How to install: Lethal Performance offroad H pipe.
There was a lot of buzz about nice power gains from offroad X and H pipes so I decided to pick up an offroad H from Lethal Performance. It is hard to argue with the price for the reported HP gains.
The unit comes in in two pieces and is joined at the cross over with an exhaust clamp. Since Chicago uses copious amounts of salt during the winter months I knew I would not be able to rely on the aluminized coating to protect the piping from corrosion. In an effort to stave of rust I painted the piping with high temp spray paint.
Here is the pipes mocked up ready for prep.
Here is my prep arsenal lined up. Mineral spirints to remove the heavy coating of oil placed on the pipes during manufacturing. It also removes the spray paint they used to protect the welds. Heavy rubber gloves to protect my skin from the chemicals, painters rags to apply the mineral spirits and the base coat of high temp flat black paint.
Any good paint job starts with a thorough prep job so take your time getting all the oils and paint off the pipes.
I used the box from my Hushpowers as my paint booth. I applied a nice even coat of the flat black paint on the piping. The reason I used black is to confirm complete coverage.
The first coat.
Once dried it flattens out quite a bit.
The final coats were done in silver. I applied no less than 5 coats of silver and let the pipes hang in the garage for a week to cure.
In the above pic you can see the bag of install hardware that comes with the H pipe. It includes 4 nut/bolt/washer/lock washer sets and a standard U-shaped exhaust clamp to join the cross over pipes.
Here are the pipes getting the first of the many coats of high temp silver paint.
and lastly of the pipe hanging out.
I left on a business trip for a week and when I got back the paint was nice and dry.
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Install day:
The first step in the install is to make sure you are working on a completely cooled off car. The exhaust pipe, especially near the cats retain heat for a good long while.
For guy working out of his garage you will need two sets of jack stands, a jack and a socket set with at least 24" of extensions.
Before you even jack the car up you will want to attack a bolt on the passenger side from the engine compartment. You will need your extensions, a regular length 15mm socket and a swivel. My deep well socket kept giving me fits because it was too heavy for my swivel so it was difficult to get on the nut. I ended up needing to use a 1/2" breaker bar to get the bolt to break free.
Once removed I made the mistake of only jacking up the front of the car. This made the install a living hell because of the lack of space under the car to work. That is why I recommend all you chubby bastards use two sets of stands to make life easier.
Once under the car I used an adjustable wrench to remove the rear o2 sensors. I did not disconnect them I just tucked them on top of the trans crossmember.
The remaining nuts that attach the stock pipe to the headers are easily accessible from under the car. Before you pull all the nuts off, grab your 15mm socket and loosen the nuts on the exhaust clamps. There are some retainers that span across the clamp that you need to pop off with a flat head screw driver. Since the stock H attaches to the header with studs you will need to force the exhaust towards the rear of the car to get the header side free. Then its as simple as pulling the stock H forward out of the clamps.
Now its time to prep the offroad H for install. I ditched the supplied U-bolt clamp and went with a slick stainless steel band clamp. For those taking notes you will need a 2.5" clamp. I used one that was 1.5" wide. Slip the cross overs together and snug up the clamp enough so it stays together but loose enough that you can adjust as needed. I also slipped the stock band clamps onto the new H at this time. As I slid the pipe under the car I took extra pride in my paint job as it held up to the concrete nicely.
You are going to reuse your factory gaskets (which are very nice MLS (Multi layer steel) pieces with built in retainers. Toss a flat washer on the bolts and drop them into the holes in the header flange. The gaskets have retainers that will grab onto the bolts which makes your life a lot easier.
You will need to feed the H up towards the headers first then back into the mid pipes. Once I had the clamps over the pipe and snugged up I used a small jack to support the piping near the connection. Guide the flanges together and use the supplied lock washers and nuts to secure the flanges together. The supplied nuts a are 11/16" so bring your deep well socket with you. Tighten the flange nuts at this time.
I learned this last bit of into the hard way. When you are messing around with the connection between the H pipe and mid pipes it is possible that you will either push or pull the piping causing your exhaust tips to be pushed out too far or sucked to far in. In my case the drivers side tip got sucked to far back into the bumper cutout. While this will necessitate me loosening up the clamp and readjusting it actually helped me with a dilemma I was having.
IMO the Hushpower tips stick out too far. Because there is enough slack in the offroad H I will be able to adjust everything to look cleaner.
I strongly recommend you take your first drive on a nice day where you can have your windows down. When the paint gets hot it really gives off a nasty and possibly harmful odor. It will only take a few heat cycles for the paint to burn in and that will put an end to that issue.
The last thing I want to bring up in this how to is about safety while working under your car. Back in my S2000 days our community lost a popular member when his car fell off the jack stands and crushed him. It was most likely not a quick and painless death either. He probably suffocated slowly unable to call for help. He left behind a wife and a young child.
One easy way to be safe is to stack a couple of wheels under the pinch welds. I personally always keep a jack under the car and keep a cell phone within reach. I taught my daughter how to operate my hydraulic jack in case something happens.
This concludes my long winded H pipe install how to. Feel free to post up other tips if you have them.
