Will Headers Work With Stock Exhaust? Are they easy to install?
10-04-2010, 04:13 PM
#41
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Now that you guys are talking about transmission mounts you've thrown in another option and have me thinking even more haha. As far as installation goes, how hard is a trans mount to install while doing headers?
10-04-2010, 05:53 PM
#42
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Never did tranny mounts, but just from some skimming that i did before I did my MM/LT's, it didn't sound like it was that hard to do. I think if your car's a DD, then going poly MMs and stock rubber Tranny mounts is the way to go.
Just to comment on a couple things on this thread from my experience:
Poly MM Vibration: I was really paranoid about this, because my SS is my DD and if I had to deal with vibrations forever, that was gonna bum me out. I took a leap of faith and did it, and I can say that I can't feel any difference. When I turn off my engine, I feel the car shake a little, but that's it, on the road, no difference. However, I did hear that if you went poly Tranny mounts, you get a lot more vibration...just what I read, I never did it so I can't attest.
Header Clearance: I got Pacesetters and I was SUPER OMG CRAZY Paranoid about clearance, because I like to eat in hole in the wall places in the city, and places like Chinatown have some naaasty roads. I think I actually got down and measured my clearance once, but I forget what it was now. Currently, my lowest point is the bolt on one of the clamps on y TSP Y-Pipe, but I've been able to clear some small speed bumps (maybe 1.5-2 inches?) and I can clear tall speed bumps that are really wide/long, but tall skinny speed bumps I have to avoid. In Chinatown, actually, on one of the blocks where I usually park, there's a speed bump I can't go over anymore. One thing you do have to start keeping in mind, though, is that with 3 other passengers, you are going to be lower, and those speed bumps you were clearing before may be a problem. Well, put it this way, I live in Chicago Suburbs and I would say that I drive on nasty city roads maybe 30% of the time, highway 30% of the time, and somewhat decent suburban roads 40% of the time. I rarely ever worry about scraping on weird grades of roads, but I do go reeeally slow over speed bumps.
Emissions: I don't know if CT is one of those that has Visual inspections (sounds like it is), but for us in IL with OBDII only, we just get a tune and they can tune out codes. The only SES code you should get if you do headers (with or without cats) is rear bank 1 and bank 2 O2 sensors missing. "Rear" means the further one from your engine. You probably already know, but just in case, on each side (bank) of your engine, you have an O2 sensor between the cat and your exhaust manifold, and then another O2 sensor between the cat and the Y-pipe. My Pacesetter/TSP combo had the hole for the O2 sensor before the cat, but not one for after. It's not really necessary, but needs to get tuned out, otherwise the SES light shows up and then you fail emissions.
Tunes: Btw, my philosophy (and I'm sure everyone's all over the board on this) is that headers/y-pipe isn't big enough of an upgrade to DYNOtune (>=$500) but definitely needs at least a mail order tune (~$175). As for me...i've been super lazy (it's my MO), and haven't sent my mailorder tune yet, and it's been freaking 5 months!!!!
Just to comment on a couple things on this thread from my experience:
Poly MM Vibration: I was really paranoid about this, because my SS is my DD and if I had to deal with vibrations forever, that was gonna bum me out. I took a leap of faith and did it, and I can say that I can't feel any difference. When I turn off my engine, I feel the car shake a little, but that's it, on the road, no difference. However, I did hear that if you went poly Tranny mounts, you get a lot more vibration...just what I read, I never did it so I can't attest.
Header Clearance: I got Pacesetters and I was SUPER OMG CRAZY Paranoid about clearance, because I like to eat in hole in the wall places in the city, and places like Chinatown have some naaasty roads. I think I actually got down and measured my clearance once, but I forget what it was now. Currently, my lowest point is the bolt on one of the clamps on y TSP Y-Pipe, but I've been able to clear some small speed bumps (maybe 1.5-2 inches?) and I can clear tall speed bumps that are really wide/long, but tall skinny speed bumps I have to avoid. In Chinatown, actually, on one of the blocks where I usually park, there's a speed bump I can't go over anymore. One thing you do have to start keeping in mind, though, is that with 3 other passengers, you are going to be lower, and those speed bumps you were clearing before may be a problem. Well, put it this way, I live in Chicago Suburbs and I would say that I drive on nasty city roads maybe 30% of the time, highway 30% of the time, and somewhat decent suburban roads 40% of the time. I rarely ever worry about scraping on weird grades of roads, but I do go reeeally slow over speed bumps.
