The one that is connected to the exhaust manifold and is connected to the catalytic converter.  I have a bad leak there and it's driving me crazy.

That's the down pipe

Wild

get some headers, that should take care of that leak and let your engine breathe better.

 It's A header, not a HEADERS. Sorry. Anyways, a header for the 16v won't fix the downpipe thing, and the 8v fixes most but not all of the downpipe.

It's A header, not a HEADERS.

Hehe, I used to call 'em headers too, because I thought there was more than one, until I started looking under the hood! So my question here then is:
If I put a Thorely header in my 8v, do I need to worry about getting anything else to go with it to make it work? Or do I just install it and there's nothing else to worry about? Sorry, I know this isn't my post, but I thought it kind of relevant.

steveo

 Either go with a Calmini or a Thorley and a good 2" exhaust and you'll be happy as hell.

You will need to have the exhaust modified to mate up to the Headder in most cases.  I have not seen a new Thorly or Cal-mini, But all the used headders I have played with required a trip to the Exhaust shop once installed for connectino to the front pipe and fine tuning the fit of the pipe and hangers.

That's the down pipe

Wild

Thanks bro, that's it exactly.

I can't afford a new header right now so I'm going to get my mechanic patch it up with some welding techniques.

It's A header, not a HEADERS. Sorry. Anyways, a header for the 16v won't fix the downpipe thing, and the 8v fixes most but not all of the downpipe.

Easy turbo it can go either way, people know what your talking about if you were to say headers instead of header. No need for nazism.

Thanks bro, that's it exactly.

I can't afford a new header right now so I'm going to get my mechanic patch it up with some welding techniques.

Holy crap...I had the down pipe re-welded today...what a mission...    First they had to disconnect it from the manifold and the pipe exiting the catalytic converter...

Then to my surprise, they removed the heat shield that surrounds the dual down pipes.  Who new those were heat shields?

I hate heat shields...as far as I can tell, they do nothing but fall apart and cause noise.  

To my surprise the down pipe was cracked...and then it broke when they were removing the shields.

So they patched it up while welding and made sure it was secure.

But when trying to reconnect the down pipe to the manifold, one of the bolts wasn't good anymore so they had to remove the manifold to get the bold out.

Even after all this, there is still a small leak coming from somewhere when everything was reconnected.  But it's a hell of a lot better then it used to be.  

Easy turbo it can go either way, people know what your talking about if you were to say headers instead of header. No need for nazism.

Sorry, didn't mean to come across so abrupt, just sayin'. Hehe! I just feel this overwhelming urge to correct people sometimes.

Sounds like a big pain in the A5S!  Next time just use muffler tape,two beer cans,and two hose clamps and be done with it.  In your situation faced with all that work, I would've just said sucks to the noise and waited 'til I was doing all that work to put in a new downpipe.  But at least you're not as noisy now, that's gotta be a relief.

Sounds like a big pain in the A5S!  Next time just use muffler tape,two beer cans,and two hose clamps and be done with it.  In your situation faced with all that work, I would've just said sucks to the noise and waited 'til I was doing all that work to put in a new downpipe.  But at least you're not as noisy now, that's gotta be a relief.

First of all, the down pipe was already cracked inside the heat shield.  The noise was coming from where the two heatshields are welded together for stability.  I've tried every band aid solution and they just did not work.  (Not working because the leak was INSIDE the heat shield).

And you just can't buy another downpipe...if it was that simple I would have done that a long time ago.  The catalytic converter is connected to the downpipe and those things go for $200 CDN or more...then with labour on top of that...ouch.