May 20th, 2024 - Install Fujitsubo Super EX Exhaust Manifold in Honda CR-X EF8 SiR

May 20th, 2024 - Install Fujitsubo Super EX Exhaust Manifold in Honda CR-X EF8 SiR

Christmas 2021 I finally pulled the trigger on something I'd wanted for a while... A Fujitsubo Super EX header. In 2022 I decided to wait to install it until after the CR-X came back from the body shop and it did come back, but without the body work completed (long story about staffing shortages, and supply chain woes - typical post-COVID stuff). Was toying with the idea of installing it last fall but the near electrical fire left me weary of doing any work on the car. This spring, however, my desire re-kindled (no pun intended). 

I began by raising the CR-X as high as my jack would allow, which was sufficient to allow my fat ass underneath to remove and reinstall the header. Sadly, it wasn't high enough to get me all the way under to get the catalytic converter off, so that mini-project will have to wait until later when I can get to a rent-a-bay repair center that has a hoist.

Once in the air, I surveyed the parts. Luckily the corrosion seemed to be limited to just some surface rust and nothing truly seized on (God, I love this car for that...)

I began in the engine bay by trying to remove the heat shield for the OEM manifold, promptly cutting myself on the very first turn of the wrench for this project. I was really hoping that this wouldn't be an indication of things to come.

I got the heat shield unbolted, but was unable to free it from between the rad/AC fans and the engine. I thought it best to start from underneath in case there was a way to slip it out from the underside. I really didn't want to drain the coolant and remove the fans. 

I gathered some tools, mostly 14 and 12mm sockets, 3 and 6" extensions, some 12 and 14mm wrenches (regular, stubby and ratcheting) and my electric impact in case things got difficult. My first removal was the small pipe just off the catalytic converter. 

The lower pipe that runs under the oil pan was a bit more challenging, and required the use of the impact gun. The 1/2" drive extension and sockets were too large to get to one of the nuts, and while I had a 3/8" impact reducer and a 3/8" impact extension, I only had 14mm 3/8" deep impact socket, and that was too large. 

About five days later, Amazon came through and I had the 14mm 3/8" impact socket I needed. Worked like a charm. Pulled the studs out too but I don't care since I won't be re-using the OEM manifold and only keeping it in a box so the car can be restored someday if I (or the next guardian of the car) wants to.

With the lower pipe removed, I decided to test fit my Spoon Sports heat tape. I bought it in 2006 and never removed it from the packaging. I wanted to see how the condition of the glue, and see how it would go on and whether I'd need more than once piece, stuff like that. Apparently, 18 year old adhesive doesn't stand the test of time, and I soon realized that I would need another piece, and I learned that one piece would suffice. 

Why do I feel the need for heat tape? I was reading the instructions years ago for another brand of header I had my eye on and it mentioned that engine bay temperatures could be hotter since the aftermarket header doesn't employ the additional heat shielding that the OEM does. I translated the Fujitsubo instructions and it says the same thing. 

Since one of the additional side jobs of oil is to help keep internal parts cool, it makes sense, at least to me anyways, to want to keep the oil pan a little cooler in the absence of those OEM heat shields. And the heat tape doesn't cost that much; I think straight from Spoon it was only about 2110¥ or about $20 Canadian. It took about 7-10 days from the date of purchase for the tape to arrive from Japan. 

What ever happened to "overnight parts from Japan"?? haha

Protip: Wear eye protection! I have safety glasses and wore them whenever I was under the car working but I managed to get some debris in my eye while simply taking some pictures under the car for Instagram and this blog... not even working on it. I wear prescription glasses and it still made it through. I was kicking myself for being so careless. Luckily I had an eye wash cup and was able to flush out the three small pieces using some warm water while my wife whipped up a saline rinse with a recipe she found on a first-aid site online. My eye was red for a few hours and I've had no issues since. 

