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Disconnect power from the battery.
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Loosen both front wheels.
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Jack up front of vehicle and support with two jack stands on the frame
rail.
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Remove 13/16” nuts from wheel, put lug nuts and wheel to the side.
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Remove cotter pin from bolt holding steering linkage to A arm and remove
¾” crown nut.
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Disconnect steering linkage from A arm, may require slight tap on top of
ball joint loosen (be careful not to hit the threads).
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If you have a sway bar up front disconnect linkage to A arms and remove
four bolts holding the bracket to the frame.
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Remove the small 12-point bolt holding the ABS sensor in place.
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Remove the short 7/8” nut holding the bracket for the ABS sensor wire
and move out of the way.
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Loosen (2) 12mm bolts holding brake caliper in place.
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Support the brake caliper out of the way while temporarily.
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Remove the brake pads and bracket holding them in place.
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Remove the (2) 15mm bolts holding the caliper mount to the spindle.
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Remove rotor and place to the side.
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Use the floor jack to support the bottom of the A arm.
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If you have lowered springs in the car then skip this step. Use some
chain to feed through a portion of the springs and through the factory K-member.
This will retain the spring in place in case it pops out.
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Remove (2) 9/16” nuts and (1) 9/16” bolt holding caster camber plate
in place.
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Slowly lower the jack down and guide the strut out of the fender well.
Once clear and the jack most of the way down the spring should be lose and have
no tension on it. If it does then make sure there is a chain holding it down. It
may take a pry bar to get the spring out of the pocket.
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Next remove the (2) 7/8 nuts holding the strut in place. You’ll need a
15/16 wrench here to hold the bolt in place
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Now either using zip ties or a bungee cord strap the brake caliper to
through the holes in the strut tower. This will keep it high and out of the way
for the rest of this install.
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Go to the other side of the car and repeat steps 4-20.
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Remove the two long bolts/nuts holding the steering rack to the front of
the stock K-member.
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Find the coupler that holds the steering rack to the steering shaft on
the driver side. Remove the 13mm bolt that holds these two together.
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Slide the steering shaft upwards to separate it from the steering rack.
This may require a slight tap with a mallet for this to slide up.
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Now you should be able to pry the steering rack off of the stock
K-member, this may take some shimmying and prying just be careful of what you
pry against. Once loose find two bungee cords or sections of rope to tie it up
and out of the way. I had two bungee cords routed through the top of the hood
latch to keep it up front by the radiator. You don’t want this hanging low.
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Remove the (2) 7/8 nuts from the motor mounts. Don’t worry the motor is
still resting on the K-member.
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Move the floor jack under the motor with the piece of wood on the cradle
and with the handle facing the rear end. Raise the jack up till it’s square on
the oil pan and you can visually see the motor move up, free of the K-member.
You don’t have to raise the motor you just want to make sure the jack is
supporting the weight and it is square so it won’t fall off.
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Using a small piece of rope or bungee cord support the A arm up so it
doesn’t hit the ground.
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Remove the (4) 11/16 bolts at the back of the K-member.
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Using the other floor jack support the bottom of the K-member.
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Remove the (4) ¾ bolts (two on each side) of the K-member, be careful
this is all that is holding the K-member in place. I used a large wide piece of
wood to go across the entire K-member for support.
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Slowly lower the jack down making sure nothing is attached to the
K-member and pull it out and away from under the car.
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Using a piece of 2x4 and the skill saw cut it down so that it fits just
under the lip of the oil pan. Or if you have a jack stand that is tall enough
use it in the same location. This is just a precaution the motor itself is fully
supported by the floor jack.
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Spray liquid wrench on all of the stock nuts holding the exhaust manifold
in place and EGR tube on the drive side and wait 10 minutes.
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Remove the (4) 15mm nuts holding the intermediate pipe to the stock
manifolds (using liquid wrench on these nuts can help as well).
