Pacesetter headers....Dear God!
12-04-2005, 12:59 PM
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Pacesetter headers....Dear God! My roommate and I went down to Patrick AFB to install my headers and y-pipe at the base auto shop, so we had access to a lift and all the tools we'd ever need. The tools were absolutely essential! Without them, there's no way we'd have finished in the time we did. I read through the install guide online, but I really only needed to bring the instructions for the EGR/AIR stuff. The headers were very straightforward. We were also changing the plugs from the AC Delco .070's that were in there. We disconnected the battery at the start so we didn't kill ourselves on the plugs.
Your best friends:
PB Blaster
10mm deep socket
Socket extension
The install guide I reviewed can be found here:
http://www.geocities.com/foff667/98Camaropg4.html
First thing was first- we got rid of the AIR and EGR. The 1 3/8th's freeze plug fit perfectly for the EGR manifold. The EGR tube on the passenger manifold was extremely hard to get to, so I decided to just leave it on and pull it out with the manifold from underneath. The AIR pipes were pretty easy to get out. Currently I have a screw sticking into the open AIR vacuum tube, so I need to find a more permanent solution to that.
Once the EGR/AIR was gone, I wanted to get the passenger side coil pack out of the way to make life easy and keeps my arms in their present condition. All of the screws were fairly easy to get with the exception of the rear one- it was straight up impossible. I just left it on there and rotated the coilpack up, and it was plenty out of the way. I definately recommend doing this instead of messing with that last screw. We popped the plug wires off of the packs and spent a GOOD amount of time trying to finagle the plug wires off of the plugs...they're REALLY on there. Just gotta wiggle it to death.
I have to run an errand, be back shortly to finish the write up...
...alright, back to writing.
So like I said, the plug wire boots took forever. After that we lifted the car and started taking the stock exhaust off. PB Blaster is your best friend! After letting the rusted bolts soak in PB for 10-20 minutes, they took no effort at ALL to take off. We broke a couple cat bolts, but that's expected and no biggie. We kept the O2 sensors so I could have a couple spares around the house after we put the sims in. Once we got the cats off, we could easily reach the rear bolts on the manifolds and the rear two plugs. We took those out from underneath. The rest of the manifold bolts took some convincing, but came off alright from the top. Lots of PB Blaster helps. Once the manifolds were unbolted, they slid out with some wiggling through the bottom. At this point I unbolted the EGR tube from the manifold, because it was easy to reach now that the manifold was loose. Otherwise it pinches and you can't slide out the manifold. Once the manifolds were out, we pulled the spark plugs and took a look at them. With 50k on the car, they still looked like new, so I was fairly happy. But they were also gapped to .070....blah. I had a new set of NGK TR55's ready to go.
The headers went in like butter with a lift. These are the race style headers- no EGR or AIR fittings, so they're nice and skinny. Slid right up into place. Definately recommend doing the front and rear bolts first to hold it in place, then get the rest. The rear bolt on the driver's side had to be done from the top- the collector gets in the way of doing it from the bottom. Once the headers were in, we put some antiseize on our new plugs and put those into place. Then we reconnected the O2 sensors into the headers with the O2 extensions we had (which by the way were WAY too long- if they took a good 4-5 inches off those extensions they would fit better). We put the O2 sims in at this point too.
Here's where we ran into our big problem. The y-pipe didn't fit, at all. It wasn't even close. The angle didn't fit right on the passenger header, and the driver's side pipe was off by nearly 3 inches! It also didn't fit completely into the I-pipe. We were unable to fix it at the shop we used, so I have to take it to a muffler shop Monday.
With that done, we put the boots back on the plugs, put the coil packs back into place and connected the boots to them. Reconnect the battery, and cross your fingers! She started up like a monster...it was extremely loud with open headers. It didn't want to idle at first, but the computer had to relearn itself. On the second start it idled great. We ended up driving from Cape Canaveral to Daytona Beach (over an hour) with open headers....god it was annoying! The loudness is great for around town, but don't even think of doing road trips like this without causing serious damage to your hearing and sanity.