Back to the job at hand, I realized that with the lower pipe removed, there was no way the heat shield was coming off through the bottom; there simply wasn't enough clearance between the engine and the front crossmember/subframe. The radiator fan at minimum, and possibly the AC fan and radiator itself, had to be removed. 

With the radiator fan and the upper radiator mounts removed, the heat shield and upper manifold came right out. Had to loosen some brackets holding the AC pipes but not the pipes themselves, so no draining of the AC Freon was needed. There was enough wiggle to the pipes with the brackets loosened that it was a fairly easy to remove the manifold and shield.

The engine block was filthy, it looks like there's some sort of leak near the AC compressor, which would explain my lack of AC for the past few seasons. It's time for a recharge and a switch from R12 to R134a anyways. I did a bit of cleaning but it was clear that this would take a major shampoo of the engine bay to get the bulk of the grime off, something I didn't really have time for in this project. 

The oxygen sensors came right out of the manifold without issue and I made sure to note the location of each. 

The other thing I needed to remove from the manifold was the bracket that bolts to the engine block. I noticed the bolt to the block was missing when I was removing the manifold, and I was worried it was perhaps sheared off in the hole, but luckily it was simply missing. 

The bolt holding the bracket to the side of the manifold was there but it was rusted in place so badly that even my impact gun couldn't remove it. I wasn't too keen on torching or cutting it out and I started researching my options online. I read some reviews online of the WD-40 Rust Penetrant and decided to give it a try. A few quirts on the bolt and 10-15mins later, my impact gun removed the bolt with hardly any effort. It was like it had been tightened with a simple ratchet. Amazing stuff!

I ordered a tap to check and clean/repair the threads for the hole on the engine block since the Fujitsubo re-uses that bracket, and ordered some replacement bolts and washers from Honda. I sent the bracket to the powder-coating shop to get cleaned up and waited about a week to get it back. 

With everything out, I did a quick comparison of the OEM exhaust manifold gasket to the Fujitsubo header gasket and they were almost identical. I'm still going to try and get a spare hardware kit from Fujitsubo when all is said and done, so I can make sure if I need anything, I will always have it on-hand as opposed to measuring threads and hitting up hardware stores or bolt supply shops. 

One thing I went back and forth on several times was whether to re-use the original exhaust manifold studs or not. The manifold came off without any issues and the studs were in great shape, with only a little bit of corrosion at the tips of them where the OEM lock nuts didn't quite cover. If I chose to remove them, I ran the risk of snapping a few off in the head. A minimal risk, to be sure, but still a risk nonetheless. 

According to the shop manual, the nuts should be replaced when removing the exhaust manifold, and I priced them out from Honda at about $100 Canadian for all nine. A set of ARP header studs with nuts was $170 from Amazon, and I had a $50 Amazon gift card burning a hole in my pocket. Knowing ARP's reputation for quality and the fact they look cool, it was a no-brainer. I'd seen online that other people had installed the same Super EX header using the OEM studs and lock nuts so I ordered the OEM length kit 400-8022 (M8x1.25 thread, 38mm length).

Unfortunately, when I ordered them I selected the wrong shipping and they were projected to arrive in 3 weeks time! I was not happy, but lesson learned. Luckily, they only took about 12 days to arrive, but since this wasn't planned in advance, work on the whole header project kinda stalled while I was waiting for them to come in. Really happy that they didn't take the full 3 weeks.

While waiting for the studs to arrive, I removed the old studs from the head. No issues and no breakage! I did ruin the threads on a few with the vice grips taking the double nuts off from the removal process, but again, I won't be reusing them so I don't really care.

Then I got to work cleaning the oil pan in preparation for the heat tape install. I hit it up with alternating Simple Green and Brake Clean, making sure to not get any near the gasket seat in case the chemicals ate away at the rubber oil pan gasket or something. Of the ways I did this was to spray some on a paper towel and stick it to the oil pan so it soaked into what little baked on oil/grease/grime that had accumulated, agitating with a soft-bristled brush after the paper towel was removed. Managed to get almost all of it off with two rounds of cleaning, then wiped everything down with some rubbing alcohol on a white terrycloth towel to remove any residue before attaching the heat tape the next day.

