I decided yesterday to replace my broken manifolds with a real solution. Some quick forum searching led me right to Cajun B Pipes. Let me tell you, these guys are first class.
I contacted Cajun and Jeff replied within minutes. We had a nice phone conversation about what I wanted to do and he took the time to explain everything. I spent 15 years as an auto tech before I discovered nerdiness pays better. I promise you that he makes this so easy that any reasonably competent person can understand this.
I sent him what he needed to get the order rolling and within a couple hours I had everything lined up for his stage 1 kit. He even spent time enduring my annoying questions throughout the evening. I can't wait to actually receive the stuff and bolt it on. Great experience so far!
Thanks for the review of your expiernece. You will love the new Mada I guarantee it!! Give us a review after install so guys can expect what this manifold fix is about. It's ashame such nice SUV's and trucks that Nissan have are plagued with the manifold issue's. Major design flaw forsure..
I finally got to complete my install. No long write up here, there's enough of those and they cover it. I had the luxury of a hoist and 20+ years experience with a wrench. This took me a total 6 hours to complete solo and I wasn't in a big hurry. That includes time hunting for tools in my buddy's shop and playing with his cat.
Once I got got it up in the air and looked at the drivers side, I knew immediately that I wasn't going to try and work around the front differential to access the left side, so I took it out. It's super easy to do and made tons of room. Everything else was pretty self explanatory.
The left JBA header sat right on the motor mount so I tweaked that just a bit. Not a big deal since they are both fixed to the engine but I'm a perfectionist. The Cajun B pipes were spot on and well made. Nice work Jeff. Joe sent me a base tune earlier in the week so I applied that (again super easy) and went about the process of data logging. I sent Joe the first logs and had a new tune in 45 mins. On a Saturday.....Evening. 'Nuff said.
This is a slam dunk fix. Have cracked manifolds? Call Jeff and Joe. Get the stuff and put it on. Don't have cracked manifolds? You will, so do it anyway. Or get someone else to put it on. Whatever.
That's what a lot of Titan guys will do is remove the front differential to make more room. Thanks for the write up I appreciate it. Just now getting around to responding post the forum hack and password changes. Lol
Just got back from Colorado pulling my camper. Averaged 10 MPG overall, 9 in the mountains and 11 on the interstate doing 70 MPH. I used to get 8-8.5 on the interstate. It was impressive going over the mountains too.
The wife loves the snarl it makes when it starts (Stock muffler) and wants me to get the stage 2 now......[emoji51]
I did have an issue when I first left on the trip with it being really eager to downshift and reluctant to upshift. It wanted to stay in 3rd going down the interstate at 70. I slowed down a bit and sent Joe an email. He said he had tweaked the tranny line pressures up a bit (presumably to make it a bit more responsive) and sent me a new map with stock line pressures. Flashed it at a fuel stop, problem solved.