So while the y-pipe issued has me kind of upset, the headers fit/look great. Unfortunately my A/F is all over the place because my O2 sensors are exposed to open air, but it definately feels stronger. I won't really know until I get the y-pipe next week and get it tuned. Meanwhile, I think I'm the loudest thing in Daytona Beach right now....I think I killed a group of small children last night. I'll post a link to pictures we took of the install.
Time, stock to finish: 7 hours, flat. Not bad for our first time! It wouldn't have been possible without the lift and all the tools we had access to. Big thanks to the Patrick AFB auto shop for the help we got from them.
On that note, time to go driving and **** of the neighbors some more
Your best friends:
PB Blaster
10mm deep socket
Socket extension
The install guide I reviewed can be found here:
http://www.geocities.com/foff667/98Camaropg4.html
First thing was first- we got rid of the AIR and EGR. The 1 3/8th's freeze plug fit perfectly for the EGR manifold. The EGR tube on the passenger manifold was extremely hard to get to, so I decided to just leave it on and pull it out with the manifold from underneath. The AIR pipes were pretty easy to get out. Currently I have a screw sticking into the open AIR vacuum tube, so I need to find a more permanent solution to that.
Once the EGR/AIR was gone, I wanted to get the passenger side coil pack out of the way to make life easy and keeps my arms in their present condition. All of the screws were fairly easy to get with the exception of the rear one- it was straight up impossible. I just left it on there and rotated the coilpack up, and it was plenty out of the way. I definately recommend doing this instead of messing with that last screw. We popped the plug wires off of the packs and spent a GOOD amount of time trying to finagle the plug wires off of the plugs...they're REALLY on there. Just gotta wiggle it to death.
I have to run an errand, be back shortly to finish the write up...
...alright, back to writing.
So like I said, the plug wire boots took forever. After that we lifted the car and started taking the stock exhaust off. PB Blaster is your best friend! After letting the rusted bolts soak in PB for 10-20 minutes, they took no effort at ALL to take off. We broke a couple cat bolts, but that's expected and no biggie. We kept the O2 sensors so I could have a couple spares around the house after we put the sims in. Once we got the cats off, we could easily reach the rear bolts on the manifolds and the rear two plugs. We took those out from underneath. The rest of the manifold bolts took some convincing, but came off alright from the top. Lots of PB Blaster helps. Once the manifolds were unbolted, they slid out with some wiggling through the bottom. At this point I unbolted the EGR tube from the manifold, because it was easy to reach now that the manifold was loose. Otherwise it pinches and you can't slide out the manifold. Once the manifolds were out, we pulled the spark plugs and took a look at them. With 50k on the car, they still looked like new, so I was fairly happy. But they were also gapped to .070....blah. I had a new set of NGK TR55's ready to go.
The headers went in like butter with a lift. These are the race style headers- no EGR or AIR fittings, so they're nice and skinny. Slid right up into place. Definately recommend doing the front and rear bolts first to hold it in place, then get the rest. The rear bolt on the driver's side had to be done from the top- the collector gets in the way of doing it from the bottom. Once the headers were in, we put some antiseize on our new plugs and put those into place. Then we reconnected the O2 sensors into the headers with the O2 extensions we had (which by the way were WAY too long- if they took a good 4-5 inches off those extensions they would fit better). We put the O2 sims in at this point too.
Here's where we ran into our big problem. The y-pipe didn't fit, at all. It wasn't even close. The angle didn't fit right on the passenger header, and the driver's side pipe was off by nearly 3 inches! It also didn't fit completely into the I-pipe. We were unable to fix it at the shop we used, so I have to take it to a muffler shop Monday.
With that done, we put the boots back on the plugs, put the coil packs back into place and connected the boots to them. Reconnect the battery, and cross your fingers! She started up like a monster...it was extremely loud with open headers. It didn't want to idle at first, but the computer had to relearn itself. On the second start it idled great. We ended up driving from Cape Canaveral to Daytona Beach (over an hour) with open headers....god it was annoying! The loudness is great for around town, but don't even think of doing road trips like this without causing serious damage to your hearing and sanity.
