kooks header fitment... comments??

[yosemitesammy]

Hi all,

I'm new the the forum. My name's Sam, I'm up in Allen, TX, have a relatively stock black Charger SRT8...

Anyway, I'm currently in the middle of installing Kooks longtube headers and I wanted to ask about install method/fitment from other people who have installed them.

Currently, after disconnecting battery, jacking the car up, taking off the catback, cats, fuse block, air cleaner and intake tube, starter, dropping steering shaft, etc... I'm sort of stuck. I've got 5 of 8 bolts out on the driver's side. It looks to me the air conditioning 1 piece hard lines are right in the way and I'm worried about cracking them if I don't remove them to get at the remaining 2 bolts on the driver's side (middle top 2).

I have a similar issue with the pasenger side, but in that case it is brake hardlines to the ESP box, although I think I can work around them. The other problem on the passengr side is the large spider-like wiring loom with no slack that connects to half or all of the front electrical devices...it appears to block the access to the passenger top middle bolts and appears to be a real pain to move and disconnect all the connections.

I'm a bit worried about the fit of the headers once I get the old ones out.. LOOKS A BIT TIGHT!!! I was hoping to hear from others who have put on Kooks long tubes on an SRT8 charger...


:Wow1:

On a separate topic... I'm looking or reccomendations on a DFW area tuner? Friday night's jobs were installing a cabin air filter holder, C&L CAI and Arrington Engines 90mm throttle body #40 and requisite monkeying with adding fuel with a predator and taking some test runs.... with 11% fuel in the upper WOT range, I'm still getting some ST Knock, so I need to mees with it some more, but initial impressions are... WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW!!


Thanks,

Sammy

[Founder]

Hi all,

I'm new the the forum. My name's Sam, I'm up in Allen, TX, have a relatively stock black Charger SRT8...

Anyway, I'm currently in the middle of installing Kooks longtube headers and I wanted to ask about install method/fitment from other people who have installed them.

Currently, after disconnecting battery, jacking the car up, taking off the catback, cats, fuse block, air cleaner and intake tube, starter, dropping steering shaft, etc... I'm sort of stuck. I've got 5 of 8 bolts out on the driver's side. It looks to me the air conditioning 1 piece hard lines are right in the way and I'm worried about cracking them if I don't remove them to get at the remaining 2 bolts on the driver's side (middle top 2).

I have a similar issue with the pasenger side, but in that case it is brake hardlines to the ESP box, although I think I can work around them. The other problem on the passengr side is the large spider-like wiring loom with no slack that connects to half or all of the front electrical devices...it appears to block the access to the passenger top middle bolts and appears to be a real pain to move and disconnect all the connections.

I'm a bit worried about the fit of the headers once I get the old ones out.. LOOKS A BIT TIGHT!!! I was hoping to hear from others who have put on Kooks long tubes on an SRT8 charger...


:Wow1:

On a separate topic... I'm looking or reccomendations on a DFW area tuner? Friday night's jobs were installing a cabin air filter holder, C&L CAI and Arrington Engines 90mm throttle body #40 and requisite monkeying with adding fuel with a predator and taking some test runs.... with 11% fuel in the upper WOT range, I'm still getting some ST Knock, so I need to mees with it some more, but initial impressions are... WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW!!


Thanks,

Sammy


We have a vendor on this site TSS or Tuning Super Store, His name is Mike and his screen name is TSS, shoot him a message, he can help you

as far as the Headers go, I'm no help, But someone here will answer

[CRANEX5]

Welcome from Frisco...wish I could help on the header issue, good luck.

[Founder]

You might want to try asking on 300cforumz.com

[ozzo]

I would have no idea, but it looks like there's a vendor on the charger forum (http://www.chargerforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=77113&highlight=kooks)that may be able to assist

Welcome to the board by the way.

[GONZOsMAGNUM]

Welcome to The Club!

[yosemitesammy]

Well, after much hasle and a significant sum in additional tool (half-moon shaped racheting box ends, offset box end wrenches, swivelhead racheting combos, swivelhead racheting shorty combos, wobble extensions, 3/8" torque wrench, plus some other things I've been wanting to round out the arsenal), I got them in with the help of a buddy.

Gonna document some tips for the next guy.

This is an 06 charger srt8...


a peek at the factory SM (shoot me an email, and I can send a link to download the PDFs for all factory manuals for free), and I see the factory recommends moving rad overflow tank out of the way.. that opens access for front 3 top bolts on driver's side.


you have to disconnect the connector on the ESP, and a ground down by the pass headlight to get enough slack to move the wiring loom out of the way.


I still have the starter, cats, catback, and fuse block out, but I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to slip the header up and in. Threading and torquing bolts is another matter...quite a bitch!... Still have the starter out, but it looks like the Kooks fit is excellent!!! Very pleasantly surprised!!!!..

Not a huge fan of the gaskets (aluminum sheet precision cut to shape) or the supplied bolts. Kooks supplies new bolts with 13mm heads vs 10mm factory... the additional size of the head makes a couple real tight...

Kooks reccommends using some silicone on sealing surfaces on both side of the gasket sealing surface... This seemed very odd to me.. I called up my pop (a heavy-duty equipment, diesel and light-duty mechanic since before I was born) and consulted him.... he also was not on-board with the silicone on the gasket faces until I described the flat aluminum nature of the gasket faces rather than the typical waffle pattern that crushes and compresses when you torque them... He felt that the silicone must be to fill and seal any small surface irregularities... I went ahead with it, but thought it was a very odd type of gasket... We'll see how it works.... might see about some felpro gaskets if available when I do the heads... whenever that is...

I had to work on the opening of the Borla X-pipes quite a bit to get them to slip over the new cats... prybar for leverage, vise... hammer, dolly, torch, etc, plus some silicone grease to make slipping them on easier and a hammer and a block of wood to pound the X-pipe over the cats...

Cats must go on with O2 sensors up.. if you have it reversed, one cat pipe will appear to be 1.5-2 inches longer than the other.. not the case, they are reversed.. Speaking of cats... the bolts Kooks supplies are grade 5 and about a c&*t hair longer than the absolute minimum needed to thread the nut... if it ever comes apart again, new, longer grade 8 bolts will be put back on.

Speaking of O2 sensors... the O2 harness extensions for the front O2 sensors had the wrong connectors on them... Some chargers have one type and some another (according to Kooks). Shaving the plastic key off the connector up in the car next to the header with a razor blade knife is quite the Zen meditation exercise... car's harnesses are too short and secured to pull the connectors up and shave them is what I found.



Don't forget to reconnect the ESP connector!

One issue that cropped up is that it keeps saying to check the TPM (tire pressure monitoring), and them showing 35-39 PSI on all the tires... seems like it is confused due to the loss of communication when the battery was disconnected. Mo' later on this one...

Still having an ongoing issue with the computer adding 20-30% more fuel on adaptives, but that is partially due to 90mm throttle body, and potentially an extra O-Ring behind it...


Initial impressions are that the LT headers sound good, but that I liked the sound of the open cats better!! :smiley_thumbs_up:

Definitely feels like there's more there with the 90mm throttle body, headers and cats and the Borla catback... guessing 40-60 rwhp? Needs a tune though.

Sammy

[Founder]

nice write up, glad you got them installed

[EZCORPION]

I love my Kooks LT´s.... :)

[BigMike608]

welcome to the club, congrats on the install