DanBUCF

What up guys, I'm installing the Pacesetter Long Tubes on sunday that have been sitting in my garage for the past month. Anybody have a write up on how to put these things in?

I know there are plenty of write ups out there for all different kinds of long tubes, but I'm wondering if there is anything specific about the pace setters I should look out for? Also, what is the best possible way to ensure that I ABSOLUTELY NO WAY NO HOW do not snap a bolt off in head...pretty much my biggest concern.

Any tips or advice you can give me will be much appreciated.

Thanks a bunch,
-Dan

teke184

it's a fairly new car...i wouldn't worry too much about the bolts. soak the heads in penetrating oil for the heck of it i guess.

the write up for my flowtech LTs is on page 11 of my website below. they are basically the same design...should help.

good luck

BirchMan98z

The job is not as hard as people make it out to be. Pull old manifolds/ypipe off. Put new headers in. Tighten bolts. LOL Now, SLP headers are not easy to install. That's a 2-man, 20pack of beer kind of job.

DanBUCF

Well, There's gonna be 4 of us and plenty of beer to go around. I changed plugs about 8,000 miles ago, so I'm not gonna bother with them. Should I change wires while I'm at it?

mebanditws6

I would recommend anyone to change plugs during a header swap. It'll be a no brainer with nothing on the heads, and it's cheap. Get some NGK Iridium TR55's so they'll last awhile. I'm doing an LT swap this winter, and even though I changed plugs about 2k miles ago, I'm getting new ones. There's no reason not to.

Jason

BirchMan98z

Yeah, always do plugs/wires while you're doing headers because it's such a breeze. figure 10 minutes for all 8 with nothing in the way.

DanBUCF

Alright, you guys convinced me....Gonna do plugs as well. Might as well, it was only $14 more for a set of new plugs.

Wish me luck this afternoon.

DanBUCF

Everything went extremely well with the headers, plugs, and wires. From the time we started until the time the car was ready to be fired up was 5 hours and 15 minutes.

However, there are some fitment issues with the texas speed y-pipe and the loudmouth exhaust. Everthing lines up where its supposed to, but I guess I need a pipe spreader to fit the y-pipe into the loudmouth where they meet. I'll be taking it down the muffler shop this morning to get it all squared away.

So as the car sits right now, I have the first part of the y-pipe on each side and they're clamped down (so i could actually get the car home last night), so its basically like running turndowns....and MY GOD is it loud. The car sounded like a dragster last night when I turned it on and it was searching for an idle. I would say, the way the car sits right now, its about 3 times as loud as it was with the stock manifolds, cats, and loudmouth.

I have a feeling that I'll be adding a muffler sometime soon or my neighbors are gonna kill me.

-Dan

mebanditws6

Add a Bullet on there to take the rasp out.

Jason

BirchMan98z

I had the same problem with my y-pipe. Did the whole job myself and ended up not being able to fit the y-pipe, almost got frustrated and gave up, then I just used my legs as a "jaws of life" kind of deal, spread the y-pipe as far as I could and jammed it onto the headers. fit fine onto the cat-back.

BirchMan98z

lol Is that everyone's advice? ALL aftermarket cat-backs are raspy without cats, mine is, and I've got a "high end" system that costs 2x as much as a loudmouth. "Throw a bullet on there." LOL NO, put your cats back on. I was lucky enough to find a set of the SLP race pipes, so when I get sick of rasp, or I want to quiet it down, I just pull the race pipes out and put my cats back on. In my experience, the loudmouth is no worse than other systems

mebanditws6

It's true, throwing a Bullet on there helps alot. I've seen a dyno of the stock cats on an LS1 robbing 8rwhp. A bullet won't restrict like that. My friend's 94 T/A has BBK shorties, no cat, and a 2 chamber Flowmaster, and it sounds great IMO. I guess it has a little rasp, but it'll be much better than an open plate Borla or LM, so some catbaks will rasp worse than others without cats.

Jason

DanBUCF

Took it to the exhaust shop and got it taken care of. They had to do some serious heating & bending to get that y-pipe on there. Needless to say, I'm not really happy with the Texas-Speed y-pipe in terms of fitment.

That being said....

The car sounds a lot better now that the exhaust is going out the rear of the car, rather than under my butt. It really doesn't sound any different than the loudmouth when cruising around...but when you open it up, HOLY CRAP!

I really felt like I was driving a NASCAR car today on the highway on the way home when I opened it up on an exit ramp with Concrete barriers everywhere for the sound to hit off.

I really can't feel any kind of difference in power, yet, and I'm not sure it'll be a gain I'll actually be able to feel in the seat of my pants...but who knows.

Very happy with the headers so far. I'm taking the car out to cocoa beach tonight, should be fun...windows down, radio off, motor screaming.

teke184

LTs + orp + straight pipe (basically a LM) = HUGE

MikeyG

Yeah I was at the exhaust shop today when Dan's y-pipe was getting wedged in. What a piece of garbage that y-pipe was. It was 4 friggin' pieces to start with, and one of the pipes was not expanded where needed. Dan could have saved his morning and some $$ if that thing was better constructed.

But in the end when it was all clamped down and he fired it up it sounded AWESOME!

Did you give TSP a call yet to bitch Dan? Or are you just gonna let it go?