There was a lot of buzz about nice power gains from offroad X and H pipes so I decided to pick up an offroad H from Lethal Performance. It is hard to argue with the price for the reported HP gains.
The unit comes in in two pieces and is joined at the cross over with an exhaust clamp. Since Chicago uses copious amounts of salt during the winter months I knew I would not be able to rely on the aluminized coating to protect the piping from corrosion. In an effort to stave of rust I painted the piping with high temp spray paint.
Here is the pipes mocked up ready for prep.
Here is my prep arsenal lined up. Mineral spirints to remove the heavy coating of oil placed on the pipes during manufacturing. It also removes the spray paint they used to protect the welds. Heavy rubber gloves to protect my skin from the chemicals, painters rags to apply the mineral spirits and the base coat of high temp flat black paint.
Any good paint job starts with a thorough prep job so take your time getting all the oils and paint off the pipes.
I used the box from my Hushpowers as my paint booth. I applied a nice even coat of the flat black paint on the piping. The reason I used black is to confirm complete coverage.
The first coat.
Once dried it flattens out quite a bit.
The final coats were done in silver. I applied no less than 5 coats of silver and let the pipes hang in the garage for a week to cure.
In the above pic you can see the bag of install hardware that comes with the H pipe. It includes 4 nut/bolt/washer/lock washer sets and a standard U-shaped exhaust clamp to join the cross over pipes.
Here are the pipes getting the first of the many coats of high temp silver paint.
and lastly of the pipe hanging out.
I left on a business trip for a week and when I got back the paint was nice and dry.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Install day:
The first step in the install is to make sure you are working on a completely cooled off car. The exhaust pipe, especially near the cats retain heat for a good long while.
For guy working out of his garage you will need two sets of jack stands, a jack and a socket set with at least 24" of extensions.
Before you even jack the car up you will want to attack a bolt on the passenger side from the engine compartment. You will need your extensions, a regular length 15mm socket and a swivel. My deep well socket kept giving me fits because it was too heavy for my swivel so it was difficult to get on the nut. I ended up needing to use a 1/2" breaker bar to get the bolt to break free.
Once removed I made the mistake of only jacking up the front of the car. This made the install a living hell because of the lack of space under the car to work. That is why I recommend all you chubby bastards use two sets of stands to make life easier.
Once under the car I used an adjustable wrench to remove the rear o2 sensors. I did not disconnect them I just tucked them on top of the trans crossmember.
The remaining nuts that attach the stock pipe to the headers are easily accessible from under the car. Before you pull all the nuts off, grab your 15mm socket and loosen the nuts on the exhaust clamps. There are some retainers that span across the clamp that you need to pop off with a flat head screw driver. Since the stock H attaches to the header with studs you will need to force the exhaust towards the rear of the car to get the header side free. Then its as simple as pulling the stock H forward out of the clamps.
Now its time to prep the offroad H for install. I ditched the supplied U-bolt clamp and went with a slick stainless steel band clamp. For those taking notes you will need a 2.5" clamp. I used one that was 1.5" wide. Slip the cross overs together and snug up the clamp enough so it stays together but loose enough that you can adjust as needed. I also slipped the stock band clamps onto the new H at this time. As I slid the pipe under the car I took extra pride in my paint job as it held up to the concrete nicely.
You are going to reuse your factory gaskets (which are very nice MLS (Multi layer steel) pieces with built in retainers. Toss a flat washer on the bolts and drop them into the holes in the header flange. The gaskets have retainers that will grab onto the bolts which makes your life a lot easier.
You will need to feed the H up towards the headers first then back into the mid pipes. Once I had the clamps over the pipe and snugged up I used a small jack to support the piping near the connection. Guide the flanges together and use the supplied lock washers and nuts to secure the flanges together. The supplied nuts a are 11/16" so bring your deep well socket with you. Tighten the flange nuts at this time.
I learned this last bit of into the hard way. When you are messing around with the connection between the H pipe and mid pipes it is possible that you will either push or pull the piping causing your exhaust tips to be pushed out too far or sucked to far in. In my case the drivers side tip got sucked to far back into the bumper cutout. While this will necessitate me loosening up the clamp and readjusting it actually helped me with a dilemma I was having.
IMO the Hushpower tips stick out too far. Because there is enough slack in the offroad H I will be able to adjust everything to look cleaner.
I strongly recommend you take your first drive on a nice day where you can have your windows down. When the paint gets hot it really gives off a nasty and possibly harmful odor. It will only take a few heat cycles for the paint to burn in and that will put an end to that issue.
The last thing I want to bring up in this how to is about safety while working under your car. Back in my S2000 days our community lost a popular member when his car fell off the jack stands and crushed him. It was most likely not a quick and painless death either. He probably suffocated slowly unable to call for help. He left behind a wife and a young child.
One easy way to be safe is to stack a couple of wheels under the pinch welds. I personally always keep a jack under the car and keep a cell phone within reach. I taught my daughter how to operate my hydraulic jack in case something happens.
This concludes my long winded H pipe install how to. Feel free to post up other tips if you have them.
