VtecSyndrome

Well after lots of searching way before finally buying my 4-1 ITR header I just never found good info on what or how much of what was needed to make this header fit on my '89 CRX DX with a b16. I know there are a lot of guys out there with this same setup or who plan to get this setup soon so I figured I would document what I had to do to make this fit. I am planning a B20/vtec soon and figured I would knock out this purchase now to spread out the cost of my build and I wanted to go ahead and check ground clearance issues now with the B16 instead of being screwed later with the bigger bottom end and no choice to switch back to B16 header if needed. I hear alot of people say how this header is not as good for a stock B16 which I can understand but with my mild port and polish w/ itr cams I swear the butt dyno tells me VERY good things, I am still pretty torque-less of course but vtec pulls soo much harder now (or at least in my mind ,lol). Well on with the pics and steps I needed to take to fit this.

Whats needed:
*4-1 header of your choice (fitment and clearance may range from brand to brand)
*adjustable test pipe w/ 2.5 inch flange
*2.5 exhaust gasket from acura
* (2) 2.5 exhaust clamps from any parts store
*hacksaw for cutting crossmember
*Sledge hammer for pounding out crossmember
*Something to cut or grind rad fan shroud
*Obd 1 conversion, due to single o2 hole or extending OBD 0 o2 sensors if ness.
*o2 sensor socket or 22mm wrench and mics 10mm,12mm and 14mm sockets and wrenches for everything else
*Note: I reused my exhaust gasket since these OEM ones hold up so well so if you want to replace yours so be it, I have never had a problem reusing them.


Here it is brand new out of the box, puuurrrttttyy. My choice was Strup because A good friend of mine has one and I just love how it looks after its heated up plus the fact I could not beat the price for a quality ITR replica in polished SS w/ a full 2 year warranty.





The biggest problem I had was a horrible job on the flange holes, no telling how this happened but you can see how out of whack the lower holes are. Luckily I was able to drill out the holes w/o too much effort because I REALLY did not want to have to wait for a replacement not to mention after seeing how smashed my B16 header was due to a huge rock in the road i did not want to reinstall it at all. I would not let these picture deter anybody from this brand because I have seen quite few of these and never even heard of this problem before so just my luck



and here is the death blow to my former header



Say good bye!


Here it is finally bolted in place after fixing the holes and removing the crossmember, had I known the radiator fan was going to rub I would have removed it to begin with as well so save yourself some time and go ahead and remove it before test fitting




Here is a pic of the part number for the jdm 2.5 exhaust gasket you'll need from Acura


and here is the test pipe I went with, 2.5 inch Omni power 3 piece sectional. I used some exhaust clamps to go ahead and hold it in place though I may still have it welded just cause the clamps look pretty ghetto even if they are underneath the car.


These were just the best way for me since I don't weld.


Here you can see the small lip on the flange going to the exhaust and since I spent all that time port matching my motor I figured why stop there?






These are the bits I used to grind the pipe


Here is the middle piece that I cut about 2 1/4 inches out of to make it the right length to bolt up


and here it is all bolted up underneath


I told you it looked ghetto! but it gets the job done for sure.


Kind of a weird angle it has when all bolted up


and here is the spot I thought may leak but so far so good


And now that it's all bolted in place it's time to modify the crossmember w/o sacrificing to much rigidity. you can see where it rubs w/o any cutting and keep in mind my car has never been wrecked so this is how it will fit on yours to if your car has never been hit up front. This was pretty straight forward as I just held it in place and used a sharpie to mark where to cut with the hacksaw. then all I did was cut three lines in the pinch weld and used a 4lb sledge to roll the metal around the bottom side of the X-member and it actually went very smooth and did not take as much work as I thought I may.





You can see where the hack saw marks are, this made it much easier to bend w/o too much effort and risking distorting the crossmember possibly from to many hammer whacks, this method only required 10-15 total blows to get it perfect




All done, clean (sort of) and simple.



Much better! all the clearance I need and w/o HAVING to buy a traction bar, though I still want one in the future





The last and easiest step was cutting the fan shroud a little bit, you can pretty much see in the pics how much I had to take of for clearance but I have a radiator from my previous '92 GSR so an OEM civic rad may possibly give you a little more room, pretty sure it wont though.




That's pretty much it for the custom work needed, the rest of the pics show the ever feared ground clearance issues these present when installed...can't believe I was never able to find these before my install. My car is sitting on Skunk2 coilovers so I don't know the exact drop on it but I included a pic of the front wheel well to show the level I drive at every day, It's really not as bad as I thought but I also don't drive dirty slammed in this car so that really helps.

this angle makes my car look a little higher than it is because it is actually is fairly low compared to stock.






and a few shots parked on the road



and last but not least...my favorite part of the whole header. the finish it gets after heating up!



You can pm me with any questions if you want, either way I really hope this provides the needed info a lot of other CRXers need out there cause god knows I did not have it. I also assume this would be the same for 4drs and HBs but I can't confirm that.


Modified by VtecSyndrome at 8:25 PM 1/16/2008


Modified by VtecSyndrome at 8:49 PM 1/16/2008

CRX Toad

hellajdm333

how much was this? and were you get it??? thanks man

k20rex

nice write up

umm i just noticed this old and probally in faq someone brought it back from dead, sorry for posting in it

grunny

who makes this header

Grahambo02

This is a very old thread, but I just wanted to post up and thank the OP for the details of what he did for his CRX. Good insights for a similar challenge (crappy header) that I have with my LS/Vtec EF.

whited

I'm sure OP will check in on his 8 year old thread every once in a while. Thanks for the feedback.