Thanks BTC. I'll see when I'm putting them together if I can get the hanger to work right. And after looking at these things, I'm glad I spent the money on them. I'll be installing them this weekend, so I'll try to get some installed pics and sound clips of before and after.

 

It will sound really good with the LM A lot of people think that LT's into the loudmouth sounds terrible. Sometimes you gotta turn the stereo up a little, and there are a lot better catbacks out there (Corsa & Borla), but overall I enjoy it. The only thing I don't like are the tips, but that can be fixed.

I've been thinking about replacing the SLP bullet resonator on mine, with a better muffler. Might be something you will want to look into as well. I'll look forward to some good sound clips, to see if the kooks sound any better than my hookers, since you obviously have a lot better y pipe setup than me.

Congrats on the purchase, I'm envious!

 

Thanks man. I was thinking of that too, with the LM. If it's too loud, I might end up swapping the LM2 muffler in. But I'm all about turning up my stereo, heck I already do that .

 

I predict that you're going to love them. I didn't encounter any serious fitment issues. Everything went right in and, with the exception of that one Y-Pipe bracket, fit flawlessly. The only thing that was a pita for us was tightening some of the header bolts and some of the spark plugs, but even that wasn't anything that couldn't be overcome with a little ingenuity. I hope you're going to have someone helping you. It makes thing much easier.

 

Unfortunately, this will be a solo job, but the lift should make it a little easier. And the SLP spark plug socket I got should take some trouble out of the plugs. I also plan to try this without raising the motor.

I have all the parts now, and I'll be starting tomorrow. Just to clear some things up, what do I use on the header bolts? I was thinking anti-sieze. And what should I put on the threads of the O2 sensors? I'll be reusing the stock ones for a few miles, until the headers get broken in. The Autozone guy told me anti-sieze, but I'm not sure.

 

I used some anti seize on both the header bolts and O2 sensors.

We didn't have to raise the motor. We didn't even need to loosen the motor mounts. I removed the starter. I also removed the alternator, but I think that was more for getting some of the AIR & EGR systems off.

I'm not sure what to tell you since you're doing it by yourself. My block had some extra holes drilled into it that we were able to put a header bolt in and hang the gaskets on. I'm not sure whether all gaskets are designed for that, but the Percy's Seal For Good are. The ends of the header flange are also notched, so you can insert a bolt and slide the flange onto the bolt. That will probably help. But it was really nice to be able to put the header in from the bottom and have someone up top working it into place.

Maybe you should get some beer.

 

Yea, its on my parts list.

Oh yea, I called Kooks and they said that y-pipe is supposed to be squished like that, its for floorpan clearance.

 

yeah, most y pipes for our cars have a small crimp in them, Pacesetter by far has the worst looking y pipe, so much that it has to f' flow up a little.

 

Ok, first day of work over. The score is car 1, me 0. Those manifolds are a royal PITA to get out! The driver side header is on, and the passenger side goes on tomorrow. It wasn't too hard getting the header bolted up. I used a 5/16" box wrench, and it required no grinding.

Oh yea, and I accidentally broke the coolant level sensor (I think thats what it is) on the driver side and the pigtail . Anyone have part numbers?

Hopefully I'll have installed pics and sound clips up tomorrow. I'm so looking forward to seeing how my car sounds .

And PB Blaster must be a gift from God. Didn't break a single bolt.

 

What header bolts did you use? I used Breslins and the heads were 3/8". 5/16" would have definitely made things easier.

I should have reminded you about the coolant level sensor. I read about a few people breaking theirs and decided to take mine off before starting.

 

I used ARP stainless. The only bolt that gave me trouble was the one right behind the #1 primary, so I started it first. All the other bolts had plenty of clearance. I told myself to watch out for the thing while I was taking the manifold out. After it was out I looked up and started swearing.

Oh yea, what did you do with the other alternator bracket that was originally mounted to the front header bolt?

 

More bolt clearance would have been nice. I was really set on using the stainless Breslins. If I didn't find any, I was going to use the ARPs.

I didn't reuse the alternator bracket that was mounted to the stud. The alternator seems to be more than secure enough without it.

You'll be happy when you get done.

 

Ok, that was my plan. Of course I realized I'm now magically missing the bottom alternator bolt and nut ...

And I'm ALWAYS happy when I'm not elbows deep in my car .

 

Ok, day 2 and still not done . The headers are in, but the y-pipe was giving me crap. Is the y-pipe supposed to slip fit over the headers? The passenger side slipped on just fine, but the driver side wouldn't. Tried rounding out the y-pipe with a pipe expander, didn't work. Gonna call Kooks tomorrow, any ideas though?

Kooks also sent me the wrong O2 extensions, so I need to fix that. Then I bent my dipstick tube, so I'm gonna get a new one. Plus my LM catback I just realized isn't straight in the tranny tunnel, so I have to fix that. Any ideas on loosening up those pipes so I can move stuff? It's like they're welded together.

But I didn't want to leave it at the shop, so I drove it back headers only. HOLY **** IS IT LOUD! I thought my car was loud before. And I probably won't be able to work on it till next weekend, but I NEED to sort out this y-pipe thing. This is my DD .

 

My Y-Pipe was just the opposite. The driver side went on easier than the passenger side. When we put the Y-Pipe together and slid it over both collectors at the same time, it seemed to slide right on. Trying to put each side on separately was much more difficult. It was kind of weird how easy it went on when assembled compared to how difficult it was to slide each side on independently. My headers were also coated, which could make for a tighter fit. We left the clamp on the Y-Pipe loose too.

How did the SLP plug socket work out?