My little Header Nightmare
11-10-2009, 09:03 PM
#1
My little Header Nightmare Hello Gentlemen! 
I'd like to share what I just went through and how I fixed it. A little long, but worth the read in my opinion.
Ordered Pacesetter Coated Headers from Texas Speed. When it arrived, everything looked great. I began removing my stock headers/cats/y-pipe. With some Pb blaster penetrating oil and some air tools it didn't take very long
. Put in the new headers pretty easily, just had to remove the steering shaft which only took 10min. Got the texas speed y-pipe all together and clamped it up. I used the provided header bolts that came in my pacesetter box and began tightening everything down. I tightened all the bolts down very good, everything seemed great!
So I sit in my car, start it up and it sounds pretty decent. Only problem is when I give it a little rev it sounds kinda putty, like an old volkwagon exhaust sounds, but the noise was from under my hood. Header leak right? Go back under and tighten the f*ck out of the bolts, remembering that too much and the bolts could snap. Go to start it up and still the exhaust leak noise coming from under the hood! I thought, "there has got to be a leak in my y-pipe somewhere making that noise cause the headers bolts are tight as hell, I even kinda stripped one tightening it so hard!
I spend the next week tightening the hell out of the y-pipe clamps after every drive. Soon they won't even tighten anymore. I'm clueless? People tell me it could be a bad spark plug wire connection causing ticking sounds under my hood. Played for days with the wires, with no luck!
Finally go to my brother's house and tell him I hate my car and wish I hadn't gotten headers cause now my car sounds like crap. He inspects the headers where they connect to the heads and notices there is a very, VERY, slight gap. I tell him that we cannot tighten the header bolts anymore or they will snap! Out of desperation I try to tighten them just a little more, I mean I just need a little more and that stupid gap will close! Guess what happened next guys............*snap*.........then silence........then NNOOOOOO!!!!!! Damn it to hell why me???!!!!!
He says to pull the bolts out and then try to put them back in, maybe they are just binding up and need to be backed out. I take one out and the tip of the bolt is all chewed up! Take another one out, its tip is chewed up to. The header bolts are just bottoming out! So my brother drives to the store, gets shorter headers bolts, we install them and wah lah! The gap is pinched shut and my car sounds like a beast! Pout your lips out like you are gonna kiss someone, blow and let your lips flap to make a sound like an old motorcycle, thats what my car used to sound like. Now it's completely fixed.
Thanks for reading if you could get through it. My question is why would I be sent bolts that would bottom out with the supplied headers? I am at a loss for words. If the bolts came with washers, they would have given the bolts a little less depth and I believe they wouldn't have bottomed out, but there were no washers! Thank the Lord its solved though.
I'd like to share what I just went through and how I fixed it. A little long, but worth the read in my opinion.
Ordered Pacesetter Coated Headers from Texas Speed. When it arrived, everything looked great. I began removing my stock headers/cats/y-pipe. With some Pb blaster penetrating oil and some air tools it didn't take very long
. Put in the new headers pretty easily, just had to remove the steering shaft which only took 10min. Got the texas speed y-pipe all together and clamped it up. I used the provided header bolts that came in my pacesetter box and began tightening everything down. I tightened all the bolts down very good, everything seemed great! So I sit in my car, start it up and it sounds pretty decent. Only problem is when I give it a little rev it sounds kinda putty, like an old volkwagon exhaust sounds, but the noise was from under my hood. Header leak right? Go back under and tighten the f*ck out of the bolts, remembering that too much and the bolts could snap. Go to start it up and still the exhaust leak noise coming from under the hood! I thought, "there has got to be a leak in my y-pipe somewhere making that noise cause the headers bolts are tight as hell, I even kinda stripped one tightening it so hard!
I spend the next week tightening the hell out of the y-pipe clamps after every drive. Soon they won't even tighten anymore. I'm clueless? People tell me it could be a bad spark plug wire connection causing ticking sounds under my hood. Played for days with the wires, with no luck!
Finally go to my brother's house and tell him I hate my car and wish I hadn't gotten headers cause now my car sounds like crap. He inspects the headers where they connect to the heads and notices there is a very, VERY, slight gap. I tell him that we cannot tighten the header bolts anymore or they will snap! Out of desperation I try to tighten them just a little more, I mean I just need a little more and that stupid gap will close! Guess what happened next guys............*snap*.........then silence........then NNOOOOOO!!!!!! Damn it to hell why me???!!!!!
He says to pull the bolts out and then try to put them back in, maybe they are just binding up and need to be backed out. I take one out and the tip of the bolt is all chewed up! Take another one out, its tip is chewed up to. The header bolts are just bottoming out! So my brother drives to the store, gets shorter headers bolts, we install them and wah lah! The gap is pinched shut and my car sounds like a beast! Pout your lips out like you are gonna kiss someone, blow and let your lips flap to make a sound like an old motorcycle, thats what my car used to sound like. Now it's completely fixed.
Thanks for reading if you could get through it. My question is why would I be sent bolts that would bottom out with the supplied headers? I am at a loss for words. If the bolts came with washers, they would have given the bolts a little less depth and I believe they wouldn't have bottomed out, but there were no washers! Thank the Lord its solved though.
11-10-2009, 09:46 PM
#3
Yeah, I thought there would be washers, but the supplied bolts kinda have a built in washer that's molded to the head of the bolt so I thought they were just incorporated. I'm shafted now, gotta get the rest of the bolt out of my head now 
11-10-2009, 10:34 PM
#4
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couldn't you just use the factory bolts?... i reused my stockers on my jethots and had no problems... i'm not familiar with the pacesetters though, so they could have a different flange thickness or design, i dunno
11-10-2009, 10:37 PM
#5
Well i would say your lucky you didnt pull the threads out of the heads or worse by tightening them up so hard. The worse thing that could have happened is you could have cracked your head at that area. Im glad you didnt though. But anyway congrats on your install, im hoping to be able to do an ARH headers and Y-pipe next year, so im glad to hear that your install went well, besides the bolt issue
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11-11-2009, 10:03 AM
#13
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For piece of mine you could buy new OEM bolts, or just get ARP bolts. But I reused my stock header bolts and tightened to factory spec... No problems and 15k miles on them easy.
11-11-2009, 11:03 AM
#15
That's the first I've heard of the Pacesetter bolts being too long. I'll shoot a line over to our rep and make sure he's aware that it could be an issue. Sorry you've had issues with the install!
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COMP - FAST - PACESETTER - DIAMOND RACING - EAGLE SPECIALTY PRODUCTS - CALLIES - COMETIC GASKETS
RAM CLUTCHES - MOSER ENGINEERING - KOOK'S HEADERS - ARP - GM BOLTS AND GASKETS - MSD - NGK
POWERBOND - ASP - AND MORE!
11-11-2009, 12:51 PM
#17
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wow that sucks... i reused my stock bolts with the supplied washers on my hooker headers... and iunno if i would be running around with a broken bolt in the head...
11-11-2009, 02:47 PM
#19
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i used the stock bolts but when i put my headers in(same set up as op) i still had the air and egr so i used the pacesetter bolts for the air and egr portsi just went the the parts store and got some flanged nuts(lol) and they worked perfect.
mine where longer than the stockers so that could be a problem.
mine where longer than the stockers so that could be a problem.
