Had an exhaust leak on my Coyote powered car. Upon investigation I realized the J-pipe was fractured. This is the 2nd time this has occurred. After the first time I made some supports I documented in my build thread to help support the weight up by the J-pipe. Those seemed to help a bunch as the first failure was within the first 1000 miles I think.

Also since the first incident I have added the flow master slimline mufflers to the sidepipes which I love but are quite a bit heavier than the stock side pipes. At this point my only complaint about the car 5700 miles in is the header/J-pipe?side pipe combo. IF I could do it again from scratch I absolutely would have done 4 into 4 headers and eliminate the J-pipe from the setup. I don't think the J-pipes are structurally strong enough for long term use with the added weight of the mufflers.

I am considering making a change. Has anyone successfully removed and replaced a shorty header/J-pipe combo for a 4 into 4 full length header in an MK4 without lifting the motor out of position? Not sure if it is possible to get the header off and the new one on particularly on the drivers side.

Now I am aware of the potential performance increases associated with the other header option. That is not really my concern. They way I drive the car I have never felt I needed more power so I don't care about that. I just want reliability but I don't want to take the motor out to swap headers.