So while the y-pipe issued has me kind of upset, the headers fit/look great. Unfortunately my A/F is all over the place because my O2 sensors are exposed to open air, but it definately feels stronger. I won't really know until I get the y-pipe next week and get it tuned. Meanwhile, I think I'm the loudest thing in Daytona Beach right now....I think I killed a group of small children last night. I'll post a link to pictures we took of the install.
Time, stock to finish: 7 hours, flat. Not bad for our first time! It wouldn't have been possible without the lift and all the tools we had access to. Big thanks to the Patrick AFB auto shop for the help we got from them.
On that note, time to go driving and **** of the neighbors some more
Last edited by Toasty; 12-04-2005 at 01:40 PM.
12-04-2005, 04:15 PM
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LOL not possible without a lift? I did mine on my back in my uncle's garage with the car on ramps 
Now, would it have been MUCH easier and saved my hands, liver,and sanity if I had left? HELL YEAH. ahahaha
Congrats on the install. What Y-pipe? Pacesetter or TSP?
Now, would it have been MUCH easier and saved my hands, liver,and sanity if I had left? HELL YEAH. ahahaha
Congrats on the install. What Y-pipe? Pacesetter or TSP?
Last edited by TroubledWine3; 12-04-2005 at 04:34 PM.
12-04-2005, 04:39 PM
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Its a Pacesetter y-pipe, and all the parts were from Speed Inc.
I didn't mean to say its impossible without a lift- I did my friend's 98 TA with a jack a few years ago. But boy was it a PITA.
I didn't mean to say its impossible without a lift- I did my friend's 98 TA with a jack a few years ago. But boy was it a PITA.
12-04-2005, 07:05 PM
#7
Originally Posted by Toasty
My roommate and I went down to Patrick AFB to install my headers and y-pipe at the base auto shop, so we had access to a lift and all the tools we'd ever need. The tools were absolutely essential! Without them, there's no way we'd have finished in the time we did. I read through the install guide online, but I really only needed to bring the instructions for the EGR/AIR stuff. The headers were very straightforward. We were also changing the plugs from the AC Delco .070's that were in there. We disconnected the battery at the start so we didn't kill ourselves on the plugs.
Your best friends:
PB Blaster
10mm deep socket
Socket extension
The install guide I reviewed can be found here:
http://www.geocities.com/foff667/98Camaropg4.html
First thing was first- we got rid of the AIR and EGR. The 1 3/8th's freeze plug fit perfectly for the EGR manifold. The EGR tube on the passenger manifold was extremely hard to get to, so I decided to just leave it on and pull it out with the manifold from underneath. The AIR pipes were pretty easy to get out. Currently I have a screw sticking into the open AIR vacuum tube, so I need to find a more permanent solution to that.
Once the EGR/AIR was gone, I wanted to get the passenger side coil pack out of the way to make life easy and keeps my arms in their present condition. All of the screws were fairly easy to get with the exception of the rear one- it was straight up impossible. I just left it on there and rotated the coilpack up, and it was plenty out of the way. I definately recommend doing this instead of messing with that last screw. We popped the plug wires off of the packs and spent a GOOD amount of time trying to finagle the plug wires off of the plugs...they're REALLY on there. Just gotta wiggle it to death.
I have to run an errand, be back shortly to finish the write up...
...alright, back to writing.
