Let me begin this thread by stating that myself and the person who installed my Pacesetters and TSP ORY are complete novices when it comes to LT installation let alone on a LS1. Needless to say it took much more then the typical 7 hours to install. In my ignorance I wish I would have purchased the race LTs instead of the emissions headers because the passenger side was a major bitch for us with those flanges in the way. Anyways, final finished it up with the ORY installation today. Took it for a ride and now I have a major exhaust leak on the passenger side. I searched for hours to find the source of the problem. It sounded like it was coming from the front of the header and it reaks of exhaust fumes yet I can't see or find the leak. I retorqued the front two bolts and the rear bolt from underneath. The leak still exists and I would hate like hell to unbolt all the egr **** and take everything apart to bolt the header back on with a new gasket. Unfortunately, the TA is my only car. I have been driving my friends car for days now and it looks like I may have to do it some more. I considering having one of the local speed shops look the car over though I hate to pay the money. I called pacesetter and he said to look for black marks on the ceramic coating from where the leak may be. I can't see a difference at all. Also the second to last bolt going towards the firewall didn't quite seem to want to go in. So that is not in all the way. Though, it sounds like the leak is coming from the front of the header. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I started this on monday spend most of the day removing the manifolds, y-pipe, and cats. Today was the ORY. Tuesday and wednesday was the header installation after work. So I guess another few days wouldn't really matter. Sorry for the length of this post. BTW, it was tremendously down on power when I drove it, but I have no codes showing

 

Any help would greatly be appreciated!! Should I remove that header and rebolt it back in. Also the bolts the pacesetter gave me did not thread through the EGR flanges, I think they said I needed 1/4 inch, but they seem to small.

 

what gaskets did you use? Did you notice anything odd about the headers before you put them on? (warped flange, primary tube pushed through etc) you made sure you used gaskets on the emissions fittings and that those are tight?

 

well first off i hope u didnt use the header gaskets that come w/ the pacesetters. reuse the stock gaskets or order u a new set of gm gaskets from gmpartsdirect.com

its a good thing to retorque ur header bolts after about 100 miles driving. check ur air system. if all else fails cover up ur exhaust tips and ur leak will sure to show up then.

 

Great idea, I will try that, any idea about the bolts for the egr, I used their gaskets, the bolts they gave me still dont thread through the flange, they are two small.

 

Have the OEM gasket in.

 

Man there have been a lot of header install problems lately Couple of guys in the southern section had the same/but different problem,at least it didn't take you 18 hrs to get them in (take heart theirs were non emission style ) Okay lets trouble shoot the problem, If I recall the bolts are not supposed to thread into the egr flange, but are supposed to have a nut on the back side to tighnten them up I know the EM style headers are a bitch...thats why we charge extra to install them, if you are hearing the exhaust leak from the front on the PS my guess to start there first. Dont worry about using the Pacesetter gaskets, i used them on mine 2 years now NO problems if the bolts are TQ correctly. If you couldn't get one of the rear bolts to thread all the way in...guess what its CROSS threaded and you never will get it in unless you remove the header and head and tap the hole I would check for a leak there also Good luck.

 

Appreciate all the help, I was praying that that bolt wasnt crossed threaded, but it probably is.

 

when installing pacesetter longtube headers with all the egr hookups do I have to lift the engine to make the passanger side fit?I have a 2000 camaro ss

 

put mine in tonight. They went in like a dream. I was like wow this is it. Took me less than 5 min to have it snaked in there. Had ex g/f push up from the bottom and i put a couple of bolts in from the top to hold it in place. I did have to take a file and file some little ball flashing that was stuck to the mating surface on the header. I cant believe pacesetter lets that go. But anyways i just filed it smoothe and went on. I reused the stock gasgets and bolts as well. Only thing i did was put antisieze compound on the bolts. Made them thread right in.

 

I used Percy's Seal-4-Good gaskets on the last set of Pacesetters I did. Those gaskets are nice. Plus I reused the stock bolts.

 

If you have been driving i around alot with bad gaskets and didn't have a worped flange before you will now.