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Remove the (4) O2 sensors (2 front and 2 rear) from the intermediate pipe
using a 15/16” wrench.
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Remove (4) nuts/bolts holding the intermediate pipe to the
catback.
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Slide intermediate pipe out of the way.
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On the passenger side remove the (3) bolts holding the motor mount in
place.
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Remove the (2 or 3) 12mm bolts holding the starter in place. Our cars use
3 bolts but most shops that work on our cars leave out the top bolt, which is a
nightmare to get to with the stock K-member in place.
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Remove the (8) 12mm nuts holding the passenger side stock manifold in
place and remove.
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Inspect the stock exhaust gasket and if it looks burned then replace
otherwise they are re-useable.
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Carefully guide the passenger side header into place. It’s not too bad
with everything out of the way but to keep from scratching the header isn’t
easy.
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Once in place begin placing the nuts on each of the studs. The majority
of them can be put on with a socket wrench but 2-3 requires an open-ended
wrench.
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After all nuts are on and tightened down re-install the starter using the
(2 or 3) bolts.
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Next re-install the motor mount using the (3) bolts.
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Now move on to the driver side and remove all (8) 12mm nuts holding the
manifold in place.
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Remove the EGR fitting where it connects to the stock manifold. Once
it’s disconnected pull the exhaust manifold off of the motor.
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Inspect the stock exhaust gasket and if it looks burned then replace
otherwise they are re-useable.
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Carefully guide the driver side header into place while guiding the
steering shaft through the headers. It’s pretty obvious where it belongs by
looking at the angle it would have to meet with the steering rack.
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Once in place begin placing the nuts on each of the studs. Most of them
can be put on with a socket but 3-4 of them have to be done with an open ended
wrench.
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Make sure all nuts are torqued down properly.
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Tighten down the EGR tube into the provision on the headers.
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Install the (4) studs in the longtube collector if it hasn’t already
been done. This can be done with vise grips.
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Line up the new shorty intermediate X pipe onto the headers and
catback.
You may need to use a floor jack to support it.
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Tighten up the (4) 11/16 nuts on the header side and (4) 9/16 nuts/bolts
on the catback side.
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Measure the length for how long the O2 sensor wires need to be and
solider in new wire to lengthen them. Make sure to keep each wire together do
not cut them all at once. Or if you bought longer pre-made wires go to the next
step.
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Next install (2) front O2 sensors and new lengthened or longer wires into
headers.
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Tie strap rear O2’s out of the way as there is no provision for them in
the VRS O/R X shorty pipe.
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On the stock K-member remove the cotter pins in the ball joints
connecting the A arm to the spindle.
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Using a breaker bar and a 15/16 socket remove the nut holding the spindle
to the A arm.
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Remove spindle from A arm, may require hammering to loosen.
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Remove (4) nuts/bolts holding the factory A arms onto the stock K-member.
These are needed for the new set up.
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Remove 15/16 nut holding hardware to strut top. This may be different
based on the strut you are using. This is based on using Lakewood 70/30 struts.
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With either a friend of jack stands place the new K-member up close to
the stock mounting locations.
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Put in one stock bolt up front to hold in place.
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Move to the other side and do the same. Now the K-member should be
supported by these two bolts.
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Put the other 2 front bolts in loosely.
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Put in the (2) rear bolts (2 on each side) and keep them loose.
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Now tighten all bolts and look for any clearance issues.
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At this point if any clearance issues are apparent mark the K-member
where it should be ground down and remove if not move on to the next step. If
grinding the K-member isn’t an option due to location of the rubbing then
large washers can be used to shim the motor up to create clearance. This isn’t
always needed but not all headers and K-members fit 100% so some minor
modification may be needed.
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Make sure all (8) main bolts holding the K-member in place are torqued
down.
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Remove the piece of wood supporting the front of the motor and lower the
jack so that the motor is resting against the new K-member.
-
Double check for any clearance issues and put the (2) 7/8 nuts to hold
the motor mounts in place.