Emissions: I don't know if CT is one of those that has Visual inspections (sounds like it is), but for us in IL with OBDII only, we just get a tune and they can tune out codes. The only SES code you should get if you do headers (with or without cats) is rear bank 1 and bank 2 O2 sensors missing. "Rear" means the further one from your engine. You probably already know, but just in case, on each side (bank) of your engine, you have an O2 sensor between the cat and your exhaust manifold, and then another O2 sensor between the cat and the Y-pipe. My Pacesetter/TSP combo had the hole for the O2 sensor before the cat, but not one for after. It's not really necessary, but needs to get tuned out, otherwise the SES light shows up and then you fail emissions.
Tunes: Btw, my philosophy (and I'm sure everyone's all over the board on this) is that headers/y-pipe isn't big enough of an upgrade to DYNOtune (>=$500) but definitely needs at least a mail order tune (~$175). As for me...i've been super lazy (it's my MO), and haven't sent my mailorder tune yet, and it's been freaking 5 months!!!!
10-04-2010, 06:12 PM
#43
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Never did tranny mounts, but just from some skimming that i did before I did my MM/LT's, it didn't sound like it was that hard to do. I think if your car's a DD, then going poly MMs and stock rubber Tranny mounts is the way to go.
Just to comment on a couple things on this thread from my experience:
Poly MM Vibration: I was really paranoid about this, because my SS is my DD and if I had to deal with vibrations forever, that was gonna bum me out. I took a leap of faith and did it, and I can say that I can't feel any difference. When I turn off my engine, I feel the car shake a little, but that's it, on the road, no difference. However, I did hear that if you went poly Tranny mounts, you get a lot more vibration...just what I read, I never did it so I can't attest.
Header Clearance: I got Pacesetters and I was SUPER OMG CRAZY Paranoid about clearance, because I like to eat in hole in the wall places in the city, and places like Chinatown have some naaasty roads. I think I actually got down and measured my clearance once, but I forget what it was now. Currently, my lowest point is the bolt on one of the clamps on y TSP Y-Pipe, but I've been able to clear some small speed bumps (maybe 1.5-2 inches?) and I can clear tall speed bumps that are really wide/long, but tall skinny speed bumps I have to avoid. In Chinatown, actually, on one of the blocks where I usually park, there's a speed bump I can't go over anymore. One thing you do have to start keeping in mind, though, is that with 3 other passengers, you are going to be lower, and those speed bumps you were clearing before may be a problem. Well, put it this way, I live in Chicago Suburbs and I would say that I drive on nasty city roads maybe 30% of the time, highway 30% of the time, and somewhat decent suburban roads 40% of the time. I rarely ever worry about scraping on weird grades of roads, but I do go reeeally slow over speed bumps.
Emissions: I don't know if CT is one of those that has Visual inspections (sounds like it is), but for us in IL with OBDII only, we just get a tune and they can tune out codes. The only SES code you should get if you do headers (with or without cats) is rear bank 1 and bank 2 O2 sensors missing. "Rear" means the further one from your engine. You probably already know, but just in case, on each side (bank) of your engine, you have an O2 sensor between the cat and your exhaust manifold, and then another O2 sensor between the cat and the Y-pipe. My Pacesetter/TSP combo had the hole for the O2 sensor before the cat, but not one for after. It's not really necessary, but needs to get tuned out, otherwise the SES light shows up and then you fail emissions.
Tunes: Btw, my philosophy (and I'm sure everyone's all over the board on this) is that headers/y-pipe isn't big enough of an upgrade to DYNOtune (>=$500) but definitely needs at least a mail order tune (~$175). As for me...i've been super lazy (it's my MO), and haven't sent my mailorder tune yet, and it's been freaking 5 months!!!!
Just to comment on a couple things on this thread from my experience:
Poly MM Vibration: I was really paranoid about this, because my SS is my DD and if I had to deal with vibrations forever, that was gonna bum me out. I took a leap of faith and did it, and I can say that I can't feel any difference. When I turn off my engine, I feel the car shake a little, but that's it, on the road, no difference. However, I did hear that if you went poly Tranny mounts, you get a lot more vibration...just what I read, I never did it so I can't attest.
Header Clearance: I got Pacesetters and I was SUPER OMG CRAZY Paranoid about clearance, because I like to eat in hole in the wall places in the city, and places like Chinatown have some naaasty roads. I think I actually got down and measured my clearance once, but I forget what it was now. Currently, my lowest point is the bolt on one of the clamps on y TSP Y-Pipe, but I've been able to clear some small speed bumps (maybe 1.5-2 inches?) and I can clear tall speed bumps that are really wide/long, but tall skinny speed bumps I have to avoid. In Chinatown, actually, on one of the blocks where I usually park, there's a speed bump I can't go over anymore. One thing you do have to start keeping in mind, though, is that with 3 other passengers, you are going to be lower, and those speed bumps you were clearing before may be a problem. Well, put it this way, I live in Chicago Suburbs and I would say that I drive on nasty city roads maybe 30% of the time, highway 30% of the time, and somewhat decent suburban roads 40% of the time. I rarely ever worry about scraping on weird grades of roads, but I do go reeeally slow over speed bumps.
