Lets start out with the facts: there is no way on Earth that you can install a set of Kooks headers on an 05 GTO only doing what the install guide says to do. Fact: It does sound badass after you get em on though!
I got all my goodies on Friday the 25th and called a buddy over to help me with the install. We figured we would install the drivers side first since that seemed to be the hard part( little did I know it was only the beginning of a three day ordeal that would take me through the widest range of emotions I have ever had to deal with and I was a gunner on a HWMMV for a year in Iraq! ). Now, I am going to argue that in some aspects of the install having the car on a lift would have been better but overall you need to be able to get at the top of the engine bay more often than not. So with my car on four jack stands it was just how it was going to get done.
It says in the install guide from Kooks and I quote " You only need to lower the rack approximately one inch ", <-----you lying, motherless w*#&es! Maybe if you wanna beat the headers in with a sledge hammer and miracle the steering shaft around the one and four and two and three opening. So two in the morning came and we called it a night, beaten down and holy pissed off I spent another hour on the net trying to find a guide to the install or at least how others had done it. Saturday was a bust, my friend who was helping me had to go to a wedding and the combined car knowledge of my others friends wouldn't even get you hired at a Jiffy Lube. So in an effort to calm my nerves and at least see some progress I installed the axle-back exhaust. I have to say it looks friggin' sweet. The four inch tips stick out just far enough to see the Kooks logo and really set off the back end. Early Sunday morning my mechanically inclined friend was ready to start again and we dove right in. We came to the conclusion that in order to get the headers down into place we would have to remove the power steering lines keeping the rack from dropping the more than one friggin' inch they say is all you need. There was just no other way we could see them getting in there. It Worked! The headers practically fell into place and I think a tear fell from my eye, it was either that or steering fluid.
Now once that was done we fought getting the steering shaft aligned with the wheels and aligned with the steering wheel and ended up removing a screw that held the power steering lines in place. We then gently
bent the power steering lines into the proper position to screw back into the rack. After loosing a couple nuts to the black hole that is the collector on the headers we got the drivers side buttoned up.
The passenger side went in very easily but not if you followed the wisdom of the Kooks guys. They say that there is nothing to remove, lift, move or anything to get the passenger side on. LIARS!!! We removed the engine mount bolts and jacked up that side just like the drivers side and they went in perfectly.
The rest went on without to much hassle, I did shave a good hunk of meat off my hand putting the catted mids on but nothing was going to ruin my mood, that beast was gonna roar tonight! So with everything plugged in and ready to go I torched her off and have been all smiles since.
I will do my best to get pics, a sound clip and dyno numbers. I have to thank and shamelessly plug Maryland Speed for letting me be the first one to buy and install the new Afterburner axle-back exhaust and for sending me that kickass shirt, on the back it has a picture of the Willwood GTO and says " Australian for you lose ".
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