After several weeks of perusing this sight and price checking - I finally settled on the economical LT pacesetters with ORY. I'm hear to give my full endorsement to these things! I was pretty nervouse after reading numerous posts on full weekend consumption of installing headers (regardless of brand). I tell you - these pacesetters fit great. Y bolted right in, clears everything nicely. No excess space wasted either, they tuck up very nicely. Installation was no problem - people having trouble putting these in clearly haven't tried to put headers on a difficult combination (try my 6 banger camaro listed in profile ! that's a job !!) Anyhow - I'm real pleased about the quality of the headers, the fit and install easy-ness. Heck they are even made in good old USA. Which I didn't even realize until they showed up.

Hope this helps anyone looking at doing long tube headers.

(no I don't work for, or have any affiliation with anyone at pacesetter.)

 

good to hear as i may be forced to do this soon

 

That's great, when i did mine they fit pretty effortlessly too.

 

same review hear. love my pacesetter's and ORY

 

I love my coated Pacesetters

 

I did the same research, probably reading hundreds of posts praising the price, fitment and quality of the pacesetters. I did see a very small percenatage of comments regarding fitment and installation problems. Much like the OP, I dismissed those as inexperienced or inept installers. At any rate the sheer numbers of great reviews were simply too great to be ingored, so I ordered up a set of the LT's with emissions hookups.

I am probably eight or nine non consecutive hours into my install and the passenger side header has to come back off. I ended up having to jack up the motor to get it in only to find that the #4 tube hits the shock tower. I suppose that's why it was so hard to get into place. Other than that everything should be fine after I grind on the transmision, and beat in the floor pan. The egr tube should also fit, so long as I don't run a transmission dipstick.

In summary, both collectors are too close to the floor and the passenger side header lacks clearance in three other places. I will admit, a machanic I am not, but this isn't my first rodeo either. I'm not out to bash pacesetter, as there are production tolerances in everything we buy. I know the vast majority have had a good experience, but it looks like I took one for the team on this one.

I am going to call pacesetter tomorrow to see what they have to say. If I can't get any help from them, I'll be taking the headers back off to have them modified for better fitment.

PS: Could some one with one of the perfectly fitting headers please post or email me a picture of the passenger side header. I am especially interested in seeing the clearance around the outside of the #4 tube.

 

what is the best deal u guys found on the headers im lookin and i cant beat 550 to the door coated

 

I installed some PS longtubes on my bro's 96z and the only problem we had was getting the manifolds off. the manifold flange really held us back about 2-3 hours trying to figure out how to get it off. we ended up getting it torched off then we just slid in the headers in about 15min.

now I also installed some old *** Pacesetters on another 96z and it was hell putting those in. we had to remove the steering shaft and wrestled the ****'s in there. Im glad PS redesigned the primaries a little to help with the fit. overall id say the best LT for the money.

 

Cruzin94,

I paid $490 for coated, including the Y pipe AND shipping to my door.

Razor blade,

I put the passenger side in from the top. Dip stick out. Starter out. Motor mount bolt was installed though. I actually had more trouble getting the dip stick back in than anything - but that only took me about 5 minutes...just a matter of getting firm enough with it. I was concerned about damaging it (bending) but it finally went in with a good tug. It was hitting the A/C line and really needed to tilt out further to get a straight shot. Once it started it slipped right in. Anyhow - yes one of the tubes..didn't even pay attention to which one... appeares to be really close - if not resting on the cross member frame...The other spot that is really close is the Y pipe on the drivers side. There is a clearance 'depression' in the pipe to clear the frame - but it is close. I'm hoping these two spots don't bang when the car is running. I don't think they will - the motor should idle pretty smoothly - but I haven't started it yet. Those two spots are really my only concern - but they didn't give me any trouble putting the headers or Y in. I did lower and raise the attitude of the motor (with motor mount bolts in) during the install - just take trans cross memeber out so you can raise and lower. I definately lowered the back to slip the Y pipe on. I can take pictures - but the file size limit is rediculus on this web site...my pictures are way to big to post anything. I guess I could e-mail you..