I installed the recently powder-coated bracket to the engine block using the new OEM bolt and washer, not tightening down the bolt until the header was fully installed. 

I also ordered some additional hardware from Honda to attach the header pipe to the catalytic converter, and the lower pipe to the bracket near the oil pan. 

When the ARP studs arrived, I did a quick test-fit to make sure, and it seemed that the supplied washer didn't leave a lot of thread left on the stud for the nut to grab onto. I was also reading conflicting reports online about whether or not to use any anti-seize where the stud goes into the head, so I had to contact the experts: I called the ARP technical support line and explained what I was doing and asked the questions. 

I was told that the washers were decorative only, and they are not any sort of lock washer (I told the technician that I didn't think they were lock washers, unless they were using some sort of new-age physics I don't understand haha). He assured me that it was safe to omit them, and advised me to use the copper anti seize on both ends of the stud. 

I installed the oxygen sensors into the Fujitsubo header, and installed the supplied bracket that attaches to the OEM bracket on the side of the engine block. 

The ARP studs got installed in the head next, then  I installed the supplied gasket and lastly installed the No. 1 Pipe (as the instructions called it) to the head and secured it with a couple ARP nuts so it didn't slide off while I was working. The next day I began by applying the Kopr-Kote anti seize to the studs and securing the remaining nuts, tightening in a criss-cross pattern from the inside towards the outer edges, then repeating using a torque wrench set to 23ft/lbs. I lined up the bracket on the header to the bracket on the block and crawled underneath the car to tighten them down. 

Next was to install the small pipe (No. 3 Pipe, according to the instructions) to the catalytic converter using the new OEM hardware, minus nuts. Honda discontinued the nuts so I re-used the best of the two I had removed from the OEM pipe and used a tap to clean the threads as best I could. 

I also used two of the washers from the Fujisubo supplied hardware kit. 

Lastly, I slipped on the gasket to the No. 1 pipe and installed the No. 2 pipe and slid it over the bracket studs near the oil pan. I put some anti seize on the studs attached to the No.1 Pipe and attached the supplied nuts and lock washers. I installed the spring bolts and washers to the No.2 and No.3 pipes tightened everything finger tight to check fitment. 

This is where things get dicey... I couldn't find a torque spec in the Fujitsubo instructions for the 3 nuts/lock washers that attach the No.2 and No.1 pipes so I went with what I found in the OEM manual - 40ft/lbs. I think that was way too much. As I tightened the nuts using my torque wrench they tightened then became kinda loose again. Everything looks snug but I decided to stop there. I suppose if I damaged something, I'll need to remove and replace the studs someday but for now it's on and it's fitting tight with no leaks and I don't think there's any danger of the nuts coming loose and falling off. 

The rest went without issue: both the spring bolts between the No.2 and No.3 pipes and the No.3 to catalytic converter were torqued to 16ft/lbs. and looked good for fitment. 

I wiped down all the pipes with a clean terrycloth towel to make sure there was no anti seize residue or grease on them, reinstalled the radiator fan, and replaced/tightened all the brackets I'd removed top-side, including the oil dipstick. Finally, I added the coolant. It was time to start her up and see if I'd fucked anything up.

Other than her normal rattles after a cold start (usually happens for a few seconds after a months-long sleep), she sounded great. Still needs a valve adjustment, but more on that later. Couldn't hear any exhaust leaks and I was able to bleed the cooling system while she warmed up. 

I have a few more things to tidy up before dropping her back to the ground, but I can count the header install as complete on my long list of things to do on the CR-X! 

Before and After Pictures:

Remember, this blog was written in chronological order so, you will need to click OLDER POSTS to move forward in time, and click NEWER POSTS to go backwards.