[NJSTi05]

wow! this is lookin awesome!! its like christmas man, im all excited for you hahah! just cool stuff comin one after another, hand made box for the sub, heatshield, a HKS Ti! flaps! i mean what more is in store for your STi!!

if the STi was alive, itd be all smiles!

[JPWEraser]

Originally Posted by NJSTi05

wow! this is lookin awesome!! its like christmas man, im all excited for you hahah! just cool stuff comin one after another, hand made box for the sub, heatshield, a HKS Ti! flaps! i mean what more is in store for your STi!!

if the STi was alive, itd be all smiles!

Thanks man! Yeah, a lot has been happening for my rather dormant STi (up to this point) here lately and I'm even more excited than you are! Thanks for the positive comment!

**Update**

I took some time this afternoon to get everything installed. First went on the turbo wrap. This proved to be a bit of a pain in the a$$. I didn't want to take the intercooler off if I didn't have to and I really, REALLY wish that I could have had this in my posession when I installed my DP - I have a feeling it would have been much easier. I worked on this nearly as long as my flaps which I will post later. Anyhow, here it is installed and everything:



Next I worked on my heat shield. I was able to loosten everything on the intercooler to get this puppy on. Wasn't terribly easy by myself, but it didn't proove overly difficult either.




And last, but not least, I put on my Rally Armor flaps. These really seemed to be top knotch quality and made of very durable material. The hardware was all there and the instructions on their site were very thurough. The front took me the longest. For some reason the clips on that needed to be removed from the front were crazy hard to get out. I ended up screwing 70% of them up just to get them out! I had no fitment issues as far as getting all the mounting holes aligned correctly, but it was a bit encumbersome to get a few of the screws to thread. I am very pleased with the way they look, but more importantly I think they will provide an immense amount of protection and help keep my car clean through this winter. A+ mod in my book. I washed her up and took some pics of the flaps just after installation:



Later this evening I took a drive around to give the heat wrap a chance to seat and burn in some. It smoked for a good 15-20 stop-and-go miles as the wrap burned in but it wasn't anything terrible. I stopped a few times and popped the hood to make sure everything was still in the correct spot since I'd read that the wrap tends to mold into shape a little after the initial burn in has started. I could grab ahold of my heat shield and it was only partially warm and the temp around that side of the intercooler was MUCH cooler than before when I felt in the same area with no heat shield or wrap. Everything seems to be in order and I eagerly anticipate the arrival of my cat back this Wednesday. I'm taking that day off so as soon as it arrives it's going on! Untill next time!

[JPWEraser]

Carbon-Ti is here and its beautiful! Going on as soon as I change clothes!!

[STi05']

Nice, very nice. What did you spill around the car?

[bensti]

JPWEraser, car looks great man!!

My carbon TI came this wednesday as well, my helix catted dp is arriving tom..hehe what are the odds??! Must be a sweet combo.
I also ordered heat wrap from static X. I'm looking around for the Cusco heatshied.

Where did you end up get your flaps from? I like the way those look, and they are not curved or anything to catch and trap dirt/snow/salt, which may cause more damage then it prevents in NE.

I can't wait to install my dp and cat back this weekend. Wish the heat wrap was here.. = [

hehe, car looks good though! That custom sub box is pretty sweet too!
I had 2xBA pro 12's, ..etc.etc, but decided to keep the weight down on the sti, so I got MBQ speakers and an alpine cd.

[nandanrp]

Awesome ride man. Cleaaaaan wheels (haven't seen my wheels in a while, just the thick layer of brake dust on em due to my 500 mile per week commute). Also, seeing those flaps is making me think about buying a pair...

How loud is your Helix/Carbon Ti combo? That's the exact setup I'm thinking about down the road, but I don't want something that is going to drone on the highway as I do a lot of long distance trips (I don't care so much about the loud as I do the droning).

[JPWEraser]

Originally Posted by STi05'

Nice, very nice. What did you spill around the car?

If you're referring to the pic of the side of the car with the flaps on, thats soapy water - I had JUST washed it.

