Hey guys,

Happy New Year everyone! Back with another timelapse video and a How-To Guide.

**Please do at your own risk. I am definitely not a professional and any install should be taken at your own risk.

Over 50 hours of video broken out into 2 part timelapse.

Part 1 is the process of uninstalling everything to remove the manifolds.
Part 2 is realizing we have to uninstall the subframe and the process of installing everything back, tuning process, cold start-up (before and after), and shakedown test.

My friend and I upgraded the Aston with the power pack from Velocity AP. VAP Exhaust Manifolds VAP 200 Cell Cat VAP Stage 3 Tune.

I'm a visual learner and since there was not a video of the process, I tried my best to film and show little tips and tricks for someone else who is going to attempt this. If you are a reader then the below guide is a top-level (not as detailed as the video) how-to for you.

It's not a hard job, just time-consuming and some brainstorming. This video will be helpful for anyone attempting to replace exhaust manifolds and 200 Cell Cats, a clutch (as that requires LHS manifolds to be removed), starter replacement (as you have to remove the RHS manifolds), replacing motor mounts, replacing the subframe, or suspension work.

This was way harder than any other exhaust jobs and even clutches I've done because of how little access you have to the manifolds. We attempted to remove as little as possible to access the nuts on the manifolds but ultimately removed a lot. We ended up undoing the motor mounts, entire front subframe, suspension, and more to gain access.

Hope you enjoy the process. I didn't.

Part 1 Video

You Tube

Part 2 Video

You Tube

Step 1
Loosen lug nuts and jack up the car. I used Quick Jacks.
21 mm Deep Socket for Lug Nuts


Step 2
Remove fender liner. There is a T40 bolt near the jacking point, if you get that off without jacking the car up first, you can use a rachet and T40. If the car is already lifted then a combo of T40 and 5/16 can be used but will be much harder. (see video)
T30 / Phillips Screwdriver / 5/16" wrench with T40


Step 3
Unclip O2 Sensors (Carefully using flat head to unbuckle heatshield around sensor connector) then remove O2 sensors and then take Secondary Cats Off
7/8 wrench for O2 sensor/ 13mm socket for flange to header (22ft/lbs) and donut gaskets (15-17 ft/lbs) / various extensions and wobble joints/ T30 for H pipe flange






Step 4
Loosen Engine Mount to lift the engine to get manifolds off. May not need to do it, but in case you do.
15mm deep socket / wooden 2x4 block (something soft to place on engine block). Only need to lift very slightly. Be sure not to lift too much as the intake manifold will hit the top strut bar.

Step 5
Remove LHS and RHS Exhaust Manifolds. ***You may also have to remove the motor mount. (If you do, you have to replace the bolts (702210-PK) , cannot reuse)
13mm for motor mounts. Cannot reuse. Should place blue Loctite on threads before installation.
13mm socket (8 nuts on each manifold) deep and standard socket / various 13mm wrenches / various wobbles and extensions / S wrenches / E7 Socket for Manifold Studs (remove if necessary)




This is the driver-side motor mounts removed.




Step 6
Remove Heat Shield. We will use a 1" hole saw later to make room for the new O2 sensors. When the time comes, be sure to mark the new O2 sensor locations (see video)
4 10 mm bolts


Step 7
Reroute the new O2 sensors and O2 sensor extension (we only needed one extension) Be sure to wrap the connectors in the OEM heat shielding. New clips will be provided if you bought new O2 sensors. (or at least mine did)

Step 8
Install motor mounts with new bolts (702210-PK) if you pulled the mounts out to get more room to take headers out. If you feel you will not have enough room and you have to take the subframe out, stop do not install mounts until the subframe is out. Once you tighten you need to replace bolts again.
13 mm

Step 9
Reinstall Heat Shield. Test fit headers and cats and mark on the heat shield where to drill holes for the O2 sensors. Drill out new O2 sensor holes. *Trick run the hole saw in reverse to get a smooth finish (See video)
10mm bolts for heat shield / 1" hole saw

Step 10
At this point, some of you will be able to install the headers and get access to the nuts to tighten and torque to spec. I was not able to so for some of you, this step will be to reinstall headers. For me, I had to drop the subframe. FML

Drop Subrame. Secure the engine however best fits you with various 2x4 and blocks. Only remove the subframe when you feel as if the engine and other components are secure.
2 18mm and wrench for Front Sway Bar to Frame / 4 10mm Front Sway Bar to Subframe / 3 18mm PS Bolt / 18mm and 19mm for Rear Control Arm / 21mm for Front Control Arm / 15mm around Subframe to Frame / 15mm on Motor Mount (this should already be off if you had to lift your engine)

