Ok, so we were dreading installing the LTs on the 99 TA this weekend. We had a lot of issues w/ them on the LT1s we have put them on. Banging the floor, stuff not fitting right, ect.

Well, we started on the TA Friday about 7pm and was firing it up around 11pm that night! Everything worked GREAT. They slid right in, hooked right up to the Magnaflow, and sounded amazing. Drove the next morning and had it welded up, and broke thost bad boys in all day Sat.

It was just awesome. They sound amazing, and the difference over manifolds (w/ the cam and intake) was HUGE.

It was so easy, it's scary to think about....

Had to share....good luck to all of you with future header installs. Thumbs up to PaceSetter....

 

Be careful with the addition of headers to a cam'd car. It can throw WOT off by 6~8%. In other words, if you were tuned to a 12.8:1 AFR, you could be as lean as ~14:1 now. The fuel trims will compensate some of that difference, but not necessarily all of it. Safest bet would be to find a buddy with a WBO2.

Congrats on the easy install! Glad the mechanic side of things worked out great for you.

 

I had Carolina Auto Masters pre-tune my PCM for headers. I hope those issues were taken care off.....thanks for the heads up

 

How was the access of everything in general compared to the LT1? I installed mids on my LT1 and SOB does not even start to describe, I am betting that LT's are easier across the board.

 

Compared to the LT1? A walk in the park.

Here is a basic break down of what we did. 2 people. First, disconnect battery.

One on each side takes of one beauty cover, and one coil pack. Remove the dip stick. Remove steering linkage. Remove spark plugs. Loosen manifold bolts. Lift car. (We had it on a lift.)

Loosen y-pipe bolts, cut the y-pipe off w/ a saw.

Remove manifolds. Slide in driver side header first. Then, slide in pass. side header. Lower car, put in header Stage 8 bolts from top.

Lower car, hook up ypipe.

Raise car, put in new plugs, reinstall dipstick, steering linkage, coils, and reconnect battery. Check over ALL plugs and connections twice.

FIRED IT UP!

Went to bed.....next morning, take it to welding shop, pay $20 for welding ypipe w/ catback.

The feel of Longtubes and the sound....you know, priceless

 

Don't forget to retighten the bolts after a few heat cycles.

 

Unless you're using the stock mls gaskets. With those, when properly installed, there are no problems with loosening or leakage.

 

Thanks for letting me know. I did use the stock gaskets, but the Stage 8 bolts. Was going to re-check them before I drove it again....

 

I was also amazed at how much easier it was to do than what a big fuss everyone makes of it. Unfortunately when I fired it up a few things went wrong which set back my install time a couple hours.

 

Yeah I use Stage 8 locking bolts too. After changing heads this last winter I reused my exhaust gaskets, torqued the headers to Man. specs and locked the bolts. No leaks.

 

Great!

Now I am going to drive the wheels off it

 

Could you guys tell me where to get these stage 8 locking bolts?

 

Many places

You can get them from a lot of the sponsors here, Thunder Racing, TByrne Motorsports, ect. Look through the sponsors/vendors list

They typically run around $35-40 a set. But WELL worth it.

 

Thank you very much

 

NP