So like I said, the plug wire boots took forever. After that we lifted the car and started taking the stock exhaust off. PB Blaster is your best friend! After letting the rusted bolts soak in PB for 10-20 minutes, they took no effort at ALL to take off. We broke a couple cat bolts, but that's expected and no biggie. We kept the O2 sensors so I could have a couple spares around the house after we put the sims in. Once we got the cats off, we could easily reach the rear bolts on the manifolds and the rear two plugs. We took those out from underneath. The rest of the manifold bolts took some convincing, but came off alright from the top. Lots of PB Blaster helps. Once the manifolds were unbolted, they slid out with some wiggling through the bottom. At this point I unbolted the EGR tube from the manifold, because it was easy to reach now that the manifold was loose. Otherwise it pinches and you can't slide out the manifold. Once the manifolds were out, we pulled the spark plugs and took a look at them. With 50k on the car, they still looked like new, so I was fairly happy. But they were also gapped to .070....blah. I had a new set of NGK TR55's ready to go.
The headers went in like butter with a lift. These are the race style headers- no EGR or AIR fittings, so they're nice and skinny. Slid right up into place. Definately recommend doing the front and rear bolts first to hold it in place, then get the rest. The rear bolt on the driver's side had to be done from the top- the collector gets in the way of doing it from the bottom. Once the headers were in, we put some antiseize on our new plugs and put those into place. Then we reconnected the O2 sensors into the headers with the O2 extensions we had (which by the way were WAY too long- if they took a good 4-5 inches off those extensions they would fit better). We put the O2 sims in at this point too.
Here's where we ran into our big problem. The y-pipe didn't fit, at all. It wasn't even close. The angle didn't fit right on the passenger header, and the driver's side pipe was off by nearly 3 inches! It also didn't fit completely into the I-pipe. We were unable to fix it at the shop we used, so I have to take it to a muffler shop Monday.
With that done, we put the boots back on the plugs, put the coil packs back into place and connected the boots to them. Reconnect the battery, and cross your fingers! She started up like a monster...it was extremely loud with open headers. It didn't want to idle at first, but the computer had to relearn itself. On the second start it idled great. We ended up driving from Cape Canaveral to Daytona Beach (over an hour) with open headers....god it was annoying! The loudness is great for around town, but don't even think of doing road trips like this without causing serious damage to your hearing and sanity.
So while the y-pipe issued has me kind of upset, the headers fit/look great. Unfortunately my A/F is all over the place because my O2 sensors are exposed to open air, but it definately feels stronger. I won't really know until I get the y-pipe next week and get it tuned. Meanwhile, I think I'm the loudest thing in Daytona Beach right now....I think I killed a group of small children last night. I'll post a link to pictures we took of the install.
Time, stock to finish: 7 hours, flat. Not bad for our first time! It wouldn't have been possible without the lift and all the tools we had access to. Big thanks to the Patrick AFB auto shop for the help we got from them.
On that note, time to go driving and **** of the neighbors some more
Your best friends:
PB Blaster
10mm deep socket
Socket extension
The install guide I reviewed can be found here:
http://www.geocities.com/foff667/98Camaropg4.html
First thing was first- we got rid of the AIR and EGR. The 1 3/8th's freeze plug fit perfectly for the EGR manifold. The EGR tube on the passenger manifold was extremely hard to get to, so I decided to just leave it on and pull it out with the manifold from underneath. The AIR pipes were pretty easy to get out. Currently I have a screw sticking into the open AIR vacuum tube, so I need to find a more permanent solution to that.
Once the EGR/AIR was gone, I wanted to get the passenger side coil pack out of the way to make life easy and keeps my arms in their present condition. All of the screws were fairly easy to get with the exception of the rear one- it was straight up impossible. I just left it on there and rotated the coilpack up, and it was plenty out of the way. I definately recommend doing this instead of messing with that last screw. We popped the plug wires off of the packs and spent a GOOD amount of time trying to finagle the plug wires off of the plugs...they're REALLY on there. Just gotta wiggle it to death.
I have to run an errand, be back shortly to finish the write up...
...alright, back to writing.