***Tip, be sure to mark your locations on the frame to subframe bolts and the control arm bolts for alignment purposes (see video). You will still need an alignment when this is complete.
***Tip, we secured each suspension component to the frame of the car so that it would not drop violently when the control arm was removed. We also had to secure the PS rack as that comes down with the subframe removal. (see video)








Step 11
Reinstall motor mounts if you haven't already with new bolts. (702210-PK)
Install new Exhaust Manifolds. Should have plenty of clearance now.
4 13mm bolts with Blue Loctite for Motor Mounts.
8 13mm nuts per side / various wobble and extensions / various 13mm wrenches / E7 socket if you removed studs



Step 12
Reinstall Subframe
2 18mm and wrench for Front Sway Bar to Frame / 4 10mm Front Sway Bar to Subframe / 3 18mm PS Bolt / 18mm and 19mm for Rear Control Arm / 21mm for Front Control Arm / 15mm around Subframe to Frame / 15mm on Motor Mount (this should already be off if you had to lift your engine)

Step 13
Install new 200 Cell Cats and O2 sensors
7/8 wrench for O2 sensor/ 13mm socket for flange to header (22ft/lbs) and donut gaskets (15-17 ft/lbs) / various extensions and wobble joints/ T30 for H pipe flange



Step 14
Load VAP Tune


Step 15
Start Car to ensure no Exhaust Leaks

Step 16
Install Fender Liner
T30 / Phillips Screwdriver / 5/16" wrench with T40

Step 17
Install Wheel
21 mm Deep Socket for Lug Nuts

Hope this was helpful for everyone. The car sounds and feels amazing and very fun to drive. More power, better throttle response, and glorious exhaust note.

Next, I'll be installing the X-Pipe to get a little higher pitch tone and more torque.

2022 I'll be focusing on aesthetics with suspension and wheel upgrades.

Have a wonderful year everyone.

 

Thank you Andrew for taking the time and effort to make those fabulous videos and extremely helpful tutorial.

I give you and your very talented friend much credit in tackling a large project like this. It was a much more difficult process (especially with the header exchange) than I thought it would be. If I tried this I would most likely end up at Trembling Hills Sanatorium. (visiting hour daily from 3 to 5 PM)

I wish you had a smile cam as I would have loved to see your smile/grin when all of the pops and bangs materialized.

I have a few questions.

After you dropped the sub-frame and steering components, will the Vantage require a four wheel alignment?

Did the instructions from VAP indicate how difficult a task it would be to exchange the headers?

If you had known the difficulty of exchanging the headers, would you have chosen to just do the secondary cat delete instead?

How many times did your wife shake her head or roll her eyes when she came out to check on your progress?

Thank you again Andrew & Friend for taking us along on this amazing project.

 

“After you dropped the sub-frame and steering components, will the Vantage require a four wheel alignment?”


Read the tips below step 10

 

Rob anytime I can lend a hand to support the community. Good to hear from you.

Perfect, thanks. There is a lot of verbiage in my write up so easy to glance over it.

 

Evening, I can take credit for being the "Friend", and the Porsche guy working on an Aston! We tackled this project a few months after tackling a clutch and full suspension on my 2009 Porsche 997.2, this was more difficult than that.

If you mark everything on the suspension, cam/ecentric bolts, subframe, etc. then in theory you dont have to get it aligned. However I would always recommend an alignment if you care about your tires after taking suspension components apart. Andrew's car drove great after we got it back together, but I haven't had a chance to look at the pre and post alignment specs to see how close we got it.

Andrew talked to a guy at VAP, and he jokingly told us it was a 3 day job for the uninitiated, which we were, and that he recommended dropping the subframe, we were stubborn and wanted to try it without dropping it, as it was a huge deal to remove it and support the engine. If I did it again the first thing I would do is drop the subframe and have limitless access to the bolts.

His wife shared her head a lot, almost got worried about her, but she is a real sport for the antics we get into...

Some other tips:

With the subframe, we used three jack stands for maximum stability, and I recommend loosening all of the bolts with a breaker bar by hand (avoid air tools here) before removing any bolts.

With the front lower control arms, those have to come out because there are 15mm bolts for the subframe behind them that can only be accessed if you remove the control arms.

With the heat shield, measure 3+ times, you can see the second set of holes, we measured twice, cut twice... Make sure the new headers are tight and then put the cats on and then mark. Also, put a piece of wood (2x4) under it as you drill to allow the center bit on the hole saw to have something to catch, and have a second person hold the heat shield. Like Andrew said, run the hole saw backward at high speed, and it will go through - if you run it forward it will tear the thin aluminum shield.

With the O2 sensor connectors, these are wrapped in a head shield, fabric like with snaps, be careful, the fabric likes to tear, and that snaps dont like to come apart. Use a small flat head screw driver to wedge then apart, and then just be careful.

Definitely strap the power steering it is heavy and the only thing supporting it is the subframe, also when reinstalling, out the long bolts in the power steering rack before raising up the subframe.

