hello all , car is a ver 7 jdm sti 2001 bugeye , it appears to come with factory headers , unfortunately due to age and wear and tear current headers are rotten tried welding them but metal is too thin , so i've ordered new headers from , japspeed they are there own brand , i have managed to un bolt headers from the engine but it's a big ball ache getting the bolts off the turbo , i have got three off they are the ones towards the front of the car , i'm struggling with the two rear bolts , im hoping that the turbo does not need to come off as i'm having issues with two bolts on that they are the two on the offside of the turbo and bolt the turbo to the down pipe , any input on getting those up pipe or turbo bolts off ? does the turbo have it come off to do the up pipe , and re mapping wise i'm hoping what i'm replacing it with is just a bolt on , plus any other thoughts

 

In my experience of fitting a standard exhaust manifold the turbo does not have to come off.

 

Turbo doesn't need to come off but the down pipe does to access the two bolts.

You would of been better fitting a good used standard exhaust manifold over the cheap crapspeed one to be honest though.

 

cheers for the replies i'm struggling to get the downpipe off due to stuck bolts , can the two rear bolts in the up pipe be unscrewed from under neath or does the downpipe have to come off to get to them ? i've taken the under side heat shield off but not had a proper chance at the up pipe bolts yet

 

Do you mean the bolts on the turbo side of the up-pipe? If so, I think you'll struggle to get them off without taking the downpipe off Don't think there's enough space back there to get anything onto the rear bolts otherwise (especially the one that sits towards the passenger side of the car).

 

I take it you're replacing the up-pipe too? Can you not chop it up with a grinder enough to get a grinder onto the bolt heads on the down pipe from underneath?

Obviously would mean taking the turbo off and replacing the studs, but might be an option?

 

i have two bolts stuck on the down pipe to turbo side , and i have two bolts stuck on the firewall side of the up pipe , i'm going to have another go soon , i was hoping on getting away with just undoing up pipe bolts rather than have to remove turbo to do the up pipe bolts

 

well i got there in the end , no broken bolts , i found out hitting bolts and nuts helped and the ones that got stuck on the turbo i hit the turbo housing a few times which loosened them off , the downpipe to gearbox bolts were hard work , the headers had clearly been fitted in the factory as had no joins and had to be cut out to be removed , i've ordered a few spare bolts nuts and studs from ICP as a back up , just waiting for headers now , i believe no gaskets used when fitting headers ? the car is around 100k miles and is 16 years old so one of those things , but it's a big job to change as every bolt was stuck

 

Good that it's off. A bit of violence solves most stuck but problems on cars (just not too much, mind)...

you'll need the head to header gaskets (2x) and an up-pipe to turbo gasket. I'd also replace the downpipe gasket with a fresh item. Some of this may be part of the kit if you're lucky?

Also, if you do buy gaskets, get yourself the proper subaru ones from e.g. importcarparts, as the cheapo eBay ones can break (the ones that have the dimpled surface), and given what an **** of a job it is to change, I suspect you don't want to do it too often

all IMO, but talking from experience with cheap manifold gaskets

 

Good advice above on gaskets.IMO.

 

Oh that's strange , they appear to be factory fitted headers, i'm assuming factory fitted ? the only gasket on the hole system was the turbo to down pipe one , none on any where else , i heard headers don't need a gasket ? i was definitely doing the turbo to downpipe one , im assuming the headers are factory fitted due to jdm high revving engines and no sign of it ever being changed

 

based on above i think i will be fitting gaskets now , weird nothing on there before gasket wise

 

OEM manifold for JDM bugeye STi was standard 3 part manifold (cast headers)



References on the drawing relating to the 207 relates to the twinscroll manifold for the Bugeye onwards.

 

Ive had gaskets stuck to the heads before, so that it's almost looked like there was no gasket... prod around carefully with a screw driver and see if anything comes loose.

same with up pipe gaskets too.

 

all std factory headers are 3pce m+ up-pipe as Don pints out above so if yours are single piece then they are aftermarket

 

Gaskets will be fitted , no sign of any gaskets on the old system , i had to cut the headers up to get them off so was assuming they were factory fitted , plus no sign of any thing being disturbed to fit them , as headers fitted and me not wanting to remap then my best option was to re fit using headers again , i hope i don't loose any torque i would expect they would be similar to what was taken off

 

Well finally all fitted , it took ages as every bolt was a b....r to undo , even the ones from the downpipe to gearbox put up a big fight , gaskets were fitted all round , it was a Japparts system , it did fit it was a fiddle but i think most of that was learning the best way to fit it , i found put two studs into the up pipe , bolt it to the turbo then add the rest , bolts have to be quite tight but did not want to break any , and yes you have to take downpipe off to get up pipe off , it is a bit noisy but i've found no sign of any exhaust blowing , the boost is better as the old headers had split on top which could not be seen so i was loosing boost