LLT V6 stock flowrates....simply sad!

[bmwdon]

ok, who's the joker that said the bbk headers were a breeze to install, so much room in there to work around, it only took them 2 hours....cause I'd like to kick you squa' in da nuts...please step up, thanks. I didn't think my arms were that big, but trying to get around that damn hard coolant line, the wiring looms, and just in general hard to reach places....F that S! Not looking forward to doing it again when it's heads time

The headers are on, the cats are on, welded the ls3 exhaust back together and will put that on after a fathers day well deserved cat nap

No doubt I'm going to need to lay down some fatmat down in the trunk and under the rear seat to suck up some drone....just hope it sounds good out back. I'll take some shots of the x pipe and everything else before I bolt it up (don't laugh, I haven't welded in about 15 years)

[D Vegas]

Originally Posted by bmwdon

ok, who's the joker that said the bbk headers were a breeze to install

hah had the same problem when i did my JBAs, its a pain trying to reach some of those bolts, not looking forward to doing it when i swap for BBKs.

[KMPrenger]

you may already have one of most powerful NA V6 cars on this forum.

[devildoc]

BMWDON - how much you think it will cost to ship the t/b and manifolds to 29420?

USA1 - going to Ft Sam Houston

[bmwdon]

Doc, buy the manifold and t/b, pack it up in your house hold goods and hand carry them down to MattD., he's in h-town I believe save yourself some shipping money!

Ok, the LS3 exhaust I have is new, like the guy bought the car and took it home and put on a magnaflow. So it's still burning out. But talk about a can of bees....ANGRY can of bees, I hope it settles down some. Idle, it's perfect, light accelleration it's manageable....WOT.....jeebus. So I'm going to hold on to the stock V6 mufflers, and reuse them with a reducer right at the cans if after a few hundred miles this thing don't settle down some. Or maybe find a pair of small borla/magnaflow/something to replace the big cans.

[KMPrenger]

throw a couple magnaflows on there...that will get it where you want it!

course... I may be a bit biased since it is what I have lol.

[bmwdon]

FYI....I'm not doing the heads on this car






















Atleast not until it cools off....holy snot I sweated my butt off this weekend, not cool at all!! Probably in the fall I guess, cause working away on those headers and everything else in my sweltering garage was no bueno at all, when the outside temps drop to 80' or less is when I'll revisit the head install idea

[KMPrenger]

Its all good!

Would love to see what kind've power your at right now...(but your still untuned right?) Oh...and didn't you install a CAI as well? Can't remember lol.

EDIT: Just saw you added the AirRaid V2

[deljaso]

Do you feel like you gained a lot of power when you installed the headers? Or was the bigger jump the ported tb/intake manifold/airaid?

[camaro guy]

Originally Posted by bmwdon

ok, who's the joker that said the bbk headers were a breeze to install, so much room in there to work around, it only took them 2 hours....cause I'd like to kick you squa' in da nuts...please step up, thanks. I didn't think my arms were that big, but trying to get around that damn hard coolant line, the wiring looms, and just in general hard to reach places....F that S! Not looking forward to doing it again when it's heads time

The headers are on, the cats are on, welded the ls3 exhaust back together and will put that on after a fathers day well deserved cat nap

No doubt I'm going to need to lay down some fatmat down in the trunk and under the rear seat to suck up some drone....just hope it sounds good out back. I'll take some shots of the x pipe and everything else before I bolt it up (don't laugh, I haven't welded in about 15 years)

that was me. if you got the right tools its not bad. putting the new headers in place and threading the first bolt sucks when your alone.

[bmwdon]

yeah, trying to pull the headers up in position as I layed across the engine and thread the first bolt then tilt the assembly to get that second bolt in....a major PITA. Drivers side was easier than the passengers side...frickin' solid coolant line...wtf?!

as for the sense of hp gain of the top end vs. the back end....to me, it felt like the cai/intake manifold and t/b "felt" like a better gain to me as I didn't hear much difference over stock, I feel I felt more gain there. Now, with the exhaust, I "perceived" more gain as it's loud as hell now. Not saying I don't feel the difference, but now I'm trying to rationalize it with the psychological trickery of the exhaust note is the reason it's faster. I'm sure the romp to 100 is a little bit faster over the top end only, but I didn't do the top of the engine and ride like that for days and then do the headers back. I might have driven 20 miles with the top end mods before jumping on headers back stuff.

[WHIPPLECHARGED]

I installed my BBKs on a lift and removed the manifold and installed the header for the right side from under the car. Guess that's one of the benefits of having access to a lift. If a had to remove the right side from the top I probably would have been cursing too. If I'm remembering right I had to remove the 3 top bolts from the top and that wasn't that difficult.

[devildoc]

I did mine on a lift also and it took me 8hrs to get it done with another person. Mind you we didn't use the air wrench until the end so we wouldn't worry about stripping the bolts out. Also, I have big forearms so that really sucks in tight places!

[bmwdon]

yep, did it on jackstands. Fed the headers up through the bottom, let them balance on the collector, got up from under the car, got on top and pulled them up into place. Finger tightened the first bolt, cantilevered the header back to get a second bolt in there and get it in place.

started at 8am, got the entire stock system off, and the LS3 system welded back together and then and headers back on by 3pm, so it didn't take long, but I didn't find it "easy", atleast 2 bolts on the drivers side was a pain in the butt, and 3-4 were serious pains on the passengers side, mostly due to other crap (wiring, ground, coolant line) in the way, only maybe 1 on each side was in a difficult spot based on headers being in the way.

So I can't stand the LS3 exhaust on the mighty 3.6, it's just too much rasp/bugle sound at wot. So I'm gonna swing by autozone and grab a pair of 2.5-2.25" reducers, just cut the cans off and put the stock LLT mufflers on, and maybe find some slip over tips for the back to atleast give it a better look in the rear. Some point in the future, I'll look at replacing the rear mufflers with a magnaflow/borla type, but right now, I miss the quiet And the most of the exhaust hp gains are from the headers/high flow cats....sooooo.