This morning I put the wheels on the truck, and took it to Nissan to get it inspected. They got me right in without an appointment. It helps to know the service manager. It passed inspection, so now I have some time to work on this.

I got home about noon and started tearing things apart:


Old exhaust minus the passenger side cats and down tube.

It took some work to get the old stuff off...everyting is rusted together, but the driver's side headers are done.





It was a fair amount of work getting stuff out of there, but I was surprised I was able to get as far as I did. Passenger's side tomorrow.

Just for the fun of it, I had to start it up. Sounds like a Harley.

Looking good so far Scott..

Is my truck next?? :p

When you get them all done up, I'd like to know if you get a "clattering" sound from about 2400 RPM to, uh, I think it was around 4K... can't remember for sure and the X is miles away. ANyway, it sounds to me like a cracked manifold but louder. I took it back to the guy that installed them and he checked for leaks and couldn't find any. He says it's just the way they sound. I'm not convinced... I think it sounds terrible.

I did finally aknowledge a power increase with the headers. I got the Xterra to go up two fairly steep grades without the cruise cancelling where it would previously. I don't know what that equates to in numbers, but I didn't miss the automatic cruise cancel that always scares the crap out of me for some reason!

Also, here are a couple sound clips. One is driving hard with the recorder on the passenger seat... windows up. The other is a short clip with the recorder at the exhaust tip on one side...

Hard driving

Idling

Chuck the X sounds good. And that's with the windows up? How about down? Loud?

Yeah, it's pretty obnoxious, but makes me giggle! Hard to get a recording with the wind noise, so that's why I only have a windows up recording. If you hadn't already read it, I went full dual, no cats, and two standard "turbo" mufflers. I will probably have to plumb some cats back in later, but for now...

That is pretty loud. Wow.

I'm going full dual exhaust, but with cats and a free-flow muffler.

Nice Progress so far Scott.
Can't wait to see how it turns out..
When can you come down to LI to help install mine?

How long did yours take to come in the mail? Mine were ordered about 2 weeks ago and now im anxious to get em and get em on.

lookin good by the way

Probably a dumb question but with just the headers and cats still on have any of you had emissions testing problems???? Mine are cracked and would like to upgrade but still need to daily drive the truck.

Tim

As you can see, there is nothing on the truck right now, just the headers. I just got it inspected so I will have a year to get it to work, but I don't think there will be any problem passing emissions with the set up I am using. I am replacing everything.

I got mine in four days...but I bought them from a guy who had them and never installed them. I have no idea how long it will take to get them from SLR.

Sounds almost like a diesel on the idling clip, I like it.

Any chance that can be made from just a new muffler/cat/tip?

Just finished the other side. Now to make an appointment to have the exhaust put on.

Sick!

That little resinator on the end of your stock exhaust will be my only muffler .

Do you think you're going to have problems passing smog since they're not CARB certified?

I really don't think so, but who knows, the intake I ordered isn't CARB certified either but I'm pretty buddy buddy with the mechanic whos putting them on, hwo also does my smog tests. Only time shall tell.

Be careful with that because ODB II prevents a valid reult in the computer system for a smog sticker. In Texas under the new testing if an auditor comes around and there are discrepancies bad things happen.

Tim

Not sure what you mean by that or how Texas does it's inspection. In NYS they don't do a sniffer test, but they do hook it up to the OBD II and it dials up directly to the state. If it fails, you can't just pay your friend to put a sticker on it, you get a temp sticker and have ten days to fix the problem.

I will make it pass inspection, legalally. I am putting in new cats with O2 bungs already in place and I already pulled the stock EGR tubing and replaced it with soft copper tubing which will go into the exhaust just behind the headers. I'm sure it will work, I'm not the first, but I got it inspected just before I installed the headers so I have a year to work out any bugs.

Scott,
What year is the truck that is getting the SLR headers?
I thought the Yellow one is a 2001 and doesnt have the EGR system to deal with.
Only 2002+ years had it.
If you are installing the headers on the Blue truck, then it all makes sense.

I hope you fire that sucker up with open headers before getting the exhaust hooked up.
I have to hear what it sounds like.

The Yellow one is a 2000 and it does have an EGR system. The blue SC one is an '02 and that does not have it.

Looks good!

I still think you need flames out the tail pipes. A nice blue flame would compliment your paint theme!

sounds great.

I'd leave it like that..