Pontiac Solstice Forum - View Single Post - Tearing apart the Solstice.

Thanks for the positive feedback guys. I am going to wait until I am signed on as a supporting vendor to post pictures. I just don't have the time to screw around up-loading pictures to another site, etc, etc...

I have taken lots of pictures. Here's my free learning curve info for you guys:

when removing the stock exhaust manifold, your tendency will be to lean on the vent to your left or the top of the fuse box, don't do either as there is a very good chance of cracking the vent for sure, and possibly the fuse box.

Over-all the stock exhaust manifold is a piece of cake to remove. It has the best bolt access I have ever seen. It came out with the cat converter in place, then from below, remove one bolt and the converter falls out. There is SOOO much room on the passenger side of the engine a small person could probably manage to crawl through from the top to the bottom. It took me 30 minutes to remove the heat shield (3 nuts), the exhaust manifold (10 nuts) and the cat converter (3 nuts, 1 bolt). Using basic hand tools.

What does this mean for the "do-it-yourselfer"? It means there is absolutely no reason to take the car to a shop for a header install if you are willing to get the car on stands and crawl under. or, if taken to a shop, from the moment the hood is opened to when it is closed, it should take no more than 1 1/2 hours to remove the factory equipment and install a set of headers with hi-flow converter. (It will take more time to install a custom headpipe from converter to stock exhaust).

Now, up front behind the grill inserts there was enough room for my partner to fit his welding helmet, probably 3 side by side if we tried.

Some of the stock pieces we are going to coat are the exhaust heat shield (satin black ceramic on the outside), the fuse box cover in chrome and the engine cover in chrome. This will give the engine compartment a nice touch of customizing while retaining the factory parts. The stock air intake system could also be done in chrome for those owners who don't want or like the louder sound a performance intake will give you.

Back to the exhaust manifold and aluminum head. The EGR appears to be integrated into the manifold flange (internal) as compared to older cars where an EGR tube is used to go from the intake manifold to the exhaust manifold. Nice and easy but definitely more expensive when it comes to the header flange. There are several openings and ports in the stock exhaust gasket not used on this engine in this car. Therefore, there appears to be lots of extra meat in the heads to open the exhaust ports. The ports are a rectangular shape with radiused ends. In our opinion they are on the small side for a 2.4 Liter engine. The exhaust manifold and gasket ports are actually a little larger than the ports in the head. We estimate the stock ports to be 1 1/2" (round tube), but no problem using a 1 5/8" primary tube. Unless major, I mean MAJOR, porting was done to the head there is no practical reason a 1 3/4" primary tube would, or should, ever be used. In a nutshell, a supercharged 2.4 with 1 5/8" primary tubes would be a nice combination. Port the heads and there should be even more power to be had from the same combo.

OK, that's my lesson for today. In closing I'll tell you all this; once I had the heatshield/manifold/cat converter off in such a VERY short time, and without busting a single knuckle, I was ready to call my wife for a night of fun, if you catch my drift.

To be somewhat graphic, yeah, I got sexual aroused.

	Devil Dog Supporting Tuner Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Seattle, WA	Thanks for the positive feedback guys. I am going to wait until I am signed on as a supporting vendor to post pictures. I just don't have the time to screw around up-loading pictures to another site, etc, etc... I have taken lots of pictures. Here's my free learning curve info for you guys: when removing the stock exhaust manifold, your tendency will be to lean on the vent to your left or the top of the fuse box, don't do either as there is a very good chance of cracking the vent for sure, and possibly the fuse box. Over-all the stock exhaust manifold is a piece of cake to remove. It has the best bolt access I have ever seen. It came out with the cat converter in place, then from below, remove one bolt and the converter falls out. There is SOOO much room on the passenger side of the engine a small person could probably manage to crawl through from the top to the bottom. It took me 30 minutes to remove the heat shield (3 nuts), the exhaust manifold (10 nuts) and the cat converter (3 nuts, 1 bolt). Using basic hand tools. What does this mean for the "do-it-yourselfer"? It means there is absolutely no reason to take the car to a shop for a header install if you are willing to get the car on stands and crawl under. or, if taken to a shop, from the moment the hood is opened to when it is closed, it should take no more than 1 1/2 hours to remove the factory equipment and install a set of headers with hi-flow converter. (It will take more time to install a custom headpipe from converter to stock exhaust). Now, up front behind the grill inserts there was enough room for my partner to fit his welding helmet, probably 3 side by side if we tried. Some of the stock pieces we are going to coat are the exhaust heat shield (satin black ceramic on the outside), the fuse box cover in chrome and the engine cover in chrome. This will give the engine compartment a nice touch of customizing while retaining the factory parts. The stock air intake system could also be done in chrome for those owners who don't want or like the louder sound a performance intake will give you. Back to the exhaust manifold and aluminum head. The EGR appears to be integrated into the manifold flange (internal) as compared to older cars where an EGR tube is used to go from the intake manifold to the exhaust manifold. Nice and easy but definitely more expensive when it comes to the header flange. There are several openings and ports in the stock exhaust gasket not used on this engine in this car. Therefore, there appears to be lots of extra meat in the heads to open the exhaust ports. The ports are a rectangular shape with radiused ends. In our opinion they are on the small side for a 2.4 Liter engine. The exhaust manifold and gasket ports are actually a little larger than the ports in the head. We estimate the stock ports to be 1 1/2" (round tube), but no problem using a 1 5/8" primary tube. Unless major, I mean MAJOR, porting was done to the head there is no practical reason a 1 3/4" primary tube would, or should, ever be used. In a nutshell, a supercharged 2.4 with 1 5/8" primary tubes would be a nice combination. Port the heads and there should be even more power to be had from the same combo. OK, that's my lesson for today. In closing I'll tell you all this; once I had the heatshield/manifold/cat converter off in such a VERY short time, and without busting a single knuckle, I was ready to call my wife for a night of fun, if you catch my drift. To be somewhat graphic, yeah, I got sexual aroused.