JDM Longtubes and everything following it!

More pics to come.

I got the full length long tubes, high flow cats, and single magnaflow muffler with huge tips from JDM. Let me say the quality of this kit is second to none. You must see it to appreciate it. This has to be one of JDM's best mods yet.

First impression.

First impressions of the full exhaust. One word: WOW. With only a chip, cool air mod and 2lb pulley there was a definate power increase. I found my ass being pushed harder into the crack of the seat. I can't wait til I get my truck dyno tuned to take full advantage of all the mods (and make sure everything is safe).

The sound. At idle it's a little bit deeper then stock. When you get on the throttle it's very noticable. Cruising at about 65mph it's surprisingly quieter then I thought it would be. I'm not one for loud exhausts at all. I will admit that when you get on the throttle it is louder then I like, but I have to admit the sound is so sweet I could care less it's louder then I wanted. I feel like a ricer driving around and revving just to hear it.

Udpated impressions

Only problem so far is the tips, my fualt. I didn't put the muffler and tips back far enough, so as the system broke in the tips naturally moved back a little. In my case just enough to give a slight burn on the ground effects piece. So I crawled back under and pushed it in more. So far it's okay but I'm keeping an eye on. If it moves back more I'm gonna need a serious mallet to smash it in some more. No big deal though. Just make sure you put everything in as far as you can before you tighten down the clamps. Since mines tighten it makes it harder to push everything in a little more.

The sound hasn't gotten any louder yet. And I'm over 100 miles on it, so maybe it needs more time. But I love the sound as it is.

Power. Oh yes it's added and it's there. In my testing night, mashed the throttle from 20mph roll and the tires busted loose, theres a surprise like it didn't happen before. Tried it again from a 35mph roll, tires just spun as the truck shot off. That impressed me.

Here's a pic of the exhaust, I got the single muffler though:

Install

This was the first header install I ever did. I thought it would be an easy straigh swap of everything. I was wrong, MURPHEY'S LAW was in full effect. The best messup was one header bolt fell out as I was tightening another, after an hour of looking for it I gave up. There is a black hole in the engine compartment. Overall not that bad of an install though. Having a nice variety of swivel sockets and stubby wrenches would make everything easier. It took me and my best friend about 8 1/2 hours. Mostly because alot of the nuts and bolts we had a hard time getting to with our tool collection, so spending 20 minutes to tighten 1 bolt was very common and in turn added much time to the process. Now for the install:

Removal

• Jack up the truck, place on jack stands and remove the front tires.
• Remove inner fender wells.
• Next remove the old muffler. Use WD-40 to make the hangers pop off the rubber mounts easier, then knock the muffler off (leave the rubber mounts in place).
• Disconnect all the o2 sensor harnesses.
• The two down pipes are connected to eachother right where the muffler bolts up. Remove that bolt so you can pull them out later. Also if you notice there is a bushing that has a bolt in the middle holding the one pipe, loosen it up. This is what it looks like.
• Unbolt the down pipes from the manifolds and remove the cats/downpipe. The passenger side slides right out. The drivers side doesn't, I'm sure with some work and creativity you can pull it out in one piece. I tried for about 15min, then whipped out the Sawzall and that was it for that.
• Remove the sensors from the old pipe. This is only a tip: but the 2 sensors that are furthest from the headers (bottom 2) I placed on the new high flow cats piping, makes it a little easier later on. And yes I used anti-sieze on them just incase. The other 2 sensors just lay on the side for later.
• Unbolt both manifolds. The top bolts are easy, the bottom are a pain to get to. With them unbolts just remove them and then thats it for removing the old exhaust system.
• If your going to reuse the studs skip this, if not remove the studs. They need a 5.5mm socket to remove them. Thats it for removing the old exhaust.

Installing the new.

• Another tip - if your installing the new header bolts and are worrying about accidently re-treading the threads (which is easy to do with the aluminum heads), put all bolts in and screw them and take them out. This will make them a little easier to go in.
• Set up the long tubes. Since you can easily slide the headers onto the bolts - place the 4 bottom bolts on with the gasket. Another tip screw them in as much as you can to save some time when they get tightened later.
• The passenger side header slides in from the fender well down. I did have to disconnect anything to make it go in. But it did require some fidgitting and force. CAREFULLY place the head onto the bolts so you don't damage the gasket.Heres a pic.
• With the header in place, not were the sensor goes and mark it on the heat shield. Then either completely remove the header or pull it out a little bit. Now it's time to cut out the hole for the sensor. I used a circle saw and drill, it came out okay and was a little bit off, but some metal shearing scissors fixed that no problem. Besides it's a heat shield an no one will see it anyway.
• Now replace in the header, put in the top bolts and tighten all 8 bolts so that they are nice and snug.
• The driver side header. This one installs from the bottom. Repeat the same process to put in on the bolts, mark and cut for the sensor, replace it and snug tight all 8 bolts.
• At this point I put the 2 sensors onto the long tubes and connect them to the harness with the extension harness kit. Heres what one of my cutouts looked like.
• Now install both cats and piping. For the collectors I used grade 8 bolts with locking washers on both sides. Make sure you place the gasket in the middle. Again only sung tighten them. Also the passenger side cat, put the clamp on the pipe and the short metal stub goes into the bushing, and loosely tighten the bolt just enough to hold the clamp in place.
• Next connect the L shaped pipe to driver side cat pipe. Now that this is installed I tightened down the clamp to hold it good.The "L" pipe installed.
• Muffler time. First thing take the 2 clamps with long extenders and hang them on they're appropriate hanger (the 2 close together, just like on the stock muffler). Click here to see a pic so you know were each clamp goes. These clamps are put in place now to help hold the muffler. So put the muffler on the 2 pipes leading to the cats and just put the other end on the clamps to hold it up.
• Now for the pipes. Easy way, remove the orange gromet and put it on the hook attached to the tips. Then place the gromet back from were you just pulled it, and place the two pipes into the muffler. This is what the complete muffler and tips hangers look like, for the single muffler that is.
• Pushing everything in. First push the pipes from the tips into the muffler as much as you can. Use a rubber mallet if possible. Then do the other end of the muffler leading to the cats. What you want to do is have these 4 pipes pushed in as much as possible so the tips are moved towards the front of the truck as much as possible. As the exhaust breaks in they will move back a little, and you don't want them to touch the ground affect piece.
• Tighten time. I first started with fully tightening the single gromet that holds the drivers side cat. Then I tightened the connectors going from the long tubes to the cats. After that I tighten the 2 clamps on the muffler leading to the cats. And finally the 2 clamps holding the tips to the mufffler. With all that tightened, move up to the headers and fully tighten them. Now everything is tight and complete. Heres how the tips should be placed.
• Put the fender wells back on. I noticed that on the passenger side the fender wall was pushing the heat shielded wired right up against the header, I didn't like this to much, so I cut a chunk out of the fender well to relieve some pressure, like this. Now there is about 2/3" between the shield and the header tube.
• Put the tires back on, lower the truck back down and torque the lugnuts down.
• You're first start up. If the truck is inside, PUSH IT OUTSIDE. There is alot of bad smelling smoke that shoots out from this new system, so DON'T do it in confined spaces.
• All done, have some beers and food. Use orange clean on your hands and tend to any hand cuts that you recieved, if you care.