Originally Posted by nandanrp

Awesome ride man. Cleaaaaan wheels (haven't seen my wheels in a while, just the thick layer of brake dust on em due to my 500 mile per week commute). Also, seeing those flaps is making me think about buying a pair...

How loud is your Helix/Carbon Ti combo? That's the exact setup I'm thinking about down the road, but I don't want something that is going to drone on the highway as I do a lot of long distance trips (I don't care so much about the loud as I do the droning).

Thanks! It's not too overbearing but I wouldn't exactly call it quiet - it's good kind of loud; not the kind that when you romp on it you cringe at the sound it makes. I try to keep my wheels clean. I think of them like shoes - a man can wear a suit and tie, but if his shoes are all nasty, it ruins everything else. I duno though, maybe I'm weird!?

Originally Posted by bensti

JPWEraser, car looks great man!!

My carbon TI came this wednesday as well, my helix catted dp is arriving tom..hehe what are the odds??! Must be a sweet combo.
I also ordered heat wrap from static X. I'm looking around for the Cusco heatshied.

Where did you end up get your flaps from? I like the way those look, and they are not curved or anything to catch and trap dirt/snow/salt, which may cause more damage then it prevents in NE.

I can't wait to install my dp and cat back this weekend. Wish the heat wrap was here.. = [

hehe, car looks good though! That custom sub box is pretty sweet too!
I had 2xBA pro 12's, ..etc.etc, but decided to keep the weight down on the sti, so I got MBQ speakers and an alpine cd.

The wrap and Cusco heat shield combo is great so far. I am having some problems with my wrap but Robert is working diligently on finding me a solution. The wrap would definately be easier to do while you're doing your downpipe install since you'll have a much cleaner view and working space(so long as you're smart and take off the intercooler) and be able to tie it off around the up-pipe easier from underneath the car without the downpipe on. I installed them both and drove around a good 30 minutes and pulled over in a parking lot. The underhood temps were MUCH lower than I have ever experienced in the car even with the stock setup. I could actually grab the front part of the heat shield and it was only luke-warm. I got my heat shield from Noah at Caliente Automotive(IWSTI board name Caliente Auto). Noah is a great fella and never failed to satisfy me with communication throughout the sale and a great price. I also ordered my Helix downpipe and Carbon-Ti from him. I waited on my flaps for almost a month from www.rallyarmor.com They were well worth the wait and will provide great protection throughout the winter. If I like them enough, I might not take them off at all when the spring rolls around! I'm liking the box a lot. It looks fugly still since my carpet isn't here yet, but I will take pictures of the final install once everything is all nice and pretty . Thanks for your positive comments and let me know if I can aid you any further.

_______________________


So I got it on!! Only took about 90 minutes and I did it all alone. 2 people would have knocked a good 20 minutes off of it or more by just taking away the get out from underneath the car to get other stuff time. It was very strait forward and its a very, VERY high quality piece. Fitment was perfect except for a piece of the muffler heat shield which was pushing down on the muffler a little. It bent with a finger's push though, so that was no big deal. One thing you might consider - get longer hangers(like the KB ones) if you want to be completely safe and not have to bend that shield. Good news is it also comes with 2 new gaskets so I didn't have to reuse the one on the flange from the dp to the stock catback if I didn't want to. A little motor oil around the pegs for the hangers and they slid off relatively easily. I found it best, when installing the axle-back portion, to only put 1 leg of the muffler mount thru a hanger and mount the muffler first. After you have a loose mount on the muffler THEN you can wrap the muffler mount hardware and get that all tightened up.

First impressions - it sounds absolutely sexy. It idles very smoothly and isn't too much louder than stock. I was shocked that something could be loud and still sound good especially coming from my Civic! It really shines when you romp on it and I certainly feel a horsepower/torque increase. My shifts are quicker and in the high range at WOT this thing sounds like a monster now. I am highly impressed with it. I did some 65-75mph cruises for a few miles with the windows up and it didn't drone at all. You can hear it more now and when the cruise kicked in to get me up a hill you can tell more, but it never did bother me in the least. I didn't have to crank up my radio any louder than usual so that was the true test for me. It felt like, to me at least, that the muffler just helped with road noise. The car generates a TON of road noise from the showroom floor, now I don't hear so much of it, its just a mellow, low, boxer rumble exhaust note. Blah blah, enough talking, I know you fellas want to see pics!

