Ever since i installed lt headers on my girlfriends 98 TA she has been having issues. It is eating o2's. We have replaced the front o2's 3 times each and now are on the fourth set. We gave up after 3 sets and bought the rear o2's for a 02 corvette and they are still acting up. At least i am thinking it is them. all of the original ones would run fine for about 2 or 3 days and then the car would throw a slow response code. since we used the ones for the vette it has been acting like its going to throw a ses but hasnt yet, but then again it has only been a day on these. She has good power most of the time if she kicks down from 30 but any other speed it runs really bad. around 45 to 50 it runs really rough and doesnt want to kick down at all. Any suggestions would be great bc both of us are getting sick of messing with it and she is almost regreting moding her car at all.


Thanks in advance Chris

 

That sucks. I'm sorry that you have some freak problem, but dont let that turn you off of LS1's. You're car is one in a maybe 20k that might have had that problem... wish i had a suggestion

 

make sure all the plug wires are attached good and that all of them are in good shape (not damaged) from removing them to do the headers... also make sure that all plugs are in good shape it is easy to crack the porclin on the plug during install and this will cause problems and may not cause the check engine light to come on....... during an instal i cracked one plug and no light but car was running bad when i recheckd i found the cracked plug

 

What kind of sensors are you buying? Do they come with a warranty so you could get your money back? If they're Bosch's, I wouldn't be surprised. I've seen quite a few issues with those sensors between my two friends in Lansing and countless numbers of people here on the board. If you still have some factory stock sensors in good working order, give them a try. I went to LT's just before the spring and my stock O2's work just fine. They might wear out faster than normal because of the LT's compared to the stock manifolds. But, that hasn't happened yet.

FYI - An O2 sensor that's not reading appropriately will cause the PCM to compensate by adding/removing way more fuel that what the engine needs. That could be a reason the car feels down on power.

 

Ive changed plugs 2 time but it is a possibility ive used bosch and delco o2's it is throwing them both still no ses light from the vette o2's but its still not running right im going to swap her maf out with one of my buddys he had a similar problem but it finally threw the code. The cpu has been tuned for the headers. ill be happy if all that wrong is the computer hasnt had time to readjust from the last set we will see.

 

I haven't done the headers, but it sounds like what my SS was doing.

Took mine to the dealership for running like crap. After an "injector cleaning" the car ran even worse and finally threw a SES. Took it back in and they said it was a bad O2 sensor.

I asked if I came in because that little needle thingy on the dash was messed up because it was moving from the "F" toward the "E", would they replace the sensor in the fuel tank? They finally saw my point and discovered I had not one but two bad cats.

You didnt mention, but I assume you are running CATS of some type; maybe the stock ones. As I said above, I had to replace both CATS.... they crapped out and the O2 sensors were dong their job- sensing something was wrong. That caused the car to idle like crap, get pathetic mileage and run rich as hell (which helped finish off the cats) and even died a couple of times.

I dunno, but just a thought.....

Allen

 

thanks for the idea but no i had the exhaust all redone at the same time i put the headers on and there are no cats on it. i havnt had a chance to steal it from her to see how its running but i will do it tonight.

 

Please say you're running O2 sims or have the rear O2's deleted.

 

Yes the pcm has been tuned

 

it finally threw the vette o2's today im going to get free replacements and put the car on a scanner guessing im running extreemly rich