I was on a leisure trip from Hephzibah, Georgia to Kansas City, Missouri this past week. Last Thursday I left at 6 am to head back on my 1000 mile trip. It was 20 degrees outside and still dark when I left. I was on 291 for about 15 minutes and the car (01 modded z28/ss) became very loud like there was no exhaust on it. I pulled over at the nearest gas station and popped the hood to see blue flames coming out of the third cylinder on the passenger side. There was a 1 inch hole in the top of my headers 3 inches from the exhaust port. Oh snap!!!

When I bought my headers I grabbed the longtubes with egr just in case I went to a state with vehicle inspections. The second egr line on the passenger side wasn't being used and had a block off plate on it. The weld that held that line to the headers failed and it just fell off.

So I drove the car about ten miles slowly to an exhaust shop and they said they couldn't do anything unless I got the parts off the car. they couldn't get a welder in there to fix it. I had them cut me a small peice of pipe so I could patch it up. I then went to O'reilly on 40 highway to get manifold wrapping/patching tape and an exhaust clamp. After this I went to my Mother's house because it was closest. I didn't have any tools to work on the car and no garage to use in the 20 degree weather. Fortunately a friend of my mother's that lived two houses down rebuilds cars in a garage in his back yard. I went down and told him who I was and what the problem was. He had an appointment to go to, but said he would help when he got back. This is a retired guy with a good heart for the military. He cam back three hours later and let me use his tools and garage. I got everything patched up without removing the header and was on the road at 3:30 pm the same day. I had no problems driving home, but the part looks like crap. I will have the patch welded on this weekend when I do my head/cam/exhaust swap.

Thought I would share this problem. I have pictures on my cell phone and will try to get them up here for you all to see soon.

 

Wow that really sucks at least you were able to patch it up and were close to family. How long have you had the headers for? There might be some kind of warranty on them. Although I'm not sure if you would want to get another set from them...

 

Sorry to hear about that. Can block off plates lead to failure?
I was thinking about going to block off plates but when I think
about it probably would increase pressure on welds.
John

 

What you just had happen to you has happened on Hookers many times. Its not all that uncommon actually. I think this is the first Pacesetter failure I personally have heard of though.

 

I talked to a welding expert about it and he said it looked like there was a cold weld. I bought the headers over a year ago from a company on ebay for $299. I will just get them patched up.

 

That is a damn good price for a set of coated headers, especially for an LS1 car.

Should've got the Race Style...

Good luck in fixing!

 

Same thing juswt happened to my Hooker headers. Sux they are only 3 years old. The car never sees rain either.

 

I've had mine on since they were pretty new to the market and fortunately I haven't had any problems. I have the egr blocked off too. I hope you get everything sorted out.

 

They weren't bought as coated headers. I painted them with ceramic 1200 deg. engine paint.

 

Seen it a dozen times on Hookers, but never Pacesetters.

 

Surprised me too. I should have gotten the race headers and took out the air pump system.

 

Im starting to think with block off plates that the exhaust pushes on the tube because it has nowhere to go and over time lifts the weld. Still doesnt seem like it would be strong enough to break weld though.

 

I know how that feels. I have a similar story.

A couple years ago I drove my 1989 Camaro to Los Angeles from Midwest FL. The car started overheating in San Antonio. There was no leaks at the time, it was just building up alot of pressure and getting hot.

I made it to a small town called Junction and the local Amaco's mechanic could only replace the thermostat which was just a shoot from the hip tactic. It didn't work.

Later down I-10, on a stretch that went for miles between cities, I had my lower radiator hose blow open. After cutting the split piece off, it was too short to reach. So I pulled it off. It was at a picnic stop so I was off the highway a decent ways. No state trooper help unless I flagged one down. I decided to just drive the car until it went red then pull over for 40 or so minutes then repeat.

When I had thought that there was no sign of civilization for miles either way, I was wrong. I was uphill and didn't see the small town that wasn't but a few miles ahead. I stopped to sleep where I saw alot of lights. It turned out to be a mobile home park. However, a local told me an autoparts store wasn't too far ahead, which turned out to be about a mile away. Hose replaced.

Still overheating.

By El Paso, it was so bad that the engine was on the brink of just giving in. I stopped at a Sears automotive, which seemed to be the only place I could find off I-10 that was open. The people in front of me in line were told by the clerk that they were the last people they could service that day. Turns out, the problem I had wasn't servicable there anyway. She said they don't do that kind of work.

Her husband happened to call her while she was thumbing through a phone book to see if she could find a shop to help me, and he asked her to tell me to bring my car to the Army post -- which turned out to be Fort Bliss -- and buy him some beer for his troubles. He reassured me that if he couldn't fix it, that he knew mechanics on post that were Army mechanics that would regardless.

Anyway, he turned out to be an 18 year old PFC. Sharp kid. Looked at my car for 5 seconds and told me that the problem was my radiator fan. The motor had gone bad. Heh, I never would have thought that a fan like that would contribute to the engine overheating more than 100 degrees. I guess it's just a part of the system that if it breaks, everything after it goes down. He fed me some grilled steak and we had a few beers, and we replaced the fan. Car ran excellently and even better once it hit the cool air in California.

What a nightmare that trip was. I'll never forget it, heh.

That 89 Camaro made the trip back, all the way to Louisiana, where the transmission eventually gave out. I coasted into a transmission shop just off I-10, which turned out to be closed for 3 days. It was Thanksgiving day. Across the street was a U-haul that was open, which had management that lived behind the building. They fed me dinner and let me take any materials I needed to box all my belongings in and drove me to the Greyhound station. They let me store the car behind the building with their trucks.

I said screw it, and bought my Trans Am. Shipped the title to the guy so he could give it to his nephew and only asked him to send me my license plate, which I forgot to take off.

 

Wow good story. Sucks that all happened but I guess you came out alright .

 

Same here.

 

Very common weak point on our headers. Seen headers from 3-4 different manufactures do that. It's just not a strong location to have that type of fitting welded in.

Should be a easy fix.

 

pacesetters have a 3 year warranty against that sort of thing.

 

That sucks to hear. It's always been my fear i'll have some mod fail on me hundreds of miles from home.

If they will replace them get the race version, no welds to break off or rust.

 

Glad you were able to patch it up!
I have a hard time understanding why it would break
if it was welded correctly. Thin wall tubing should be
TIG welded, though-less chance of undercut from a
not-too-experienced welder.
The fact that an AIR or EGR flange is blocked off
would provide no more stress than a properly
functioning system,IMO.