[nsticks926]

I'm buying the FSWerks exhaust system this week for my 05 ST. I keep seeing a lot of people talking about the different flex pipe/header/exhaust combinations.
I was wondering if it'd be worth it to buy the FSWerks flex pipe along with the exhaust, even though I'm using a STOCK header. Does anyone know if the stock flex pipe on the 2005-2007 ST is removable? Will I be able to simply bolt-up everything without any further modification? Or, is it not even worth it to buy the flex pipe until I have a new header?

 

[Jgrove998]

Header*

And no, the stock exhaust manifold has a integrated flex pipe after the integrated catalytic converter. Your FSwerks exhaust will bolt right to 2 bolt flange of the the stock header/cat/flex combo.

See below.....stock header.

 

[nsticks926]

Yeah that's what I thought when I peeked under my car (didn't jack it up though). FSWerks said their flex pipe will bolt up as long as the stock one is removable. I thought that was a pretty vague response lol.

Thanks for the help Jgrove. I will now go spend that $100 elsewhere.

 

[BowerR64]

His looks different then mine, mine has a seperate "flex pipe" i could remove just the manifold, or just the flex pipe and replace one or the other with out having to replace the whole thing.

Maybe it depends on the style or the year? Mine is an 07 so maybe they decided to change a few things from the 05?

 

[rambleon84]

Yeah that's what I thought when I peeked under my car (didn't jack it up though). FSWerks said their flex pipe will bolt up as long as the stock one is removable. I thought that was a pretty vague response lol.

Thanks for the help Jgrove. I will now go spend that $100 elsewhere.

His looks different then mine, mine has a seperate "flex pipe" i could remove just the manifold, or just the flex pipe and replace one or the other with out having to replace the whole thing.

Maybe it depends on the style or the year? Mine is an 07 so maybe they decided to change a few things from the 05?

well that makes FSW's response less vague. Sounds like you are going to have to jack the car up to find out [] Although i'm not sure if the flex pipe alone creates that much of a bottle neck that its worth the gains for the hundred dollar investment.


IS there any kind of gasket that goes from the flex to the exhaust?

 

[BowerR64]

If you look at my OEM manifold the bolts are on the top. You cant get to them from under the car to remove the flex, and the nuts are welded to the flex itself.

So if you have one like on my car you will need to remove the whole thing as one unit (thats how we had to do it) then remove the flex and put it on the header or cut the nuts off.

Since we couldnt remove the flex from the stock manifold you would have to put it on the header and then put it down into the car. We couldnt do mine that way the header was to deep and it banged against the valve cover or the firewall.

If this is your daily driver and you will need it i dont think ide risk just ordering the header and relying on the OEM flex to fit. You might wind up putting the stock stuff all back on and that would suck.

I got lucky mine bolted to the rest of the exhaust so i could atleast continue to drive it till i could afford the rest of the exhaust.

 

[PSUrivie]

It might be different because Grove is rockin' the 2.3L

 

[felixthecat]

^^^^X2= 23's have the best flowing stock manifold/converter going. All one piece w/ flex. 20's have a seperate flex, to go w/ their log manifold/converter. Cheap up grade for the 20 guy's that want to keep their converter is get a 23 one= slightley more flow!

 

[Jgrove998]

It might be different because Grove is rockin' the 2.3L

^This is correct. The ST 2.3L got a "tubular" style manifold design for better flow. That is the picture I posted.

Bower posted a pic of the 2.0L manifold which is the log style design. However I was not aware that the 2.0L manifold has the flex pipe bolted separately....learned something new.

Either way the stock manifolds have the cat built it...and to get maximum gains going with a full header/flex pipe combo and tune would be best. Or just boost it....the downpipe will bolt up to your existing exhaust [thumb]

 

[myfafp3]

^^^^X2= 23's have the best flowing stock manifold/converter going. All one piece w/ flex. 20's have a seperate flex, to go w/ their log manifold/converter. Cheap up grade for the 20 guy's that want to keep their converter is get a 23 one= slightley more flow!

Not all the 2.3 are like that. The pzev 03-04 cars have a log style with removeable flex. So make sure you have the right one if you are going to do something like this.