1 hour ago, siteunseen said:

Great looking engine bay! You did a fine job with that.

Those 2.5 exhaust can be a pain, taking it to a shop isn't too expensive.  I paid $50 to have mine tucked up better. There's that cut out on the driver's side of the differential that it fits in but that wasn't made for such a larger pipe.  I fought with mine then threw in the towel and the $50. Good investment for me. Good way to spend $50, I mean. That's just a couple of days of beer.

Do you have the MSA system?  Do recall what the shop had to do to get it tucked?  I took it to the muffler guys once before (prior to installing the header). They told me there wasn't anything they could do that wouldn't put the exhaust in a bind. The mid pipe on the MSA system is flanged on both ends so no real adjustment short of bending. I had to cut the mid pipe to get it coupled to the header collector so that flange is gone.  Maybe that will allow some upward twist.  I only need it to be moved upward about 1" or so. 

That hanger on the mid pipe I think, it attaches behind the driver's seat, he used his extension tools and pushed the pipe up and welded a strap on there. Got rid of the rubber hanger. He took my mid pipe off and bent it too. Just him having a lift was worth the $50. After working the engine over that muffler install SUCKS.

One day I'll have him weld the mid pipe to the S pipe and get rid of that flange. The car is lowered and that scrapes if I back straight out of my driveway. I've learned what not to do to keep it from scraping so that flange will be there for awhile. 8^)

Edited April 23, 20177 yr by siteunseen

Extendable stands is what I meant. He put one under the pipe and turned a handle to raise it. Big ole screw jack really.

Finally got the exhaust up high enough to keep from scraping.  I must say however after installing the header, the car is a lot louder than I anticipated.  I ended up purchasing a very small stainless resonator, approx. 14" long with a dia. of 3.5" on Ebay.   The guy at the muffler shop told me I was wasting my time having him install it, he said it wouldn't have any meaningful impact due to its small size.  I told him to do it anyway.  The end result was excellent, it reduced the noise at idle a little and a lot under load.  It also eliminated the drone at cruising speed.  Very happy with the results.