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Place the A arm into position (with sway bar mount facing forward) and
use stock hardware to bolt in place. On the front bolt make sure the nut is
threaded from the inside or facing the rear of the car. If the threaded portion
of the bolt is facing forward it will hit the steering rack.
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The rear A arm bolt only goes one way facing the rear.
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Repeat steps 16 and 17 for other side.
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Remove the bungee cords or rope holding the steering rack in place and
guide into place.
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Slide the top of the steering rack into the steering shaft.
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Use the (2) supplied bolts and washers on the front of the steering rack
to hold in place.
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Once the rack is secured tighten down the 13mm bolt holding the steering
shaft onto the steering rack.
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Place the appropriate spindle on the correct A and tighten down crown
nut. It may require placing a few large washers on the ball joint for the crown
nut to be at the correct height.
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Tighten down crown nut and place cotter pin in ball joint.
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Repeat steps 23 and 24 on other side.
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If you have Lakewood struts they need to be modified to fit a coil over
sleeve. Follow the supplied directions to give enough clearance. What I did was
use a grinder to smooth down the outside of the dust cap instead of drill out
the spot welds.
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Install your strut onto the spindle using the stock 15/16” bolt and
7/8” nut.
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Remove the tie straps or bungee cord holding the brake caliper in place
and move to the side.
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Place the top piece of the caster camber plate on the top of the strut
tower and the lower piece feed through the bottom. Finger tighten the three
bolts to keep it in place.
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Place the bushing sleeve over the top of the strut.
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Slide the coil over sleeve onto the strut, followed by the spring.
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Next place the cap, bearings and washers on the top of the coil over and
guide into the strut tower.
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Using a floor jack under the A arm jack it up into the fender well and
guide it into the opening in the caster camber plate.
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Once it goes through place the necessary washers and 15/16” nut to hold
it in place and tighten down.
-
Now the spring may have slack in it if the adjuster is all the way down
what I did was move the adjuster all the way up till there was tension on the
spring.
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Tighten up the three nuts on the caster camber plate to keep them in
place for now.
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Place the end of the steering linkage into spindle and place ¾” crown
nut and tighten down.
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Now place the cotter pin in ball joint.
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Re-install the ABS sensor in the back of the spindle and tighten down 7mm
bolt.
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Re-install the ABS wire bracket onto the strut using 7/8” nut.
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Put rotor back onto spindle and bolt on caliper bracket using 15mm bolts.
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Make sure brake pads are on and lined up then slide caliper back on and
tighten down 12mm bolts.
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If you have a front sway bar then re-install the stock brackets to the
frame and attach linkage to the new provisions on the A arm.
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Put wheel back on and tighten down 13/16” lug nuts.
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Repeat steps 26 through 44 on other side.
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Go through everything you touched on the car to make sure that you
didn’t miss anything. Double check everything.
-
Using the jack raise the car and remove the jack stands, slowly lower the
car to the ground to see how the stance is with the coil overs. Adjust as
necessary, adjustment is as simple and jacking up the car and turning the
adjustment ring up for higher and down to lower. To keep it even I just count
the number of threads from the bottom for each side.
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Open the hood and on the passenger side look for the A/C line that sits
low by the header. If it is at all close it must be moved up or it will burn. To
move there is a small plastic bracket with clip in it that will have to popped
out. Once it popped out you can simply pull back on the line…easy now. What I
did was tie strap it on the top of the line to hold it back from touching the
header.
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Last thing to do is alignment. An alignment shop will be the best bet but
you need to get the car close first, which could require you to move the caster
camber plates out or in and adjusting the toe in or toe out on the steering
rack.
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Start the car and let it idle for a few minutes. You will start to smell
the header coating burning in, yes it stinks but it’s unavoidable. This smell
may last a while too not just the first time you start up the car, mine took
about a 1 week for it to completely stop smelling.
