Banks Monster exhaust and torque tube headers install

[clintooo]

I did an install of a Banks monster exhaust and Torque tubes header over the last week.

I thought I would do a little bit of a writeup. There are a few good write-ups on exhaust installations that I did look at. However, I thought I would just supplement with my experience and the Banks.

Monster exhaust.

This was a pretty easy install. All up I think it took me about an hour. I ended up cutting the tailpipe as it was too difficult to get it off. The Banks tailpipe came in 3 bits that are clamped together so it is fairly easy. You do need to remove the central skidplate/transfer case support thought. I just slid a jack stand under the gearbox to stop it all dropping and put a trolley jack under the plate to lower it down as it is fairly heavy.

I did have one small issue with the tailpipe tip touching my tow bar mounts underneath. That is something I will need to address, so I might have to move or extend my rear mount somehow.

A couple of pictures of the old and the new. For some reason Banks had put these labels all over everything, so I had a wet cloth on there to remove them.

The can is a bit smaller. Total weight saving was about 3.5kgs. I don't have any pics of it on the car as it is a bit difficult to photograph.

[clintooo]

Headers


This was the difficult part. It was not a particularly complicated job, just incredibly frustrating. My tips are…


Allow plenty of time. I didn't first time around.
Be methodical and patient.
Wear safety glasses as you will be lying under the car with various bits dropping into your face.
Find a helper with long arms and small fingers


Tools

Nothing specialised. However, it will help if you have the following:

An assortment of extension bars for your sockets, drivers.
Geared ring spanners, 0degree offset. If yo have any offset you cannot access the lower bolts.
Flexi gear wrench


A couple of pics of the new headers.
54515

54516

[clintooo]

The easy bit is pulling everything off the intake and exhaust. A few tips that were not in the other write-ups.


The injector electrical connectors are a two part removal. Pull up the red tab first with a flat blade, then squeeze in the black bit underneath it. (took me a while to work this out).
Injector rail does take quite a bit of pulling to get it out. Make sure you have all your o-rings
remove the midpipe completely it will give you alot more access.
Review how the intake and headers are attached. The Header has 3 bolts (1 top 2 bottom) that hold it on. There are a further 8 bolts 4 top 4 bottom that bolt both intake and header on.


It is best to take off the 8 intake bolts first, then remove the intake. They you can take off the header.

Tips to get off the intake bolts.

Top 4 are relatively easy to access. Either flexi geared head or flat geared head, or a socket.

Bottom 4.

You can access the first bolt (closest to radiator) with a socket and extension bar from above. You cant get it from underneath as the engine mount and heat shield are in the way.

Middle 2 bolts, get from below with a zero offset ring spanner or geared wrench.

Last bolt by firewall you can get from below with a socket and short extension bar.

After that, take off the intake, then unbolt the rest of the header bolts and remove.

[clintooo]

I cleaned up all my bolts with a wire brush on the dremmel and put them in my ultrasonic cleaner. I love these things $149 on ebay it is fantastic for cleaning up small parts.



Note the lack of access that the design gives you. Basically the tubes block all the intake bolts and you can only really get to them from below.

You can see this from a couple of pictures from below and some from above.

I then installed the header and its 3 bolts.
Then I inserted all 4 bottom bolts and gave them a turn. There is no way to get them in from underneath.
54517

54518

54519

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[clintooo]

Next step is to drop in the intake. There is just so little room there to position it and get it in. The A/C tubing and fuel rail are in the way so it takes a bit of fiddling to get it in.

You then need to slide it down so the bottom of the intake slots into the bolts. You also need to ensure you get the dowels to line up. This does take a bit of fiddling, but make sure they do.

After it is lined up it is just a matter of tightening them all up. I started from the middle and worked outwards with the bolts. You need to go top and bottom and slowly tighten them up. Basically the reverse applies in terms of access/tools etc.

I am not sure how you are supposed to torque them all up though, as there is no way you are getting a torque wrench on most of them.


