I have a 98 WS6 Convertible with an LS6 crate engine, I decided to put some Hooker Ceramic Long tubes Part # 2469-HKR on after about 10k miles...THESE THINGS DON'T LINE UP AND HIT THE FRAME ON BOTH SIDES! On the passenger side the back of the header header hits a round piece on the head!

I thought the LS6 and LS1 were exactly the same dimensionally...I've had 02 exhaust manifolds on the car and they fir perfect so what do I have to do shave the frame?

Drivers side

 

dont blame the car..........blame the hookers.......did you put in new motor mounts?

 

Get your grinder out.

 

never had a problem with hooker LT's before. did you change the motor mounts when you put in the LS6?

 

I put poly mounts in when I had the engine installed.

 

Do I really have to start hacking my frame to make this work...this is bull$hit

 

I read some threads on the Hookers and I didn't hear of any major fitment problems like this...this is not worth the hassle. I got a good deal on these $380 from Summit(they matched Amazon.com's price} which is why I got them...plus I have a Hooker cat back.

 

You really only have 2 options. Grind the area on the k-member, or take them off and send them back. I got a set of chrome bbk headers a few weeks ago. If I tried telling you how easy these headers went in, I wouldn't even be touching the tip of the iceberg. SUPER EASY. The are the nicest tucking headers I have ever seen. Their y-pipe merge is outstanding, and I also got my bbk headers from summit. So you could return them and get the set I have which includes a y-pipe for the same price you paid for just headers.

 

I can tell ya that Kooks fit very nice. Good choice on engine....check my sig

 

I already called summit today when I found out these headers weren't the ones I wanted..I wanted the race style without the egr and air fittings..they sent me the ones with them! I hadn't noticed until I tried getting the passenger side up and the egr was hitting the frame..I had to really get the car high to get it in...they said they wouldn't give me a full refund if the headers were scuffed which they are a little!

I went with the Hookers because they were ceramic coated...those BBK's aren't but If I had to do it again I would have got those. It looks like I'm going to take them off and grind the k-frame tomorrow and hope that works.

 

my TSP 1 7/8 fit so much better...........

 

Goodluck to you pal.

 

Would 1 7/8 have been over kill for my stock LS6? I have a TSP 3 inch off road Y pipe though

 

1 7/8 is not over kill...............dont let any 1 tell you different

 

I went from macs 1 3/4 to kooks 1 7/8 and noticed a huge improvement in midrage tq on my ls6.

 

Yeah but those are mid lengths...I might have spent the xtra $120 on the TSP 1 7/8 but didn't know they made them.

 

I can't believe I have to grind my frame to try and make these work.

 

If it makes you feel any better, I've read multiple cases where guys with ls1s have had to grind to make their headers work even with replacing the motor mounts.

 

^^This i got bbks about a year ago and I dont understand why they arent more popular the build quality is excellent, and to top it all off they fit better than my buddies kooks on his trans am and the ground clearance is awesome.
^I'll be doing the ls6 swap on my car this summer 112 to a 122 trap is a huge jump ith just that change. did you add nitrous or any other mods at that time? Only difference is my ls6 is gonna have an auto behind it.

 

I have Hooker long tubes and poly mounts and have no issues with fitment at all, something is wrong.

Oh and it has nothing to do with it being a LS6, either something is up with the motor mounts or those headers aren't made right...

Sorry to hear about that issue, cutting off a little bit of the K member will be easy and it wont hurt anything.