So like I said, the plug wire boots took forever. After that we lifted the car and started taking the stock exhaust off. PB Blaster is your best friend! After letting the rusted bolts soak in PB for 10-20 minutes, they took no effort at ALL to take off. We broke a couple cat bolts, but that's expected and no biggie. We kept the O2 sensors so I could have a couple spares around the house after we put the sims in. Once we got the cats off, we could easily reach the rear bolts on the manifolds and the rear two plugs. We took those out from underneath. The rest of the manifold bolts took some convincing, but came off alright from the top. Lots of PB Blaster helps. Once the manifolds were unbolted, they slid out with some wiggling through the bottom. At this point I unbolted the EGR tube from the manifold, because it was easy to reach now that the manifold was loose. Otherwise it pinches and you can't slide out the manifold. Once the manifolds were out, we pulled the spark plugs and took a look at them. With 50k on the car, they still looked like new, so I was fairly happy. But they were also gapped to .070....blah. I had a new set of NGK TR55's ready to go.
The headers went in like butter with a lift. These are the race style headers- no EGR or AIR fittings, so they're nice and skinny. Slid right up into place. Definately recommend doing the front and rear bolts first to hold it in place, then get the rest. The rear bolt on the driver's side had to be done from the top- the collector gets in the way of doing it from the bottom. Once the headers were in, we put some antiseize on our new plugs and put those into place. Then we reconnected the O2 sensors into the headers with the O2 extensions we had (which by the way were WAY too long- if they took a good 4-5 inches off those extensions they would fit better). We put the O2 sims in at this point too.
Here's where we ran into our big problem. The y-pipe didn't fit, at all. It wasn't even close. The angle didn't fit right on the passenger header, and the driver's side pipe was off by nearly 3 inches! It also didn't fit completely into the I-pipe. We were unable to fix it at the shop we used, so I have to take it to a muffler shop Monday.
With that done, we put the boots back on the plugs, put the coil packs back into place and connected the boots to them. Reconnect the battery, and cross your fingers! She started up like a monster...it was extremely loud with open headers. It didn't want to idle at first, but the computer had to relearn itself. On the second start it idled great. We ended up driving from Cape Canaveral to Daytona Beach (over an hour) with open headers....god it was annoying! The loudness is great for around town, but don't even think of doing road trips like this without causing serious damage to your hearing and sanity.
So while the y-pipe issued has me kind of upset, the headers fit/look great. Unfortunately my A/F is all over the place because my O2 sensors are exposed to open air, but it definately feels stronger. I won't really know until I get the y-pipe next week and get it tuned. Meanwhile, I think I'm the loudest thing in Daytona Beach right now....I think I killed a group of small children last night. I'll post a link to pictures we took of the install.
Time, stock to finish: 7 hours, flat. Not bad for our first time! It wouldn't have been possible without the lift and all the tools we had access to. Big thanks to the Patrick AFB auto shop for the help we got from them.
On that note, time to go driving and **** of the neighbors some more
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12-04-2005, 08:37 PM
#8
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I have the same setup and the Y pipe was off by a little, but I was able to force it on there. I had the same issue though with it not fitting into the I pipe. That took some mutilation with a dremel and hammer.
12-04-2005, 09:21 PM
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Originally Posted by Sharpe
Newbie question: Why did you use O2 sims? Can't you just put the old (or new) O2s back in there with the O2 extensions?
No sure where you are in IL but if you have questions let me know.
12-06-2005, 09:34 AM
#10
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I've got a few pics up now. You can see how we moved the coilpack to get in there.
http://community.webshots.com/album/518382892onAbeK
http://community.webshots.com/album/518382892onAbeK
12-06-2005, 11:16 AM
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just a bit of advice i'd get a catted y to keep down the rasp with the LM exhaust and just my .02 the fumes won't be near as bad.....if you get good cats, the .126589 horsepower that you lose would be acceptable to you i promise.
http://community.webshots.com/photo/...08476527SluKmD
http://community.webshots.com/photo/...08477174bHwqmJ
here's a look at mine just for reference.
http://community.webshots.com/photo/...08476527SluKmD
http://community.webshots.com/photo/...08477174bHwqmJ
here's a look at mine just for reference.
Last edited by slpss9723; 12-06-2005 at 11:23 AM.