finish my MSA headers. My good friend did the welds for the y-pipe and then it was up to me to strip the storage paint off, prep the surface, and coat it with something. I started off trying to sand the paint off. This proved too slow - the paint was very thick and was clogging my sandpaper. I picked up some paint stripper called citristrip that worked nicely to get the rest of the paint off. It sort of foams and wrinkles the paint, which can then be wiped away with a paper towel. I then cleaned everything off with a dizzying amount of acetone and painted it using several very light coats of Rutland's chimney paint. I was surprised at how good the paint looks. When I went to put the header back into the car, I happened to notice the PCV hose was severely deteriorated, it actually broke into pieces as I was trying to take pictures of it - I suppose that enormous hole could have something to do with the engine idling kind of poorly heh.

 

I also included one of the hangars that i made up for holding up the 2.5" SS pipe and Borla muffler. Its a zinc plated conduit clamp with a 3/8" nut welded to the top of it and a SS threaded rod.

[BluDestiny]

The Y pipe can actually be tucked up more. I'm not sure if you mocked it up, but on my ZX (I know it's not an s30, but close) the y pipe initially hung lower than the frame rails. I chopped about 2 inches off the y part to get it higher than the frame rails. Just some food for thought if you start scrapping on speed bumps. 

[ISPKI]

Its actually very close to the floor at the current length. I had bolted the header to the engine and mounted the y pipe to test fit, then I tacked it together while it was still on the car. The pipe has about an inch of space underneath the floor and the pipe sits almost flush with the floor supports. I will post some photos of the rest of the system.