I got the XS stainless headers and ORY last month and installed the 2 weeks ago. Let me start by saying the header quality is very good, welds are nice, flanges are flat. I reused my stock bolts, tapped out the threads in the heads, threw the clamps away that came in the kit, used new GM stock gaskets. My problems were the following
1. The driver side header is angled up too much toward the floor board. The ORY would only slip up on the collector if you pried down on the header with a ton of force. we did that and got it on. Mated the system to The Magnaflow Catback. All clamps are the 3" lap joint from Summitt, these worked great. Had to have exhaust shop cut the collector, just ahead of the ORY in a pie shaped wedge to remove material from the lower side, bent it downward, then reweld to angle the header collector down by 1/2" or so. The pipe was hitting hard on the floorboard/ heatshield. This was the biggest problem cost $60 to correct
2. The bolt in the steering shaft wanted to scrape the header tube, slightly, Removed the bolt and ground the head .100, that was easy to correct
3. The K member had to be ground with a Dremel tool to keep one of the tubes from touching under hard acceleration, again drivers side, easy to fix.
4. The transmission mount on the drivers side corner, was just too close and would hit occasionally, Removed the transmission mount, and ground a quarter inch off that corner. easy to correct
Results, 2 weeks later, very pleased, squeaks, rattles, bumps, all gone, I like these headers and ORY, look great, sound Awesome with the Magnaflow at WOT. I think they are a great deal for a SS header and ORY, They just need a few fitament adjustments. But most mods do.

 

Sounds like you a little bit more trouble then most but I had some of the same problems just didnt get them fixed I guess lol......the first problem you mentioned I just bent the header down like you said and hammer the Y on their and just tightened the hell out of my band clamps(I used the summit ones also, threw away the crappy ones that came with the kit) and it has worked fine so far for the last 5months with no leaks or banging.....I also had the trans mount problem too but just slid a piece of heater hose over the pipe where it was touching and that fixed it....kinda ghetto but hell it works, overall I felt the headers were great for the money too, I had pacesetters on my Formula and I would say they fit a little bit better,specifically the y-pipe, but these are with out a doubt higher quality

 

motor mounts may have fixed a lot of those problems as well. remember, every car is a little different

 

Are you using rubber hose under the body reinforcement in back of where the Y mates to the ds collector? Are you experiencing rasp with this ORY?

 

dang....I just put mine in and

 

Same here and at first everything was fine, now my ypipe is banging like whoa but I have motor mounts sitting in the box that I might do. I am waiting because I think I am going to add a custom stainless version of the flowmaster merge and an e-cutout for better flow from from the headers. That whole two pipes smashed together into one side just doesnt look like it works that well.

 

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The k-member and driver side floorboard were really the main problems. The trans mount and steering shaft bolt were more precautionary, as I could see that it had scraped at least a few times on them, but probably not even anything noticable. I tried to fix everything as permanently as possible, meaning I stayed away from heater hose, just because I'm more particular than most. I realize that it's a little more work than most have to put in to headers but I've had a little extra time to work on this stuff and I wanted to make sure everything was done right and I wouldn't have to worry about it in the future. As far as the headers themselves, there is no noticable rasp. They sound great on the streets; great rumble around 2000 RPM and sounds very mean at 3/4-WOT. I realize that every car and header combo fits differently, so I can't say anything about XS's fitment as a whole. Even so, I'm very happy with the headers overall, especially for the price and material quality.

 

Mine pretty much slid in... just had to give the driver side some nudging and it went in. However when I just checked them recently the one EGR fitting was split and leaking had to take it off and have it welded.

 

**** maybe these are my problems!! I just installed these a few days ago an the damn thing sounds like a nascar with the banging an rattleing!....where could i get this stuff done at because I dont have any of the right tools or time an my friends out of town for a while where i did the headers????? someone help because it's driving me crazy!...sorry for the hijack!

 

You're going to have to take it to an exhaust shop, get it on a lift, and identify your problems. I had to bend the driver's side collector down, flatten the top of the Y, and notch the K-member. I also bent the lip of the tunnel brace. Today I discovered that one of the primaries is resting on the motor mount. Get it on a lift and check for all those things and your clearance everywhere.

 

I only had two problems. Same one you had with the driver's side collector, and they way the y-pipe lined up with the collectors it's like the y pipe wasn't even made for theses sets of headers.

I figured to fix the problem with the y-pipe and drivers side collector would be to put some type of insulation in between the pipe and the car

 

I finally ended up having my exhaust guy follow this bit of advice, and with some more clearancing of the K-member, am finally free of buzzing and banging. I wasn't happy with using heater hose as insulation. It helped, but didn't solve the problem.