Excuse my lack of mechanical knowledge on this subject but the part that I will refer to as "headers" may actually be the exhaust manifold but I'm not positive. In layman's terms, the four pipes hiding beneath the heat shield plating. Engine noob here, but I'm trying to learn bit by bit.

Anyway, I was just tinkering around my engine bay and decided to take off the heat plating over my stock headers to see what it looked like underneath. As you would expect, after taking out the four bolts, I found my worn and rusted pipes beneath. I quickly covered their shame with the plating but soon began to wonder if there was something I could do to keep that covering off and make them more presentable.

I looked up videos and details describing how to polish them up. Perfect, I thought. There's something more I can do to take s'more pride of ownership in my tC.

At work we have a bead blaster...

TLDR: Could I take my stock headers off to bead blast most of that rust and crud off with ease?

Would that be advisable for the mechanically inept such as myself?

or

Should I just wet sand by hand, without dissecting things, and polish from there?

Again, I apologize for what may likely be an easy question. Learning experience!

 

ooooor u can just get a aftermarket header super cheap thats already polished. imho the stock manifold would still look like poop no matter what u do.

 

I heard about rasp with aftermarket headers and have CARB to worry about, although the rolling patrols with the mobile dynos seemed to have died down in the past couple months.

Any recommendations for something that sounds low and growly? I'm always open for more research and options.

 

i had dc headers and even with a 2.5 in exhaust it some how wasn't raspy at all very low crubble, i had cc's custom exhaust with magnaflow resonator and borla exhaust...

 

dont bother sanding or bead blasting just get the aftermarket headers i think dc is carb legal??? correct me if im wrong...

 

Paint or polish the header heat shield. Problem solved.

 

From what I've read no header is CARB legal because it would delete the first cat.

 

i think dc makes them 50 state legal

 

There is no such thing as a carb legal header for the tc1, period.

It deletes the first/main catalytic converter making it illegal for carb.

Just paint/polish the heat shield, makes a world of difference

 

Looks like painting will be for me then. Since theres not much I can do because of CARB I'll forgo the function+ and stick with form. Time to find my FM color scheme and start decking her out bit by bit.

Thanks for the protips guys.