New to this forum owner of a lightly modified '02 ES

[Sleezer1533]

Hey guys, Ive been a member of Mazdas247 for a while and came across this forum the other say so I figured I would join.

Here is my car:

[me109]

Welcome.

Car looks good. What sort of light modifications does it have?

[Sleezer1533]

AEM short ram intake, BBP 4-1 headers, MSP dual-cat midpipe, Performance muffler, Rockford fosgate audio system, and you can see all the exterior stuff of course

[me109]

What's the advantage of dual cats?

Most people I know would like to get rid of the one they have, not add another one. But then I don't know much about all these newfangled 'emission control' things.

Oh yeah, post some engine bay pics too.

[Sleezer1533]

Well originally I gutted the stock midpipe ... but that in combo with the header made the car sound rhaspy and ricey as hell. I got the dual-cat to pass emissions but noticed that it quieted the rhasp from the header ALOT, so Im sticking with this setup till I can figure out something better

Here are a couple shots from before the painted valve cover:





and this one is after, however, it isnt a great pic. I still need to get a good pic of how it all looks

[me109]

Hmm, that's good to know. I like your valve cover. Looks good.

[Sleezer1533]

Thanks man, the gasket was leaking and needed to be replaced, so I figured why not lol

[Kris]

welcome to cp are those 1st gen mudflaps looks good.

[Sleezer1533]

Nah they are for the 3rd, just some ebay specials I found, supposed to be "JDM" lol

[Sleezer1533]

Wrapped and coated the header today.









... and a video of the smoking header at first startup. Holy smoke batman!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pp84rXsh4e4

UPDATE:
So I took her for a spin, had to come home after about 10 mins cuz the header was smoking so bad it looked like the car was on fire due to all the smoke coming from the bay area.
Also, the header lines up even worse with the midpipe and sounds like complete ass ... major exhaust leak. I hope Ken gets on his **** and gets my SLS midpipe here quick. It should line up better b/c of the flex joint at the flange

[deadly_sleeper]

Why didn't you wrap the whole thing? It's a good idea, but you need to follow through with it. If you do the whole thing it will help with exhaust gas flow and drop engine temperatures even more than what you have already done. Not to mention, the spot that you missed is right next to the oil pan. Looking good so far, keep it up.

[Sleezer1533]

Yea I ran out of wrap, doh! lol. Plus I was doing it more for sound suppression rather than heat suppression

[Sleezer1533]

Update on the "asstacular" sounding exhaust leak.

I completely disconnected everything (header from the block, egr tube, header from midpipe, and midpipe from back portion of exhaust)
Then connected the midpipe to the header using some spacers so I could really crank things up tight
Then reconnected everything back up
= no more exhaust leak and everything is back to normal. Unfortunately that also means the rattle came back too for whatever reason ... grrr

[Ace]

a rattle could be your cat.

[Sleezer1533]

Hmm well if it is then it wont be a problem for long since Ive got a catless midpipe on the way