Emissions: I don't know if CT is one of those that has Visual inspections (sounds like it is), but for us in IL with OBDII only, we just get a tune and they can tune out codes. The only SES code you should get if you do headers (with or without cats) is rear bank 1 and bank 2 O2 sensors missing. "Rear" means the further one from your engine. You probably already know, but just in case, on each side (bank) of your engine, you have an O2 sensor between the cat and your exhaust manifold, and then another O2 sensor between the cat and the Y-pipe. My Pacesetter/TSP combo had the hole for the O2 sensor before the cat, but not one for after. It's not really necessary, but needs to get tuned out, otherwise the SES light shows up and then you fail emissions.
Tunes: Btw, my philosophy (and I'm sure everyone's all over the board on this) is that headers/y-pipe isn't big enough of an upgrade to DYNOtune (>=$500) but definitely needs at least a mail order tune (~$175). As for me...i've been super lazy (it's my MO), and haven't sent my mailorder tune yet, and it's been freaking 5 months!!!!
Knowing that the SES light will go on is another thing I had a question about. Basically you covered what I was wondering about though: the light will go on but all I have to do is get a mail order tune to fix it. Also, I'll probably do a mail order tune to adjust to the headers like you said. As long as I can avoid spending 400 bucks on a tune and only spend 200 I'm all set.
Now I'm just sorting out the last of the whole not having cats issue and passing inspection. I think I've got it all set now cause I've been told of a place I can pass emissions without cats.
Just to let you guys know I'm leaning towards LPP headers now cause of the price, so if anyone has any info on the fitment of their new ones thatd be great.
Thanks for the info again
10-06-2010, 09:05 AM
#44
Damn you covered a ton of stuff I was wondering about. I guess the clearance thing is unavoidable. I'm gonna install headers whether I have a lot of clearance or not. It's just gonna bother me until I actual install them and find out how much clearance I lose. But I'll just be super careful with speed bumps and other stuff.
Knowing that the SES light will go on is another thing I had a question about. Basically you covered what I was wondering about though: the light will go on but all I have to do is get a mail order tune to fix it. Also, I'll probably do a mail order tune to adjust to the headers like you said. As long as I can avoid spending 400 bucks on a tune and only spend 200 I'm all set.
Now I'm just sorting out the last of the whole not having cats issue and passing inspection. I think I've got it all set now cause I've been told of a place I can pass emissions without cats.
Just to let you guys know I'm leaning towards LPP headers now cause of the price, so if anyone has any info on the fitment of their new ones thatd be great.
Thanks for the info again
Knowing that the SES light will go on is another thing I had a question about. Basically you covered what I was wondering about though: the light will go on but all I have to do is get a mail order tune to fix it. Also, I'll probably do a mail order tune to adjust to the headers like you said. As long as I can avoid spending 400 bucks on a tune and only spend 200 I'm all set.
Now I'm just sorting out the last of the whole not having cats issue and passing inspection. I think I've got it all set now cause I've been told of a place I can pass emissions without cats.
Just to let you guys know I'm leaning towards LPP headers now cause of the price, so if anyone has any info on the fitment of their new ones thatd be great.
Thanks for the info again
I drove my car every day for about 5 years, and when I pulled my old exhaust and headers off recently, I didn't have a scratch on the headers, had one small scrape on the driver's side exhaust pipe going to the x-pipe, and had a good many dings and scrapes on the bottoms of my bullets (that was the low point on my system - dumped duals, and I was never too happy about how low the dumps were).
10-11-2010, 09:43 AM
#45
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Headers themselves (at least the majority of them, aside from SLPs) aren't going to have worse clearance than stock manifolds/cats. At least with the Pacesetters and Kooks on my car, if I pranged the headers, I'd have pieces missing out of my oil pan. The toughest spot for clearance seems to be from the driver's side collector to the exhaust merge - there's just not a whole lot of room there. You can get it to tuck pretty well, but that seems to be a long-hanging point in most LT exhaust setups.
I drove my car every day for about 5 years, and when I pulled my old exhaust and headers off recently, I didn't have a scratch on the headers, had one small scrape on the driver's side exhaust pipe going to the x-pipe, and had a good many dings and scrapes on the bottoms of my bullets (that was the low point on my system - dumped duals, and I was never too happy about how low the dumps were).
I drove my car every day for about 5 years, and when I pulled my old exhaust and headers off recently, I didn't have a scratch on the headers, had one small scrape on the driver's side exhaust pipe going to the x-pipe, and had a good many dings and scrapes on the bottoms of my bullets (that was the low point on my system - dumped duals, and I was never too happy about how low the dumps were).
Thanks
