Lithium

iTrader: (47)

Iam planning on buying some pacesetter LT's and ORY, what I want to do is change out the headers everytime emissions comes around . As far as mechanic skills go, basically I have none. I have read the install guide for the pacesetters and its seems pretty straight forward, and I did alot of research on it already. My question is do you think that it is doable for someone like myself? If I just take my time, follow directions etc.. can I get it done without it driving me nuts ? Has anyone here had any trouble with the install and not been able to finish it? any help is greatly appreciated thanks.

99FormulaM6

iTrader: (21)

header installation is very simple and straightforward. but i would not want to do it everytime i had to pass emissions, thats just not worth it to me. i thought some places only checked for codes if the car was obdII? im not sure, i dont have emissions..

Zach@Texas-Speed

iTrader: (7)

pretty easy....and it gets easier everytime you do it

nikon1999

iTrader: (22)

i had never really worked on ls1 cars before when i first did my header install, and i ran into a few snags, but nothing that the directions didnt warn me of. The only thing is it took a while, i took my time. Instead of doing it in a day i did it in 2, and i used a lift, much easier in my opinion.

cyphur

iTrader: (10)

did my first header install last week, and that involved taking out the stock crap. that takes the longest. installing the new stuff was a breeze. if you can get it done on a lift then you'll be good to go. i did it on a drive on lift and it took me 4 1/2 hours, which was longer than I anticipated. cut short my ability to install a tq arm and LCA's

luv2spd

iTrader: (1)

Its not too bad. If you don't have access to a lift it will take more time, but its still doable. You need to jack the front of the car pretty high though since you kinda have to slide the headers in vertically. Also cutting the casting off of the block helps a lot.

99FormulaM6

iTrader: (21)

yea, you need to get the car pretty high. and i did have to cut the casting knub off the ds of the block. but it was easy after that. and pass side went right in

2000WhiteTA

Headers are easy to install and I did mine in a garage so it can be done.

Racehead

You should be able to swap it out for the stock stuff in half a day or so no prob. Especially after you've done it a few times. When I used to do emissions testing at a small shop in Phoenix we used to swap whole motors for guys once a year so they could pass emissions !

TheBlurLS1

iTrader: (8)

i did it by myself, had it as high as possible on jackstands. when i was trying to remove the y-pipe, it would not come out for anything, so i took a big ratchet strap, put one end around the y-pipe, other end hooked into k-member, tightned her up, then wiggled it loose.

also invest in either a 10mm gear wrench, a whole set of them, or a 1/4" drive air ratchet. i just picked up one of those little air ratchets, and i changed a header gasket with it the other day in about 5 minutes flat. it's small enough to do the rear-most headerbolts. the gear wrench is a MUST have.

Full-Force

iTrader: (11)

yes, if you have a 10mm gear wrench especially with the end that pivots or a 1/4" air ratchet it will be a breeze

get the car up high on some 3 ton or higher jackstands and the new pacesetters will slide right up into place with no snags or cutting at all

Lithium

iTrader: (47)

well, i just got done ordering some Pacesetter LT's with smog, along with the TSP ORY and some o2 extentions and sims. Also I need some locking bolts, new gaskets and better clamps i believe? anything else iam missing?
thanks for all the help as well really appreciate it.

TheBlurLS1

iTrader: (8)

the tsp ory should come with clamps, might want to go out and buy someband clamps if you want to do her up nice. im not sure if the clamps it comes with are band clamps or not. if they arent, call tsp and buy some band clamps from them so ship along with your order when they open up again.

you can re-use the stock gaskets and bolts.

the new pacesetters, as stated above, go in w/out issue.

edit: use extreme caution when pulling the dipstick tube out, mine broke off in the hole and i had hell getting it out mine was pretty seized up being as my car is a 98 and has been in there quite a long time.

thebatman411

iTrader: (4)

Yeah buy band clamps. the guy that welded my muffler tips suggested that I'd take off the u-bolt clamps and put on band clamps. he said he's seen cars nearly rip out their exhaust because the u- bolt clamps get caught onto something. if you happen to have an exhaust leak there aluminum tape that's sold at home depots that you can use to cover the leak and then you slap on the band clamp. It's suppose to make a good seal. Go to ls1sounds.com and click on a section about clamps. it talks about the aluminum tape. Anyway, have someone help you, a couple of jack stands, you need a hydrolic jack or a jack off a truck if you don't have have the jackstands that lift with a lever. That helps to get the car high enogh. And of course the 10mm gear wrench is a most. Try to get a saw-zall to gut out your stock exhaust. I didn't have the money to buy one so used a 4" grinder with matabo disks(the real thin disk), but it was a pain in the ***. I would have a hard time grinding out the top of the pipe. So do yourself the favor and have a saw-zall to make that part of the job fast. That was the most time consuming part for me.