so i hate how heavy the stock 20g ex manifold is, bought the 02 wrx exhaust setup before search bar-ing only to find out that shit dont fit on the 20g 90* inlet turbo setup (ver1, 2, 3?). unfortunately for my time and frustration, i dont take no for an answer so i decided to do more header/uppipe comparisons since the engine is still out.
so after trying the sleezbay setup with no luck, i tried swapping the stock uppipe back on. despite fitting just barely, the 90* inlet was touching the intake mani and i wasnt okay with this (plus the stock uppipe flex section didnt look too pleasant).
round 2, stock headers with new uppipe. still no luck, turbo wouldnt sit right or line up properly. enter: month of frustrating despair in which i almost never touched the project. happen to come out of it with a clear head, finish up some other crap for the project these last 2 weeks. blahdy blah
ANYHOW,
tonight i decided to try something different while i had the stock headers on.
grabbed 2 extra exhaust nuts and spun em on the studs coming through the headers, put the new uppipe over those, then put another set of nuts on to secure the uppipe.
nearly perfect fit, so i decided to dig a little deeper.
pulled off the stock headers and put together the same setup i had just tested but with the new lighter stainless headers.
sweet tits batman! nearly perfect (with gaskets it would be monnnnnnnay)
measured the gap to approx .31" which is like 5/16" or something close.
sooooooooo,
hows about i slap in a 2.25"ID, 5/16" thick flange with 2 new gaskets (dont bitch about having extra gaskets leaking, the stockers have like 4 gaskets or whatever), and voila! all the usdm WRX/STI pre-turbo exhaust options at the ej20g's disposal
tl;dr
a 2.25"ID, 5/16" thick, 2 bolt exhaust flange with 2 new gaskets lets you use aftermarket headers/uppipe combo on an ej20g
here have a link
thoughts?
ftr the other reason i didnt want the stock setup is the shipping company broke off 2 of the heat shields and motivation took over from there
so after trying the sleezbay setup with no luck, i tried swapping the stock uppipe back on. despite fitting just barely, the 90* inlet was touching the intake mani and i wasnt okay with this (plus the stock uppipe flex section didnt look too pleasant).
round 2, stock headers with new uppipe. still no luck, turbo wouldnt sit right or line up properly. enter: month of frustrating despair in which i almost never touched the project. happen to come out of it with a clear head, finish up some other crap for the project these last 2 weeks. blahdy blah
ANYHOW,
tonight i decided to try something different while i had the stock headers on.
grabbed 2 extra exhaust nuts and spun em on the studs coming through the headers, put the new uppipe over those, then put another set of nuts on to secure the uppipe.
nearly perfect fit, so i decided to dig a little deeper.
pulled off the stock headers and put together the same setup i had just tested but with the new lighter stainless headers.
sweet tits batman! nearly perfect (with gaskets it would be monnnnnnnay)
measured the gap to approx .31" which is like 5/16" or something close.
sooooooooo,
hows about i slap in a 2.25"ID, 5/16" thick flange with 2 new gaskets (dont bitch about having extra gaskets leaking, the stockers have like 4 gaskets or whatever), and voila! all the usdm WRX/STI pre-turbo exhaust options at the ej20g's disposal
tl;dr
a 2.25"ID, 5/16" thick, 2 bolt exhaust flange with 2 new gaskets lets you use aftermarket headers/uppipe combo on an ej20g
here have a link
thoughts?
ftr the other reason i didnt want the stock setup is the shipping company broke off 2 of the heat shields and motivation took over from there