Dont remember the part no. I paid $10 each.

Spray wd40 or something similar on the nuts. I'm at 65k miles, and I had all but 1 stud come out of the engine, and 2 of the studs came out of the header on teh cat side. Also, I'd recommend using some anti-seize on the install.

Additionally, make sure you check the headers for flatness. Mine had a bit of a bow and some imperfections on their faces that had to be smoothed out.

The engine exhaust nuts are 13mm. Use a 13mm deep socket and a 2" extension to get the oems off, and a ratcheting box wrench and regular box wrench to get the bbk on. You can only check 4, but the oem tq should be 12 nM. Also, look up the oem tq pattern. Essentially you tighten the middles first and then do the outside ones in opposing corners (top left, bot right).

The exhaust studs are 5mm.

The nuts on the cat studs are 17mm deep socket. I'd recommend a breaker bar, about 12-16" in extensions and a knuckle. You'll want vice-grips to help install the new studs into the bbk headers. Tq spec should be 45 nM, but that seemed insufficient. I torqued really close to it and had a little bit of a leak. Ended up curing it with a breaker bar, some swearing, and a bit of sweat.

bbk recommends removing teh coolant line on the passenger side of the engine. I think that takes a 10mm wrench.

I'd recommend disconneting the battery (or removing it) as you'll be working over it quite a bit. It takes an 8mm if I remember correctly.


best of luck.
-spqr.

 

i saw some stainless exhaust manifold nuts and studs for these engines somewhere but i forgot where i saw them. im going to order them and some header wrap for my long tubes. underhood temps went way up after i installed my long tubes and my o2 heaters are coming on at idle when the engine is warm so im hoping the wrap with help those problems. but the shorty ones probably dont have that problem although header wrap would still probably be a good idea since hot exhaust gasses flow better than cooler exhaust gasses. although probably not enough of a difference to show on a dyno.

 

Thanks for the info.

Matthew

 

bassani's are stainless steel, right? Any idea how the insulating properties compare to ceramic coated steel?

 

You're welcome. Let me know if you have any questions. It's still pretty fresh.

 

yep all of the exhaust parts bassani makes for the 3.7 mustangs are stainless. my headers r bbk chrome ones though. only thing bassani on mine is the axle back and i dont believe bassani makes exhaust manifold stud/nuts.

 

Sorry to necro this thread, but I ended up having some leakage on the exhaust.

The bbk headers had some distortion on the plates that mate to the engine. It looks like they distorted during welding and weren't flattened out afterwards. It was > 1mm in the middle of each plate. I had to slowly sand them smooth to get a good mating surface. This seemed to fix the leaks there.

I had some leakage at the cats as well. I had some burs that I sanded down, and I put a ring of high-temp rtv around them. I also had to replace all of the cats' hardware as the split washers more or less disentigrated under load and ended up tearing up the nuts. I sometimes feel like i smell the faintest whiff of exhaust under load, but I could be going crazy at this point. It's been a frustrating install.

 

Has anyone else experienced these issues? I am getting ready to install my headers tomorrow and will have to hold off if these are common issues.

Also any one know what the TQ specs are for the headers and cats? I know someone else said what was needed in nM but I am not of the educated variety and need that in TQ. Also bolt, tightening pattern if anyone has that.

Thanks

 

Take a straight edge and check them to make sure the a straight. Also check the mating surface where it bolts to the mid pipe.
As for torque specs, there are only a few that can actually be checked, I just went hand tight with 1/2 wrench. Someone else might have the specs for the mid pipe but I did those as tight as I could with the 1/2 drive ratchet.
I don't think there was a set pattern, but I did the center and then the outside nuts.
Heat cycling them helps also, start the car up and let the exhaust get hot then wait for it to cool and retighten them.
Also, make sure all the studs are back in before you put the headers in, some will not go back in after and put the bottom nut on number 3 before you tighten anything.

 

Installed headers today. Besides disconnect /reconnect mid pipes did everything from up top. Invest in a good set of ratcheting wrenches. Slow and tedious tightening them but we'll worth the time. Like everyone says "passenger side is a B".

 

Seems if you have ratcheting wrenches, it makes the whole installation a million times easier. So you guys that have installed them already.. Did you notice any sound differences? Performance difference?

 

Torque for the cats is 45 Nm / 35 ftlbs. This feels insufficient. I tightened it to 40 ftlbs and put on high temp RTV. This seems to have done the trick.

Torque for the studs is 12 Nm / 106 in lbs.

Torque and pattern for the engine is top mid, bottom mid, bottom front, back top, front top, back bottom. Torque all 6 to 19 Nm / 168 in lbs in that pattern. Then, tighten all 6 to 25 Nm / 18 ft lbs in that order. I was only able to check a couple of them, and was able to feel out the correct torque for the rest.

Be sure to check that the face that mates to the engine is flat and that the rings around the cats dont have any bumps or defects.


Sound is a little bit louder and mid range power feels better.

 

Not to sure about sound/performance differences. I did CAI,headers and borla S types all at once. It does sound very nice and has little more pep

 

The Exhaust is a bit lower, as for performance, instead of getting to about 3500 RPM and thinking you just dropped a gear it has a nice pull from 1800 RPM and up.
If you go to Youtube and google Siberexpress I have the before and after with the Stock Manual Mufflers there.