There is a secondary head shield on the passenger side that is attached to the factory header, this is no reused.

Before installing the new headers, go hand tighten all (16x) of the studs using the E bit, you want them all the way in before you install the new headers and reinstall the nuts, otherwise you have to tighten the studs and the nuts and make extra work.

Use socket extensions to your benefit to get 6 pt sockets on bolts, and avoid using open ended wrenches and 12 pt sockets. Best to have a 18" and 24" 3/8 set of extensions.

A pry bar and some screw drivers help to get the front suspension back together, that was a pain, use some WD40 or other lubricant to get it to slide back together.

When installing the O2 sensors, spin them counter clockwise about 4 times and then install them, it will unwind as you tighten, watch the wires as you go.

In the step 3 photo, there are 3x clamps, 2x for the cats, and then the third which is only on one side of the H-pipe can be loosened so that you can spin it to get proper alignment, this is a must.

Also, in step 3, once the H-pipe is disconnected form the cats, you can push the entire H-pipe backwards, about 2-3" to give you room to get the cats out.

 

Not to pee on your parade, but the workshop manual doesn't say anything about removing subframes etc. It does say to remove engine mounts though. I'm just looking at the amount of work that you guys did and I'm amazed. Anyway, car sounds great except for those pops and bangs. I can do without em.

 

You are correct, manual doesn't say to remove it, and we were able to remove the factory headers without removing the subframe, there is enough access with how the factory header tubes are routed to get to the nuts. It also required jacking the engine up to a point that it was touching the car on top, not a great place to be making contact. However the VAP header tubes are routed differently, and there are 2 or 3 nuts on each size that are just simply not accessible, we had 4 types of wrenches (short, normal, flex head, ratchet), 3 socket types (1/4, 3/8, deep), multiple extensions, and looked at it from top and bottom, and there was no way to get them tight without removing the engine mounts and subframe. We were able to get the stock headers out without removing the subframe, but it required jacking the engine up very high, to the point the top of the engine was touching the frame of the car, so while possible, I would not recommend it. Also, again the VAP header tubes are routed different from stock, so it makes it difficult to put back together once you have the new headers installed.

Removing the subframe just made the job easier, and this is what the VAP rep recommended on how he does this job. Wish we would have started by removing the subframe, would have cut the job duration in half! YMMV

 

Good additional details Mike! Thanks.

Oh don't worry about peeing on our parade, we got s***ed on. What Mike said, you dont need to drop the subframe to remove the headers (especially if you have 4.3L without cats in the manifold). The 4.7L having the 400 cell cats in the manifold makes it difficult to remove because one of the bends in the tubes catches wither the mount or subframe (see video part 1). It probably can be done.

 

Thank you for the additional information Andrew and Mike.

You both deserve much credit for taking this on. I can only imagine what a dealer would have charged to perform the same and I highly doubt they would have taken the same care of your Vantage.

With regards to the Vantage Manual, it is well known that important steps can often times be missing or oversimplified. Add to the fact that these are hand built vehicles, there will always be a difference in tolerances, and what might have worked on one Vantage may not work on another.

Again, great job guys! This deserves some major Rep Points. (I’d give you mine but I got zero)

 

Cool, cool. There is a saying, "if you have nothing positive (nice) to say keep your mouth shut". Thanks for receiving my commentary. I agree, the manual can be missing important steps at times. One thing I did note is that they (in the manual) removed the upper engine cross-brace, as well as their mounting pieces. This allowed them to jack the engine up even higher than the amount you may have been able to obtain when you jacked the engine up while having the cross-brace on the car. Not sure but this might just have been the difference in the tolerance amounts that you mentioned. They even explained in the manual about the amount to move the engine left and right to remove parts. Regardless, VAP states they take out the subframe and they've been doing it for a while so maybe their way is best.

Either way, can't wait to link up with you guys in the spring and let's hear that x-pipe in the meantime!

 

Yes sir! Keep on the lookout as I am starting to plan that trip to Fabspeed and Steel Wings. Hope to catch you on one of our cruises.

 

It sounds great! Will be interested in how you will like with the X pipe. That may quiet it down considerably. Lot of work there you did and great videos, photos and write up.!

 

Thanks! I am also very interested in this x pipe and the note it will make. Aiming for that higher pitch noise rather than the b8 muscle car note. Stay tuned.

 

Wow. I'm exhausted for you!. My stock exhaust manifolds will suit me just fine thank you.

I have the x-pipe and it does give it a more exotic sound, along with secondary cat deletes.

 

I installed a secondary cat delete X pipe. It was so quiet, almost silent at idle. It didn't really come on until around 5000 rpm. Then it sounded incredible, but until then it was quiet. So I switched to secondary cat delete pipes.