Wow, what a piece of cake.

First off, I want to say that the guys at QTP are a great bunch of people.

Second, the quality of the headers and Y-pipe are top-notch. Granted, the ORY-pipe was like putting a jig-saw puzzle together, but it fits great.

Alright, the install:

Total time: 6 hours (on a lift)

I had two friends helping, one of which did a header install before. We got all the old crap off in about 2 hours. The coil packs were the hardest, because that lost bolt or two in the back was a PITA. Also, one of the bolts on the flange for the passenger side cat was a bitch to get to. I tried at it for about 30 min, before I wised up and grabbed some penetrant. After that it wasn't too bad. I just had to go to a 16mm socket instead of the 15 I used for everything else.

Once I got the manifolds dropped, I wanted to test the driver-side header. I did my research and found that I'd probably have to drop my oil diverter, possible drain plug, and might even have to jack up the engine a couple of inches. I also read that the best way to get the header in was to make it so the collecter is actually verticle, in other words, have the header aimed straight up. Sure enough, I tried it without taking ANYTHING off, and it went right up in like 5 seconds. My friend that has done headers before said I was the luckiest SOB he's ever known. Obviously that saved us a lot of time. Also, the passenger side went in just as easily. Didn't have to remove anything.

It took a while to get the driverside header sealed right though. All the bolts would go in fine, but the very front one didn't want to go in all the way. I loosened everything up and tightened that one first, and that seemed to have done the trick.

I also put in new spark plugs, because it was about that time anyway. The first few were tricky because of the angle of the plugs, but after I got the hang of it, the rest were cake. My spark plug socket kept getting stuck on the plugs though, so that was a pain.

After that, I connected everything back up, and fired up the car. DAMN was it loud (open headers at this point) There was the usual smoke from the oils on the headers and the inside getting baked. Went for a quick spin, and everything worked fine, so I went back on the lift and started on the Y-pipe.

The Y-pipe was really confusing because there were actually two parts that were accidentally stuck on each other (a short elbow, and a 4" to 3" merge pipe) After we figured out that those were two seperate pieces, it wasn't too bad. We were actually short one band clamp (for the Y-pipe/I-pipe connection) Other than that, it tucked up pretty well in most places. It's still the lowest point of my car in one place, but it's not too bad. Thankfully my car's not lowered, otherwise we'd have problems. Also, the Y pipe is hitting the floor board right now in one spot, so I'm getting a valvespring welded between it.

Other than that, everything is going great right now. I definately noticed a difference. The sound's great, absolutely amazing. I have the stock catback with a Dynomax muffler, and it has a very nice sound to it. Not raspy at all.

So yeah, all in all it was a great mod. I'm just glad I had friends to help, because I think I only did about 40% of the work, haha.

 

how is the plug access? i know it's cake on my flowtechs.

and how much engine bay heat do they give off? more than coated headers?

 

The plug access isn't bad at all. I had plenty of room to tighten all by hand, and my hands aren't all that small (although I have small forearms)

As far as heat, I'm not sure what the difference would be vs. coated. I'm still learning things with them, and don't even know yet how much of a difference there is vs. stock.

 

plug access to me is easier then with the stock manis. Glad to see u got a nice ypipe though. my was a piece of crap. Ur y is hitting the floor boards to huh? Did u get the cutouts with it or just the standard Y? I can't stand it and am trying to modify it day by day to get it right.

Glad to hear the install was great! Mine was just as easy 2. Beautiful headers.

 

Sounds like a good install, good job. Take any pics during install?

 

Worst part about installing larger headers, i.e. SLP or FLP, is that stupid block of extra casting material on the passenger side. Man I wish that thing wasn't there. Other than that, no sweat, even with my SLP's. I did it with jack-stands. Had to pop off the steering linkage, but it was a breeze to get it back on. Couple taps with a hammer and wooden peg and it popped right back into place. I've done quite a few header installs on LT-1 and LS-1 cars, and I'd have to say, it's way way easier with an LS-1. Lots of people have some bigger issues, though... sagging motor mounts can really cramp the process.

 

I got the Y fixed last night. I guess my pipe was assembled kinda wrong. One of the pipes with a 135* bend was bent the wrong way (my fault) so it was hitting the ground. After we moved some things around, the ground clearance issue was solved, as was the banging.



Install pics

They're not the most informative, but it shows the position of everything.

 

Sweet looking install. I did notice you didn't put the cats back on. Guess D.C. doesn't require visual inspection?

 

Yeap, QTP headers = teh win. I have much better plug access now, I can do them all by the top if i remove the passenger side coil pack.

 

I'm lucky: the car's still registered in South Dakota. Perks of the military

Yeah, I left a few bolts off of the coil packs so it'll come off earlier. No use spending an hour putting the back ones on again

 

Dont know if your being sarcastic or not, but the only one I left out is the furthest back one. The one that you have to remove the freaking heater hose to get off otherwise.

 

Haha, I was hoping it would be obvious enough.

Yeah, definately sarcasm. I just hated how long it took to get the two back bolts on the passenger side off. The guy that helped me out said that not many people put all of them back on, because there isn't that great of a need. So yeah, I left a few off

 

I always put them all back in. Don't need faulty graound problems or extra rattles. So I slot the rearmost hole in the bracket out so it's only a couple of turns in or out.

 

Get some pics of those headers up here for us!

 

He posted some here


I'd be very interested in any before/after dyno runs