Capristo Headers Only

Richard, here are a couple of more photos taken from above :

Photo #1 : shows the cross member bolts which is holding the exhaust brackets
Photo #2 : shows the 2 bolts maintaining the entire exhaust system
Photo #3 : shows a detailed picture of the springs. These bolts must be used to ajust and center the exhaust pipes in the body window. I would advise to put a bit WD40 lubricant on the bolts above the springs to avoid any squeaks.


I hope your shop will do a great job!

Regarding the heat shields, the first time you'll run the engine after the new headers installation, they will smoke quite a bit. Don't worry about this. Just go for a 20/30 min. drive and the fumes will stop once the heat shields are set. After this "break in" phase of the heat shields, they will not smoke nor smell ever again.

Stef
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Oh, so the lower OEM bracket holding the tips should be removed too? When I fitted my capristo brackets we only removed the arc shaped bracket holding the muffler. Maybe I need to go back and have the lower brackets removed too?

 

That's right, the lower brackets which are fixed on the gearbox and hold up the cats must be removed too otherwise your capristo brackets can't do their work.

 

Yes, I can see that now. Unfortunately my mechanic went on vacation this week, and was thinking about doing it myself. Do you know how hard it is to get the diffuser off without access to a lift? The center bolt seems like it could be a pain to get back in place without getting the car off the ground.

 

That is very easy without a lift. Put something soft on the ground, then start with the front screws. When the front edge is loose you support that part with a seizable box. Now start with the rear screws and then the diffusor will come straight down.
Easy. An extra hand is wellcome so you don´t get any scratches on it. Especially when you put it back again.

//A.

 

Yeah, I got it off and removed the OEM brackets, one of them were cracked, big surprise there. But now when those were gone I noticed that the tips started to hang down a bit. When I tried to adjust the springed bolts on the capristo headers I noticed that the nuts where "hammered" so they didn't let the bolt go all the way through, should I just use more force to get it all the way through or is there some other way?

 

Yes more brutal force. Use some lubrication also.

//Anders

 

Yeah, that seemed to the trick. However, screwing the feathers down will just bring the muffler incl tips down further. I guess my problem is that my capristo brackets are fastened on top of the exhaust, when they should be under it by judging from Stephans pics. I'll see if I can get a bunch of books under the exhaust to hold it up and then move the bracket to below the muffler

 

You're right, the brackets should definitely be positioned below the muffler. Be carefull not to compress too much the springs but there is enough margin to get right height of the tips. Just to make sure: your muffler is a stock muffler isn't it? I'm asking because if your muffler is a Capristo one, you need different Capristo brackets then those documented here.

 

Yes, it's a stock muffler and the brackets are the one anders sold me. I didn't manage to fit the bracket on the underside of the exhaust joint because of a little piece of metal sticking down, I modified your picture and highlighted where the metal piece is. You can clearly see it in your picture as well but you can't tell if it's blocking the muffler from lying flat on the bracket.

I managed to get the tips high enough in the end by switching sides for the two top parts of the brackets (the one that actually attaches to the muffler) so that they where bent downwards instead of upwards.
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Oebb, I took some detailled pictures so that you can better see how to manage the bracket with the little piece of metal.

This is only on the LHS (first two pictures) because on the RHS, this metal piece of the exhaust join is facing upwards (last picture).
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Thanks a lot for these pics. I could swear that mine was blocking the bracket more but I guess it could have been something else because the whole thing was rather fiddly becausr I didnt want to compress the springs too much. But I think I'll have another go at it tomorrow.

 

The springs are well more compressed on the LHS compared to the RHS. It's unavoidable to have the exhaust in the right equilibrium and have the tips centered. I would say something like 70% on the LHS and 95% on the RHS.

 

Do you know how the capristo guys adjusted the position of the springs to match the bolt holes of the exhaust? When I compress the springs enough (by tightening the bolts) to fit the bracket under the muffler, I can't really move the springs inside the tracks at all any more which makes it very difficult to align the bracket bolt holes with the exhaust bolt holes.

 

How well do the heat sheilds work? Is there any problem of holding moisture in and the headers rusting?

 

They work 100% well, I mean, the heat from the headers is 100% isolated. Regarding rusting well, impossible have a look to the following thread where we discussed this topic :

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=324990

 

Sorted this out by using two jacks to get the exhaust as far up as possible. Everything should be ok now

 

Well done On the LHS, you can also add some washers (spacers) to avoid that the bracket is touching the metallic tip (you can see on my pictures that the bracket is almost not touching that metalic tip. This helps to get the bracket easier adjusted with the holes.

Another solution is to grind off this metallic tip of the flange (I'm wondering why it's there and why it's reversed compared to the RHS). After that, you can adjust both sides exactly at the same height and have both springs identically compressed. But it's not an issue having different compression on both sides as I've been told by Antonio Capristo.

 

They couldn't removed the studs while your MK2 headers are bright new??? Amazing...