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Oh man, today is a good day : look what finally came in!!!
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/MktVL.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/oGgi4.jpg)
Nice shiny set of Pacesetters! <3<3<3 Mock my plaid bedsheets and die.
Now some of you are probably like, nice headers!
And probably more of you are like wtf are those.
Here's manifolds vs headers for the F250, easiest one to show and explain...
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/oEZkk.jpg)
So at the top is the stock manifolds. Bottom is the crazy looking headers...Their purpose is basically to reduce back pressure. When the pistons are going in your engine, the gases that get pushed through your exhaust go through your manifold, but because all that gets mashed into one giant pipe, back pressure builds up and you lose a good amount of power. Basically if you picture 4 pistons and cylinders in a row, piston two pushes the exhaust gas out into the manifold. That gas then goes out the back, but some of that gas goes into chamber one, three, and four. Then those three pistons have to deal with their own pressure, PLUS the pressure from the other cylinder. Repeat x4 and that's a lot of waste. Oh, and x2 for the other side of your engine.
Headers, as you can see, are individual equal (or sometimes not equal) length tubes that make sure you get no back pressure. They all blow into the collector which then bolts onto the rest of your stock, or aftermarket exhaust.
/info.
I've linked pictures of my firechicken before, but here's what they are going into,
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/LwXc2.jpg)
She's only a V6 but that doesn't matter to me. All you "lolol V8 or gtfo" guys can piss off, I love my little V6. A Trans Am without the shit gas mileage!
Technically not the first major car work I've done already, just last weekend I spent most of Friday night and Saturday morning putting in a whole new rear axle assembly, an internal bearing blew up and my axle was coming loose and instead of taking it all apart and fixing just that I ended up putting in the whole damn thing.
I had to rent a lift, and it was kinda far. Nice drive though!
+ Show Spoiler [Pictures! There's a lot!] +Somewhat of a lack of pictures, I don't take many pictures while driving >> ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/kb7Mi.jpg) Leaving home! Love my little tree-tunnel. :D Hit something on the way there, of course. I got a flat D: ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/X97oM.jpg) Fixing said flat.... ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/QW4Pi.jpg) Made it out to Winchester, Virginia! Old town is beautiful. Shenandoah University peoples, I am jealous. I didn't take many pictures at the lift rental place as I wanted to get done. Had to pay for lifts by the hour so I focused more on getting it done than picture logging it! Plogging? ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/YLHKs.jpg) Nice and high off the ground, easy to work. Some support for the axles so it doesn't come crashing down when I unbolt it :p ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/P9HWi.jpg) However everything else was unsupported so my driveshaft and torque bar were all like *ka-fall* ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/9gWjV.jpg) There's the part on the ground I put into my car. Got it off of a camaro that rear ended a dump truck. Only cost about 350 for the part, with only 51k miles on it. Pretty damn good as all the others in that price range were like 120k+ Miles, and my car only has 103k. ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/x9kCg.jpg) This sign was out in front of the gas station I stopped at to get my tire repaired. What the fuck? Hahaha. Looks like someone getting their boobs grabbed. REAL SAFE. On my way home, probably one of my favorite places in Virginia...Middleburg! Such a nice place. Everyone is stupid rich though. It's rare if you drive through and don't see a ferrari or three or some other exotics parked in the street. It was raining though. bummer.  ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/FqwTE.jpg) And here's some pictures from work today, that I thought were awesome. I drove out to West Virginia and as we all know, there are places in there that are kinda...rednecky. So let's do some problem solving. I've got a truck. I've got a cap for the truck's bed. The cap is too big. Solution? Anyone? ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/LXLoJ.jpg) Awwww yeeeah.disclaimer: I met the guy who drove that truck, he was my client, and he was a fucking awesome guy. :D Also thought this sign in his parking lot was pretty funny. ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Vow83.jpg)
Next step is to choose my exhaust system. I'm not sure yet if I'm going to custom job it or get something aftermarket...the custom stuff is really hit or miss, and if the guy you are working with is crappy at welding you have an ugly exhaust. Plus the aftermarkets are just bolt ons so they are a lot easier to install.
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Hopefully that works out for your car. It will be nice when they are done. For the custom exhaust it usually is almost cheaper to get it done by a professional instead of paying for the boxed aftermarket product. The tough part is finding a shop that does really good exhaust forming work.
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lolol v8 or gtfo.
on a more serious note, gorgeous headers. i am not a fan of bolt on upgrades of this sort in general though, especially for naturally aspirated applications. if it were me i might have waited until i could afford a supercharge and a tune and then gone for an even nicer manifold. But if i were going to supercharge, i would probably want a v8 anyway- think that would be a waste of time with the v6.
anyway, just my thoughts. i know most of the fun is in getting the parts and installing them yourself so enjoy!!!
