Ok, I know this thread has been rehashed and beat to ****, and believe me, I've read them all, but I've never worked on cars before and have zero experience installing headers.

First off, I have a 1996 Trans Am. I ordered Pacesetter lt, ceramic coated, race style and the matching y pipe. I also have a Magnaflow catback coming in sometime later in the week.

Some of the topics that are unclear to me are o2 extensions, deleting AIR/EGR, installing the exhaust (will I need to weld anything), and if I need any special tools (torque wrench?).

The plan that I have come up with so far is:

1. Unplug the negative battery terminal.

And thats pretty much it. What should I do before I jack the car up/put it on ramps? Remove all the emissions stuff? If so, can I buy all the block off plates at autzone/napa? I can only get to most of the header bolts when the car is in the air, right?

Then I unbolt the stock y pipe. And before I get to the manifolds, I guess I will remove the stock exhaust, seeing as how I am replacing it. Then, is it just a matter of removing enough stuff (wires, plugs, dipstick)to make room to bolt in the headers? After I get the headers bolted in, I'll have to route all of the wires. Is it just a matter of ziptying them far enough away from all the pipes?

O2 sensors: I know the headers come with wire to extend your stock o2 (splice job right). Is an O2 extension just wire with a male/female connection to clip on to your stock wire? And can I buy these at napa (universal fit) Will I need a special tool to get the o2 sensors out?


My headers should be in tomorrow, but I'll be at work all day till probally 8:00 or so. I plan to spray everything down with penatrating oil that night, do everything I can on the ground, and then get the car in the air. Then, after checking back on this topic, I'll head to the parts store sunday morning to pick anything up that I needed. For the rest of the week I have to go to highschool/work after school so if needed I'll only be able to work on the car for 2-3 hours during the week.


While I'm down there, changing the sparkplugs would be a good idea, which ones should I go with, and are they factory gapped or do I have to do that. I don't know how to gap them. As for the wires, should I be ok with stock wires? Car has 96k miles, and I am assuming they're stock. I heard if you go with bigger wires they'll touch the header.

If I remove the oil filter, will oil start pouring out all over the place?

Sorry for the lenghty topic, I'm just really looking forward to doing this and am wanting to do it right.

 

Oh man oh man!! I have never done anything so difficult on a vehicle than installing lt headers on a lt1 t/a. Yeah I barely installed mine about 2 months ago or so.. Lets see, while changing your headers, you are going to be changing your oil as well... and yes oil will drip out of the oil filter when you take it off..lol. You will need more time than 2-3 hours a day or else you're not going to get much done.. trust me. Lets see first I took out the battery, then the belt, then alternator, that tcs box(I went ahead and got rid of TCS by also installing the non-tcs cable) the starter(all in respective order). Then obviously got rid of the stock exhaust y pipe, and manifolds(all that right there took about 1 1/2 hours and thats cause I did it rather quickly). Then I went ahead and got rid of my stock wires and plugs(I might as well change the plugs and wires while I had the chance). Then I had to remove the steering link(people say you have to lift the motor to install headers but on mine I just had to remove the driver side valve cover gasket and it went right on, on the passenger side it went in through the bottom. Took about a minute to install the headers once I had everything pulled. Once they were put on then obviously the y pipe had to be done. I went with the taylor OTVC kit and installed it all(took about 2 1/2 hours cause I wanted to install it perfect.) Overall it took a good 6-7 hours for everything but thats because I wanted to make sure everything went right.

 

When I installed my pacesetters, the extension wires were just wires. They didn't have male or female ends, but they did have separate universal connectors. If you could sodder the wires it would be better. When you do the O2 wires, cut one by one and connect that one or you may get confused. You do need a special socket to get the O2 sensors out, and they should sell these at your local auto parts store.

What emj said is right, if you only have a couple of hours to work on it, you probably won't get much done and it will take longer than if you work on it consecutively. I too, only worked on it for an hour or two at a time and it took like a week for me to get them in. My tranny was getting rebuilt so my car wasn't going anywhere anyways(lol!). Spraying down ALL bolts will help in getting everything off a little quicker. I had my y-pipe cut where they collect, you have 2 catalytic converters and it may be different, but my point is I used a exhaust cutting saw as this was the quickest way for me.

You are probably going to have to drain your coolant (atleast some of it), and the instructions will say so, because the water sensor on the driver side cylinder head may get in your way. This connector may get broken otherwise in your attempt to fit the headers. You could change your plugs and wires while your at it, I needed to remove them anyways cuz they were getting in the way. When I routed my wires, I think #6 & #7 had metal protective boots, and I just put them where needed. The rest of the wires were turned in a way to have the greatest distance between then and the headers. Be cool, it can be done, just don't think it's a piece of cake.

