Hey all,

Time for some more "impressions by chris", for whatever that's worth. I recently picked up a set of Kline equal length headers from Sam. I've been making a few changes lately getting ready for Shift Sector, and when he understood my goals, headers came to the top of the list along with a Cobb AP, some cat bypass pipes for my Kline turbo-back, and a Vbox.

First of all, ASK THE DYNO OPERATOR IF THE ROLLERS ARE LINKED. I had no clue that they made AWD dynos with drums that werent tied together. This means that the front and rear wheels will be travelling at totally different speeds depending on how much torque is applied. You can imagine all the errors that the TTS threw. I was actually concerned we had done some damage to the diff, and all they did was tied it down and then accelerate to 80 to straighten the car out. Needless to say, I didn't get a baseline power number :-/

First off, the install.



C'mon people. You got this. It would do everyone a little good to get under their car once in a while. Here's your chance. There are a couple tricky bolts to access in order to remove the old manifolds on the turbo-end. You have to reach down to them with extensions form a ratchet placed between the cats and the top of the compartment.
The header bolts themselves are 6-pointed stars (male torx?), and they are fit perfectly by a 12-point 3/8" socket. The only downside to this is that my 3/8" is for a 1/4" ratchet, and while I could get the bolts out with the long handle 1/4" ratchet I have (and tighten them down), access and torque would have been easier if I had had a shallow 12-point 3/8" socket that fit a 3/8" extension, swivel, or ratchet. So if you can start the project with something like this:
https://www.amazon.com/GearWrench-80...cket+sae+3%2F8

or the metric version. I'm sure a metric size fits even better than 3/8", but what I had worked well.

In order to remove the old manifolds, you'll also need ot remove the turbo oil drain pipe form the pan end. Just grab a rag... it wont leak more than about a tablespoon of oil.

You'll need a good swivel to put the new headers in. The Kline equal length are not designed to make all the bolts suuuuuuper accessible like the stock manifolds. So the shallow socket plus a nice swivel and an extention gives you what you need.

The product itself (the headers) are beautiful. The welds are bicycle quality, the pipes are really nicely chosen, and the flanges are thick.

You will need at least 4 25mm long 8mm flange bolts and nuts to attach the new headers to the turbos. The headers did not come with those, and the factory studs wont work. since the Kline flanges arent threaded, even if you pulled the factory studs and used an extra bolt, they would be too short. A nice set of 4 25mm long 8mm grade 10.9 stainless bolts are required.

You may notice that the heat shield on one of the turbo VTG units is in contact with one of the header primaries. No worries. At first I thought "damn these tolerances, this is NOT going to work." Turns out that a little pressure from two thumbs on the head sheild will move it the 1-2 mm off of the header primary that is necessary to avoid excessive heat transfer. Just push on it. It'll scoot.

The performance:
The headers work extremely well at moving gasses efficiently and because they are equal length, never colliding the pulses. So... performance must increase. If boost is limited, it means that the engines and turbos can be more efficient.

Equal length headers, being more efficient and not colliding pulses do change the sound. I can get more into it later, but under 3000 rpm and out of boost, aside from an occasional resonance, the car is slightly quieter. Pulses arent colliding, so the boxer rumble is gone. That makes the car quieter.

Above 3000 rpm, or on boost, the headers are more efficent though, and the "rumble" would just become muffling inefficiency. So when "on it", the car is actually now louder. It's back to women and children taking cover if they are around during WOT. There's a feild of cows out here in Hillsboro that may not give milk for a week. Two weeks if I go do another launch.

I am on the AP stage "0" now, so I'll have more impressions once I try stage 2 and also once I bypass the cats for Shift Sector.

 

An objective sound measurement (using my Zoom H2n audio recorder) at the rear bumper shows about 1.5 db lower volume at idle that stock manifolds (non-weighted) and about 2 db higher volume at peak rpm under WOT.

 

Enjoyed the write-up, particularly the part about the cows. Too bad about the dyno... would have loved to see the before and after numbers. There's enough data out there for us to draw some conclusions once you run the 1/2 mile though.

 

Great details Chris. +1 on the cows
Personally I love the smoother sound that comes from installing these manifolds. We've seen from 12 to 15 hp to the wheels, lower EGT's and the sound was a great byproduct. I really think it sounds like a GT3 when cruising around without boost. And when you nail the throttle it just accentuates the experience. Can't wait to hear your videos for the difference.

 

Great job on the install and write up...you will love the tune results...and you just might start getting chocolate milk when you hit stage three...I'll be there next week

 

Its so so tempting. The intercoolers looks pretty straightforward to R&R too.

I need to wait until a few things move to cash, but it's inevitable. Besides, we're typically within a few weeks of each other anyways. Why fight it?

 

There is no fightin it..."I can't hold it Jim"...can you say turbos ??

 

nice write up, id love to hear a good exhaust clip with the headers

 

That X must cause some serious friction! Look at the color differences, slightly yellow at the inlet side and pretty blue in the middle at the X. Weird!

 

Good catch Dixie. It's discolored due to the fact that there are bends there. It's a 1D X which helps with the characteristics sound and performance. We have pushed 1000 hp through one of these on a 991

 

There’s a bend ahead of that muffler as well and that bend is only slightly discolored (yellow) while after the muffler at the X the color is blue. (much hotter) Normally temperatures drop the further away from the turbochargers but in this case the temperatures go up, that can’t be correct.


Actually seems like no surprise because with that tight X you’re choking the airflow. I understand that the 1D helps with sound but that X really is a bottleneck and won't help with performance at all, hence the severe discoloration.

 

Thanks Dixie. Most of the top modern exhausts though a bit different have an X of some sort or chamber in the middle including the factory unit. So you will see this same effect. You will not find too many full systems if any for this car that just flow across without an X, merge, u-bend or chamber. Again it's not just an X. We have had pretty great success with this design as an amazing all-around test proven solution. In fact it's on the strongest 991's in the world as well as THE highest powered I know of @ 800hp to the wheels and counting (PDK limited). This is why I stand behind all my team and results and suggestions 100%. We also have different solutions for different applications. Most times there are compromises but here many feel we have nailed it. Opinions are great and welcome. But the performance and sound is proven and it wasn't overnight I am proud to learn form and work with Kline innovation!

Cheers,
Sam

 

I agree, I thought that discolored X was an isolated issue on Visceral’s exhaust but it seems like a common problem.


Here is another one, yellow at the entrance and blue/purple at the X. That’s a lot of choking

 

Those headers look good.
My personal favorite exhaust for these Turbos is the Protomotive because of it's design. There are some very fast cars running Protomotive equipment.
I'd get one if I cared about more power, or didn't care about my warranty

 

Congrats to E-Gear! Fastest and quickest stock turbo 991 in the universe that we know of no nitrous. I mention this here because ALL he is running is a By Design/Kline exhaust, By Design Intercoolers and a BMC filter custom tuned on a Cobb AP! Looking to see what we can do after adding the Inconel headers! Almost at 9!