It took me a month, but I've completed my header project, along with poly motor/transmission mounts, and an SLP 2OTL exhaust. Took me so long cause I was only able to work on it an hour or two here or there. The headers I got were the popular Pacesetter longtubes, and I have to say quality was just slightly better than crappy. The welds on the flanges were pretty sloppy, and required porting. The drivers side flange had a huge bow in it. I remedied this by belt-sanding the heck out of it then cutting the flange into three pieces (don't laugh, it worked, and no leaks). Other than that I shouldn't complain, they cleared everthing, and tuck up under the car almost too good. Plug access is fantastic, and all but one or two of the header bolts are easy to get to. The worst part of the whole instalation process was by far removing the stock Y-pipe. Had to drop the manifolds in order to get a wrench on the flanges and snap the bolts off. This was complicated by the next to last drivers side manifold bolt that was completely FUBAR. I spent a good hour and a half under the car with a long screwdriver and hammer getting that bastard out of there. The dipstick tube, which I was dreading, was a non-issue. Just wedged a screwdriver under the mounting bracket, a couple taps and it was out. Sanded off the paint and stuck it in the freezer before i put it back and it slid in like a dream. Motor mounts were a pain, but doable. There were a couple iffy spots in the Y-pipe that I felt needed clearencing (2x4 plus sledge hammer). Puting together the exhaust was surprisingly difficult. The SLP came with a horribly put together over the axle pipe, so I made my own out of a couple 3 inch 90 degree bends I got off ebay. Had to keep going back and making adjustments to get satisfactory clearence. Sent my ECU to Ion for a tune; deleted all the emissions crap. First startup was answered prayer. NO LEAKS! (used fel-pro gaskets, DRY). Everything ran and sounded fine. Very quiet at cruise and idle... a good raspy roar at WOT. (exhaust hits the floor though, but at this point I don't care). Car pulls HARD. I've only gotten about 15 minutes of drive time, but it's like a whole new car. Rips through the gears with zeal. Glad it's done.

 

My header install took awhile too, but I only worked on it a little bit at a time. My Pacesetter headers needed a little work in certain aspects as well, they definitely were not good to go right out of the box.

 

i must have gotten lucky, my headers were PERFECT out of the box. We did my headers and true duals in about 9 hours (including a lunch break) on a saturday

 

yea my pacesetters were fine also... took 10 hours to do the LTs, ORY, and LM.. 2 hours of which were spent on trying to drill out a header bolt broken off by the previous owner far back on the driver's side and having to tap and helicoil it

 

From all the feedback that has been posted on here, it really seems like a hit or miss with the Pacesetter quality. Some people have no problems at all, other do. But for what they cost me, I didn't expect a set of Kooks quality headers to be arriving to my doorstep either.

 

True, true, you get what you pay for.

 

yeah, from what ive read, i must have gotten REALLY LUCKY, cause my coating is still in tact after driving it every day, and quite a few times in the rain, and its been 3 months, 13 days lol

 

Yeah I am just running uncoated pacesetters, and while the fitment wasn't great, it wasn't terrible either. When these really start to rust to hell maybe I'll "invest" in some nice headers like some Kooks.

 

Did you repaint them at least?