I did have a problem (partly my own making). I used a copper gasket spray that was recommended on one of the write-ups and I saw it at the auto shop and thought it sounded good. The problem arose as the banks gasket is quite a soft gasket and has a metal weave in the middle with softer outer sections. This spray is basically a contact adhesive. It does make holding the gasket on the head easy. However, when I went to align the intake it stuck to the intake. As I didn't manage to align the dowels correctly the first attempt, I needed to pull the intake off and try again. This caused part of the gasket to tear and separate. I thought it was ok once I pushed it back. I then installed the intake, headers and put everything back on. Then at restart I got an idle of about 3000rpm. It was the torn bit that was not sealing properly and I had a vacuum leak. Basically the computer was thinking the air that was coming in the leak was coming through the throttle body (assuming I had the throttle wide open) so it pumped a whole heap of fuel in. There was no other solution but to pull it all off again.

The gasket just ripped apart when I removed the intake, so I needed to buy another gasket. Next time around I used a silicon type copper gasket, to be sure. This allowed you a 1 hour drying time, so plenty of time to line up the intake correctly.

[clintooo]

Other things I did differently.

I removed the front wheel and pulled off the rubber shroud in the wheel well. It just gave you a little more access, and gave you some more room to maneurver underneath.

I dropped the mid pipe (big pipe from headers to cat I assume that is what it is called on a car, I normally work on bikes so that is what I call it). Don't forget to disconnect the 2 oxygen sensors. Doing this gives you a lot more room. I think it would be impossible without doing so.

[clintooo]

Was it worth it??

I am still in two minds. It does sound alot better, but I suspect most of that was from the Cat back and not the headers.

I still havent done many kms with it. It does seem to have given me a slight improvement in terms of torque off the mark, but it not a huge seat of the pants gain. I put the banks ram air on before and that was a noticeable gain in performance.

It has however made the sucking noise you get from a pod filter alot more pronounced, so presumably it is flowing more air through. I have plans to do a mild Cam and a home port and polish at some stage so I guess it will all help things. I think though I will leave the intake and headers connected when I pull the head though and then remove them off the car.

I will put a few more tanks of fuel through it and see what my mileage is like.

[Dirtbag]

Thx for the write up mate i am looking at getting the same stuff for my 06 tj.
this write up will help me a lot.
Very appreciated hope it was all worth it
cheers cotto

[rocsolid]

If you dont mind me asking. How much did you pay for your headers and where from. Many thanks.

[Magnum PI]

Hi all, Just recently did the same thing, Full Banks Monster system SS and a set of JBA Ceramic Coated headers, sounds great, power difference, well can anyone really tell just from feel? got all mine on Ebay, freight can be a killer but as i have access to containers it was definately worth while, the guy selling them here is well and truly overpriced, anyone in the Melbourne area interested in anything from the USA i can help with freight if you want, also looking at bringing in a couple of these https://www.benchmarkdesigns.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=22&products_id=87 so if you want one let me know

[Sifter]

Great write-up...thanks.

What year is your TJ?

What sort of cam are you thinking? Sticking with the mechanical flat tappet set-up I assume? I am looking at a mild cam and P&P as well....nothing drastic.

On the later model TJs the headers are pretty good stock I was told by an exhaust specialist that allegedly knew his Jeeps.

[clintooo]

i bought it from quadratec, but shipped it through work address in US, so they paid the freight. It wasn't too much from memory, but even with freight was still cheaper than anything I could find here. I cant remember the price as I bought them last year, but the $ was up so I went for it. I had jjust been away for a few months so only just got around to putting them on.

I havent done a lot of research, but was looking at this kit
http://www.shop.505performance.com/product.sc?productId=184&categoryId=30

But I am not sure, there is a bit of bad press about 505 stuff. it is not really a daily driver, so I can live with a lumpy idle. Although they have a few more kits.

I was then thinking of getting one of the DIY port and polish kits and doing some port matching and light polish cleanup.

I have a few suspension mods to do so the cam is going to take a bit of a backseat for now.

Mine is a 2004, the two piece headers were on it.

yeh power difference was never really expected to be noticeable. it says on the box 40hp with intake, but I doubt I got that. I would just be wasting my money putting it on a dyno. I have done a few full systems on various bikes and have noticed the gains but i suspect a lot of that is coming from a retune/flash on a power commander too.