 

Some oil will come out when you remove the oil filter. (i never took off my oil filter though)

spark plug gap from .045 - .050 (depending on your mod's)

The flat O2 extentions, 12 and 24 inch.
http://tinyurl.com/3clkgn
http://tinyurl.com/3yzhcc


When i had my Y pipe with the Pacesetter LT i used 4 of these clamps. The clamps that come with your Y pipe will leak.
http://tinyurl.com/3awpur

i removed the altenator, dipstick, starter, steering shaft and installed both headers from underneath. Removed passenger side engine mount bolt and nut, to raise the engine up just a bit to clear the passenger side. just be carefull of the coolant sensor on the drivers side head, i did mine with out removeing it. carefull that you dont break it.

youll need to get block off plates from somewhere for EGR, and remove the air pump and the harness on it. btw you wont have to weld anything. i got my egr block off plates on ebay but www.rdspeed.com also sells them. use a lot of zip ties to make sure nothing touches the headers and melts.

 

Yeah, I have all of sunday to work on it, then during the week I'll only have 2-3 hrs until the weekend comes again.

Will it be ok to run my car with an open y pipe for awhile till my catback comes in?

I've read about having to unbolt the motor mount, but I think that is just for manual cars(?) If I have to unbolt it, the engine isn't going to fall on me, right?

 

is it possible to make 02 extensions? I feel like i should just be able to go to the hardware store, get some wire, and so some soldering.

 

You unbolt the Motor Mount to Jack up the Engine a little bit to get clearance. Get the Jack under it and get a little raise on it so you take the weight off of the Motor Mount so the Bolt will be easy to deal with.

You will have some fun with Headers, and definately be throwin some Tools..

 

I'm already off to a bad start. My jack doesn't go high enough. I can barely get under the car. If I just pulled it up on ramps, would it give me enough clearance?

 

I had my car on wheel stands, which had the car about 20" off the ground
at the floorpan - that was just right for installing the headers from underneath.

This shot shows the wood stands I built (right-rear showing):
http://picasaweb.google.com/calder.c...37393294327586

The jack stands were there mostly to stabilize the body.

 

With a y-pipe there shouldn't be a problem, but no back pressure (open headers) for an extended period isn't great for the exhaust valves.

 

Ok. Just got done working on it tonight. I got the Y pipe completely off. Everyone of the bolts broke but 1. I am guessing I have to cut my stock exhaust to weasle it out?

I'm thinking I should get new spark plugs tomorrow once I get to that stage. I figure a trip to get plugs will be a nice break.

I'm still not sure on the air/egr stuff, even after looking at it. Since I'm deleting it, can I just start hacking away and cutting everything?

If I buy o2 extensions, do I need one 12in and one 24in?

I feel I really accomplished something getting the Y pipe off, but I think I'm still on the upward stretch lol.

 

I bought the 24" Extensions when I did mine. As far as the A.I.R./EGR stuff, do you know what exactly everything is before you start taking it out? Alot of people cut the AC Lines and think they are taking out the A.I.R. The EGR is a little bit of a challenge, you can't even see it.
You may have to cut your Exhaust down to fit the Y-pipe, most of the time it is a little longer.

That one can be widely disputed.. these new Engines compensate for the lack of back pressure alot better..

 

You wont be cutting any wires. unplug wire going to air pump then unbolt the air pump and remove it. you can also remove the air pump pipe that runs to the old manifolds carefull you dont cut the A/C lines follow it down make sure you remove the right pipe/lines.

For the EGR, unplug the vacuum hose, remove EGR. Install the block off plate then tighten the nuts back down.

youll have couple hose's from EGR solenoid all that can be removed including the solenoid. if your check engine light comes on, dont panic it'll most likely be caused by no EGR, it can be removed from your PCM with a tune.

 

I didn't have to loosen any engine mounts nor did i have to take the oil filter or temp sender out, i was just very careful when i slipped them up in place, now you will need to remove the dip stick tube, i got the un-coated PS LTs & ORY, maybe the coated ones might be tighter (don't know), you will also have to loosen both ends on the steering shaft & slide it off the rack-n-pinion side, those PSs are a nice fit header & are fairly easy to get in, the only issue i see is on the pass side, the one tube lays right against the "tab" on the engine mount.

 

I got 1 more bolt on the ds exhaust manifold. I haven't took off the steering linkage yet, I don't really know where/what bolts to loosen. I figure once I get the manifold off it will be easier to see and get to.

 

Just follow the Linkage.. there will be a 11mm Bolt near the Drivers side Manifold, and the other 11mm Bolt will be down at the bottom of the Linkage right above the Rack.

 

Ok, I got the linkage off and the manifold out. I think I broke something on the driverside. It looks like some kind of sensor.

To get the alternator off, what bolts do I undo? Do I take the belt off?

 

the sensor you broke is probably the sending unit to your temperature gauge.

yes take the belt off before you try to take out the alternator.

 

LT1 fbody and trailblazer SS one of the hardest car's to install LT's dont get frustrated if you get stuck just walk away or throw some wrenches around then try again.

 

i agree with lt1. it took me 3 weekends to do mine in my driveway while it was raining.