I'm looking to get some equal length shorty's installed. Any idea how much it should cost me? What all is involved, one guy I talked to said they would have to drop my whole subframe? WTF? I never heard that before. Would it be hard to do myself?
If all goes as planned it's pretty straightforward - and run far away from the guy that wants drop the subframe. The challenge is that stuff often goes awry when trying to remove old exhaust systems. Stuff is rusty, and often breaks - bolts break off in heads and have to be removed, etc. I'd think 2 or 3 hours of labor ought to be the book on it; but if it were me, I wouldn't quote a fixed price because of the uncertainty.
You can do it yourself as long as you have a good set of tools, and access to a tool store close by. I say access to a tool store because you may need a swivel connector, crows feet, etc, or some other wierd tool you may only use once, but need desperately. Installing my friends equal length was easy, but we till needed to loosen the motor mounts and jack up the motor to get the headers past the master cylinder. The other trouble we had was getting the Mac headers to line up with the Header H-pipe, to line up with the stock muffler/pipes. I would start late afternoon on Friday, so you have Sat and Sun to finish. But do it yourself for sure. Don't pay someone to work on your car if you can help it.
1.) Bloody hands form the install, and after the install every time you try to change plugs or burnt plug wires
2.) Whatever it costs to buy new unequal length or longtube headers when you realize that when you installed them 6 months ago you lost 75% of whatever the coating was, and now they are all rusty.
3.) Whatever the pharmacy bill is when you need strong perscription drugs because you lost your mind because the ****ing things would not go in with out the use of a 20# sledge.
Oh, wait a minute, that was just the cost for me because I bought piece of **** MAC equal lengths.
I guess I'd add - don't pay someone else to work on your car IF you're confident you have the tools and skills to do a reasonable job yourself. MANY TIMES people get in over their head - and end up spending a lot more than if they'd just taken it to a competent/reliable mechanic in the first place - because they break things that weren't broken before and/or they get into the job, and have to 'buy' help anyway.
You should also have one of those little Dremel high speed tools handy too. They are invaluable for cutting off header to h-pipe bolts. Been there, done that.
I have a set of ceramic coated Bassani equal lengths. The only problem my shop had was they had to jack up the right side of the motor to get the right header in. In about a month or so, I'll be switching to LT's so I'll have my bassani headers and bassani x-pipe w/cats for sale. If anyone's interested email me: fiveohfox@hotmail.com.
I have Mac equal length shortys on my car. Installation wasnt bad but on the one side I had to unbolt the motor mount and jack the motor up a little to get it slid in there right. Other then that you will have to get a set of Taylor wires with 45degree angle over the stock 90degree or u will toast your plug wires.
Good luck