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I'm not getting too crazy with the V6, I probably won't do and FI on this. :p Just something to give it a little more muscle than stock - I'm not looking to drag race the thing or anything, it's my daily driver.
Besides, two years ago my brother in law and I built this guy, and snagged a Trans Am engine + tranny of the same year in it. Trans Am but wearing a Firebird disguise. Still at his house though, I should bring it to my place but I don't have a garage to store it in.
edit: where I was going with that before I got distracted, was that this is my plaything, not the V6. 
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awesome car, but seeing the eagle on the front, made me wonder how such a car would look like with the team-liquid logo on it! :D
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Did you used to work as a mechanic or you learned it along the way somewhere?? Pretty badass.
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Nice headers, grats.
@spoon - why would you not be in favor of "bolt on upgrades of this sort"? In fact, I don't even understand what that means, most upgrades we do to cars either bolt on or weld on. Not aware of many weld on header sets.
A set of headers is usually the best power/money upgrade you can do to a car, bar none, and that includes the vaunted blower. In fact, nobody in their right mind would even consider any kind of forced induction system without first getting a solid exhaust system. I see no reason why you need to wait for a blower, assuming you are even considering one, to work on the exhaust. There's no reason not to enjoy the benefits on the exhaust now and work up from there.
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I'm making a TL vinyl of the horse logo. Not that size though. Hurray Vinyl cutters!
And Hawk, my dad had a 1988 Jeep Cherokee that we did 100% of the maintenance on. Don't think that thing ever saw a mechanic. I learned most of it that way. Never been a professional mechanic, just really hands-on capable.
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bolt on mods offer almost nothing towards performance. think of things like air filters, headers, exhaust, etc. With proper tuning, your car can definitely better utilize these mods, but the "this cat-back exhaust adds 10-20 WHP!!!!" stuff that most manufacturers feed you is absolute trash, not true even in the slightest. especially given that this is an N/A car, bolt on mods do even less. you might reduce back pressure a tad, although not nearly as much as if you had a forced induction application with a large turbo compressor and upgraded from a 2inch to, say, a 3.5 or 4 inch exhaust pipe.
that said, bolt on mods are still pretty fun to do regardless, i just acknowledge that my ride wont be "wicked fast yo" after doing them :DDDD
edit- sorry, didnt realize you just didnt know what i meant by "bolt-on". just think of it as more or less any mod that you do without altering engine management. even installing a turbo or an intercooler is a "bolt on" mod until youve tuned the car to properly use the turbo.
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Korea (South)11601 Posts
god damnit torenhire your plad bedsheets are just lol. Can I sleep in them?
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On May 12 2011 04:49 Torenhire wrote:
I'm making a TL vinyl of the horse logo. Not that size though. Hurray Vinyl cutters!
And Hawk, my dad had a 1988 Jeep Cherokee that we did 100% of the maintenance on. Don't think that thing ever saw a mechanic. I learned most of it that way. Never been a professional mechanic, just really hands-on capable.
That's awesome. I really wish I took the shop class in high school now
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On May 12 2011 05:21 SpooN) wrote:
bolt on mods offer almost nothing towards performance. think of things like air filters, headers, exhaust, etc. With proper tuning, your car can definitely better utilize these mods, but the "this cat-back exhaust adds 10-20 WHP!!!!" stuff that most manufacturers feed you is absolute trash, not true even in the slightest. especially given that this is an N/A car, bolt on mods do even less. you might reduce back pressure a tad, although not nearly as much as if you had a forced induction application with a large turbo compressor and upgraded from a 2inch to, say, a 3.5 or 4 inch exhaust pipe.
that said, bolt on mods are still pretty fun to do regardless, i just acknowledge that my ride wont be "wicked fast yo" after doing them :DDDD
edit- sorry, didnt realize you just didnt know what i meant by "bolt-on". just think of it as more or less any mod that you do without altering engine management. even installing a turbo or an intercooler is a "bolt on" mod until youve tuned the car to properly use the turbo.
He's right though, most people will do their exhaust setup BEFORE your get your FI system. There's not much point in putting on a FI with the stock 2" exhaust, your gains (assuming you're trying to maximize) are going to be chopped.
Usually it's Catback or some form of exhaust bolt on, piping increase recommended to 3"+, then headers, then your other stuff in terms of an FI system. At least that's what I've always been told and I hang out with guys who both drag race and fancy up/rebuilt/restore collectors.
Personally though, I think it's six one way, half dozen the other. While yes, catback systems and such won't give you a giant HP boost, they're a really freaking simple way to make your car sound nicer, which is all I'm really going for. I'm not trying to turn this thing into a 500HP Supercharged race car, and therefore a supercharger isn't even on the list. (yet :p)
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