Here's a quick comparison between the stock midpipe and the HKS unit. Much more flow for sure.


Here's a series of shots from the flange where the midpipe and downpipe meet on back. The quality of the pieces, as stated earlier are top knotch and fit perfectly. The only concern, hardware wise, would be that the catback didn't come with bolts, nuts, washers, etc. for the flange meeting from the dp to the midpipe. I just reused the hardware that my Helix DP came with which were 19mm nuts and bolts. I had to bore the holes in the gasket a little but thats nothing hard(just threaded the 19mm bolt thru the holes in the gasket a few times. This actually worked nicely since I was screwing through the gasket which in turn pulled the gasket up close to the flange and held everything in place nicely while I mated the flanges together.





And now... the money shot. This thing is huge.


I will get some daytime exterior shots of the exhaust and everything once I get her cleaned up - shes a mess right now(friggin' rain). Let me know if any of you guys have any questions or concerns about the install or anything else and I will do my best to help!

[Andy STI]

Looks great. Nice progression. Is the exhaust 3 inches all the way, or is there a taper at the DP/CB junction?

[JPWEraser]

Originally Posted by Andy STI

Looks great. Nice progression. Is the exhaust 3 inches all the way, or is there a taper at the DP/CB junction?

It's a full 3".

[STi_John]

wow, really nice car and really nice work bro....

[NJSTi05]

wow.....this looks great. seriously....very impressive...its simple, but it just says badass all over it. this is definitly the set up ive been looking to do....now your still using the stock turbo, yes? how much more of a h/p gain do you think is gained from the set up?

[JPWEraser]

Originally Posted by STi_John

wow, really nice car and really nice work bro....

Thanks!

Originally Posted by NJSTi05

wow.....this looks great. seriously....very impressive...its simple, but it just says badass all over it. this is definitly the set up ive been looking to do....now your still using the stock turbo, yes? how much more of a h/p gain do you think is gained from the set up?

Thanks a bunch. I'm sticking with the stock turbo unless a couple grand decides to make itself available to me?! I feel like the car is more alive now. There is hardly ANY lag between shifts and it runs through gears even quicker. I just took a 285 mile(1 way to Nashville) trip this weekend and did a lot of driving between. I can honestly say that the Carbon-Ti sounds great and doesn't drone at all. It's there, you know it's there, but it doesn't get loud unless you romp on it. How much more can you describe perfect? I would say I freed up at least 10-15 top end hp and some low end grunt. The car doesn't seem to die off in the higher register, still runs incredibly smooth, shifts are even more satisfying, and the butt-dyno is super happy. I met up with a friend of mine in Cookeville(between Nashville and where I live) and we did some driving around today. We came upon an abandoned sand pit or something - it's terribly hard to explain! The place was awesome though and presented many awesome angles for pictures. All I had was my Treo(phone) for a camera though, so they didn't turn out perfect by any means, but it was still a cool ass place.



She's even more dirty having driven about 650 miles or so over the course of the weekend. I'll do my best to get her cleaned up and I'll snap some shots of the Carbon-Ti and possibly my box that's still uncarpeted but installed. Thanks as always for the positive comments guys and let me know if there are any more questions or whatever that you think I might be able to help out with.

[NJSTi05]

did you have to take the car in for a complete tuning after the install of the d/p and catback?

this way i know what to expect when i go for this set up.

[JPWEraser]

Originally Posted by NJSTi05

did you have to take the car in for a complete tuning after the install of the d/p and catback?

this way i know what to expect when i go for this set up.

Nope. I don't have any CELs or anything. I will eventually have the car retuned after I add a Perrin EBCS and a bigger fuel pump, but that's a ways off. Basically I just freed up a bunch of air flow and backpressure. The car performs better and definately sounds better. The real performance increase does come with a retune, though.

[NJSTi05]

so i shouldnt have to worry about that, until future mods then? sounds great!! one less thing to worry about then! thanks alot man.