You know...I guess after typing this all out - it kind of hit me....something I take for granted any more...I confess I do have a pit in my shop - so doing these sorts of things is much easier for me than anyone with their car on jackstands crawling under the car. Although - lifts are so popular and available now - I know many people have them - or have access to one.

Oh - lastly...I got headers with NO emissions...so that is a few protruding pieces that I didn't have to deal with - that may be the big difference.

 

i paid $500 shipped for Jet-Hot LTs

 

getting my pacesetter LT's ory pipe and cutout tommaro(thats what the ups man says) and now im even more pumped

 

For those of you, that have completed the install, i will be getting my headers and ORY pipe this week sometime...can some one make a list of all the tools needed for this install.
Just want to be ready for it mostly...

 

ktm where did u get them from

 

I don't know where he got them from, but the http://www.ws6store.com has great prices on headers.

Hmm, I just looked and they used to have the coated pacesetter long tubes for $370, they must have upped the price.

 

i put my pacesetters on last spring and the driver side fits perfects but the passengerside touches the auto trany. plan to cut that lip of the tranny off some time soon.
it was a pain to get in on the passengerside mainly due to the egr pipe.

OH and also the air pump fittings were the wrong thread. I called pacesetter and bitched over and over and they said no one else had complaid about this. Finally i talked one guy into going down to a gm dealer and buying the air fittings with check valves and whadda ya know they were the wrong thread!!!!!!!! They said they immediatly stopped production and shipping of stock.

i was the first to complain about this so if your air fitting have the correct thread then that is thanks to me lol why no one else complained is because the threads are very close(was metric instead of standard or vice versa or something similar) only threads about 1/4 way down on mine, they offered me a corrected set but i wasnt about the pull out the passenger side after having to hit it with a hammer to get it past the head with the valve cover off going in from the top.

 

The first time is the worst, after that its easier because you know what your doing.

 

I have dont 3 sets of lt1 headers 2 pace setter lt's and 1 bbk shorty and the shortys were actually more of a bitch than the lt's and i like the lt's much better

 

KPM, I haven't put my dipstick back in yet, but I pulled a little too hard and broke the plastic piece at the top. I'm sure it was pretty brittle after 13 years of heat cycles. When putting the dipstick back in, I usually clean it real good with some emory cloth, then throw it in the freezer for an hour. They will usually slide right in.

I did have my trans crossmember out, since I did a converter swap at the same time. Good point about the lift. I have only had this car for six months, if it stays around, there will be a lift in my future. I think you made another good point about the emisions connections causing issues. If you could email the pics, I would really apreciate it. I'll pm you my work email since my computer doesn't handle pics all that well.

BizZzatch350, You are correct, when I pull my passenger side header back off, I expect it to take a fraction of the time. Most of my problem is that I am hard headed. I was determined to get it on without taking the motor mount bolt out. Once I raised the engine about two inches I was able to beat it in there. If it had only fit, all would be good now.

 

Hell, when I put my Pacesetter headers in. I went to put the driver side in and it fell almost all the way to the floor from putting it in through the top.

 

Hey Mark I PM'd you with pictures...but I wanted to post my e-mail for others following this string.

I Don't have the greatest shot showing exactly what you are looking for...but here are a few pictures. I was mistaken on what the headers were close to....after taking pictures and looking close last night...The #1 tube is very close, if not touching the motor mount, but it is the motor mount that is bolted to the engine - so the header and the mount should be shaking at the same rate - thus, should be no banging.

I know the wires you are talking about - mine were VERY close as well. I re-routed the starter/knock sensor wires down the dip-stick tube - pictures show this. No re-wiring necessary - just moved them over to the dipstick tube and zip-tied them on. It looks good. The other wire is the ABS sensor. There was enough slack that I pulled the connector around the corner and tucked tighter to the clamp. You have to undo the clamp, pull it around the corner and re-do the clamp. There is heat shield insulation around the wire cable - you just need to get that part of the cable down next to the header and get that connector around the corner and out of the way. Anyhow - that is what I did...still haven't ran the car - so can't tell you how successful this is - but I really think it is going to be fine. Again - I didn't re-wire anything -just re-routed.