So I finally got enough free time to put in the street version RMW header. About 3 hours on a lift, I wouldn't even attempt it on my back. With no tune on a JCW car my *** dyno says I picked up about 10 HP and the mod is 100% wife or girlfriend friendly. I am running the M7 aerogel heatcover in place of the stock cover since the stock cover won't fit with the RMW header. I also am running the MiniMaddness locking header bolts to make sure everything stays secure. My mini sounds like a tuned supercharged motorcycle now, and while crusing at idle I barely notice it. One other thing is on the highway I gained about 5 MPG when using cruise control. However, since I like the sound of the exhaust so much more I gun it a lot more around town and loose MPG around town. Any questions just ask you will not regret this modification!

 

Got any pics of the completed installation?

 

Note that the stock heat cover *will* work with just a little bending mod. You just flare out the side of the cover where it would hit the header - no cutting required. Dan Zipkin did mine in about 2 minutes...

 

The RMW header sounds great Quick question though. Isn't the M7 heatcover supposed to go on top of the stock aluminum heat shield? Without it how does the aerogel cover stay in place?

 

I also just installed a RMW header on my JCW car. With the JCW exhaust the sound is AWESOME! Low speed no noise, as soon as you step on it, it sounds like valves open on the exhaust and all hell breaks loose! Using the stock heat shield as well.

 

aerogel is a pretty interesting material, you could lay it on a lit barbecue and the top might get 300 degrees. It will secure to the cam cover. Did a high speed interstate drive for 4 hours and no issues. goog to go.

 

I saw one of these aerogel exhaust covers completely burned and worn away. It was also the probable cause of two oil pump failures (I think that's what it was) due to excessive heat in the vicinity.
I personally would run the modified stock heat shield.
0.02 and out.

 

I'm excited for it.

 

I was 'starters' DrPhil, not 'oil pumps', and regardless of the failed component, I agree, run the modified heatshield, that's what I did and it now fits fine.

 

I saw that too...

But as someone else mentioned I heard it was starters that failed from the heat buildup in the area when the M7 exhaust sheild was on the car. Somewhere around here I have some pictures of that heat shield that burned, let me see if I can dig them up.

 

Just to demonstrate the build variance in our cars, mine did not require ANY modification of the stock heat shield.

 

That's ODD....

 

Yeah, that's what I thought as I looked under the car while it was on the lift and asked Dan where he had to modify the heatshield and he looked around and said it didn't need any. I wonder if that could be the source of my buzz. Maybe the header is making contact somewhere above 6k rpm?

 

It MIGHT be touching the hard shield near where the primaries attach to the head... that's the one Dan had to flare out a bit to clear on my car...

 

I went out and checked that out. There was a finger width distance between that hard shield and the primaries except on the drivers side primary, so I flared it out with a screw driver to about a fingers width. Between that and the loose heat shield under the car, I got rid of the floor vibration and about 90% of the dash buzz. I'll poke around in there some more this weekend to see if anything else could be touching the heat shields.

Luckily I haven't encountered the drone some are getting!

 

allright you guys have successfully got me nervous about the aerogel. Like I said I have done some high speed interstate travel with bad traffic jams also with no issues to the aerogel. I would think after 4 hours if something bad was to happen it would have happened then........right. Maybe Peter or Rany could chime in here. I would be surprised if Aerogel would burn, I mean unless you held a cutting torch to it or something.