gofisch

I was quoted $600 does this seem right? Please don't suggest I do it myself, I can change an air filter, bulbs and my oil, but I'm pretty much done after that. Although I did change an intake manifold once.

Lenin

At $100 an hour, that is 6 hours. Should be more like 3-4 hours.

gofisch

I was thinking it was high. He said he was going by the manifold replacement guide, which makes sense since thats basically what they are doing.

tw2

Sounds a bit high but it isn't an easy job by any means. A lot of the nuts/bolts are seized and access is terrible. Does the cost include new gaskets and nuts? They should ideally be replaced with the header swap.

93Corrado

My shop charged $525 in labor to install my Kleeman headers.

gofisch

Gaskets I believe will be with the new headers. Have to check on the nuts. I'm debating whether the costs are in line with the sound and gains I will be getting.

tw2

What headers are they? I would only use stock gaskets not aftermarket ones. If they are shorties then you won't get more than a few HP at redline. The bottleneck is the manifold to downpipe join. Only mid or long tube headers will take care of that. You will likely still pick up some decent gains in the mid range.

gofisch

I'm actually contemplating doing cat back first.

tw2

Apart from getting rid of that join you will mainly gain noise, the stock exhaust flows pretty well in general.

Rocman8

The price seems fair. What is their labor rate? If you are just going for sound then best bang for the buck will be removing the secondary cats, resonator, install x pipe and run true dual exhaust all the way to the factory mufflers.

ProjectC55

Best gains are done by increasing pipe diameter to 3 inches or go true dual exhaust with either 2.5 inch or 3 inch pipe before and after the x pipe. Headers would be last. The stock system is heavy very very heavy and will be more restrictive vs using a larger diameter exhaust.

Smokey31

Wouldn't bother with shorty headers, only worth it if your going downpipes as well, get rid of the primaries.

gofisch

Scrapped the Header idea onto the Cat back. LOL

jvakos

6 hours seems high for labor if those are Eurocharged Shorty Headers.

mine were installed with 3.5 hours of labor, plus had my PLM heat exchanger installed for 1.5 hours. my indy shop rate was around 100 an hour and did a super job.

get another opinion maybe...

gofisch

That was the general opinion. I've decided to the cat-back route first.

ProjectC55

Shop around man for a good price I would google custom exh shops in the area. I would imagine prices could range between 400.00 to 1k depending on what needs to be provided and what needs to be made.(stainless steel piping, mandrel bends).