Rawr... My 2011 STi Build Log by Heide264

4 minute(s) of a 127 minute read

8-10-2012

Invidia Equal Length Race Exhaust Manifold

Yup. I went there. Glad I did as well. Most of the time spent was due to heat wrapping the thing. I would have had it sprayed, but it was much more expensive than planned. Instead I used 2x50'x1" rolls of DEI titanium wrap. I think the 2" thick stuff would have been nearly impossible to get around the pipe bends.. but the 1" was annoyingly thin. Still.. it's no work of art, but should work.

Of note, is that Bo suggested getting some CV boot clamps and using those in place of worm clamps or stainless steel zip ties. I'm glad he did. I ordered both the tool and clamps made by Moose. I couldn't find ones long enough to give me two passes around the pipe, but one pass should work - there's not that much torque on them.

On to pictures of wrapping!

Tools:

Start - take note of the can to get an idea of the size. Much smaller than I expected:

Close up of a clamp:

Getting going:

First 50' roll down:

Collector (Couldn't find a good way to secure the wrap though sadly):

And done:

I also took and put some dawn soap down them and rinsed them out with a hose. There was a good bit of welding grime in them. For anything post turbo - no big deal. I didn't want that stuff hitting my turbine at 100krpm+. A water droplet can be similar to a bullet to a fast moving turbine.

Install... Well... it should have been easy. Unless you are stupid and don't wear gloves when you remove the o2 sensor. Let it be said - I despise heat shields. Luckily, I had a friend over who finished up the install - mainly so he could hear the final result, haha. Please... Get yourself a set of gloves if you don't have them. You don't need to wear them all the time, but please do when breaking bolts loose.

Right through the nail - Was lucky and it could have been way worse:

Other note worthy topic - noisy strut is still noisy and greasy:

Final result... Wow. I couldn't believe how smooth my car felt when we fired it up. Sounded better than expected as well - more like a Porsche than a weed whacker. Still had a nice mean clear rumble/pop to it. The thing pulls so much nicer and smoother than it did. Even my EWG dumps nicer instead of sounding a lot like a pod racer.

I'm still getting it tuned in. It did wonders in the spool up region, and is requiring a bit more tweaking than planned.

All in all, one of my favorite mods actually. Very happy.