How many of you have had to clearance your K-member? Also how many of you have had to cut that extra casting material on the block off from the driver side to get them to fit?

 

Just helped a buddy put a set on his '01. They went in so easy, it felt like we were doing it wrong. We had to do zero clearancing. I'd suggest a new set of polyurethane motor mounts when you have the exhaust out of the way. That way you don't have to figure out how to stop your y-pipe from banging after the install is finished.

All in all, they were a great product.

Ben T.

 

^^^

What he said!!!

 

I just had mine installed today and the headers went in great.

The TSP catted y-pipe on the other hand, didn't fit well at all, and bangs very badly when starting out and during shifts. My mech. is having a custom brace/hanger made for it to solve the issue, so hopefully that'll solve the problem.

 

It's not that it's a bad fit- it's just the nature of the beast. You now have a huge pipe in place of the stock crimped factory piping. Combine that larger OD pipe with aging rubber mounts, and it's going to deflect and collide with the bottom of your cab- i.e. "bang".

Some people wrap their y-pipe with a piece of old radiator hose or install an additional bracket, but I think that's sort of a "jerry rigged" fix. I feel the best way to fix this is to install new polyurethane MOTOR mounts; however, I'm not a fan of the polyurethane transmission mounts.

Ben T.

 

Not the nature of the beast, the nature of some y-pipes. I just installed a set of Jet Hot long tubes and their y-ipe on a 98 Z. Their Y clears everything by at least 1/2". No banging at all.

 

You must have been extra careful installing it. I know the Jet Hots are more expensive than the Pacesetters. Not sure on your exact reasoning, but you could use this to justify the extra you spent.

Ben T.

 

It's not the Pacesetters, it's the TSP y-pipe.

My mech. had to bend my fuel lines up a little bit because the y-pipe was butt up against them. The TSP catted y-pipe is not worth $350.00, I'm sorry. A friend and his friend both have ORYs from TSP and they bang too. You would think they'd know people won't like a banging noise, but I guess that wasn't foremost in its design. I'm not knocking TSP, they're a GREAT company, but their y-pipes need to fit better.

 

Having recently installed a non-catted Y I am very pleased with the quality per dollar spent. I thought it was a great fit. Having custom fabed mandrel bent exhaust systems previously, I appreciated their work.

Ben T.

 

They bang on the floor because 1) the pipes are a lot larger than the stock and 2) you need to replace your motor mounts. I have the pacesetters and TSP catted y-pipe with prothane motor mounts and the y-pipe fit perfect and nothing bangs on anything, not even when I step off the clutch at 2500 RPMS!

 

I'm one of the friends SFB was talking about and mine only banged a couple times when first installed. Once everything was tightened down really well it doesn't bang any more.

However, for the amount of ORY's that TSP sells with the Pacesetters, they should fit better. Both my and DanBUCF had fitment problems with our stuff. The ORY's don't fit over the collectors of the Pacesetters. This was over a year ago for both of us so they may have resolved these issues by now.

A more recent problem I have is that my exhaust leaks like a bastard and it torched both my O2 sensors. The band clamps TSP sent are very good but since the Y to collector joint got opened up for the fitment, I don't think I'm getting a very good seal. Not necessarily anything to do with TSP or their product (LS1 O2's suck *** anyway) but I wish they would've fit properly as shipped.

Abe

 

I always install stuff very carefully I didn't spend anything he brought his car over with headers in the trunk and paid me to put them on.

 

I forgot about the 3" round exhaust clamps they provide. Those suck. Once you tighten them up well enough to not leak they deform the exhaust to a point you can't get it off. Stainless steel band clamps are the way to go. They're a lot more expensive than the free supplied clamps, but it's worth it. They'll seal 100%, and they are easy to remove and have them seal just as well the following time they go in.

These are the ones you're going to want to be using,

http://www.jcwhitney.com/webapp/wcs/...atalogId=10101

They have a lot of them 10 minutes down the road from my house at Thunder Racing.

EDIT: These clamps to not require a male-to-female union for a 100% seal. A butt-joint will seal just as well.

Ben T.

 

I installed mine in my 98 Z and they went in without having to mess with the K-member, they redesigned it to fit. But I did have to cut off part of the block casting. I would reccomend just filing it down, you shouldn't have to do much if any at all. My TSP ORY was a pain to get on. They didn't enlarge the tubes enough to fit over the header collectors, and it didn't fit together on its own either when I did a dry fit. If you have this problem, just go to a muffler shop and they can expand them for you for cheap, if not free.

 

Yes.

I installed PaceSetter LTs and ORY along with Prothanes. No banging whatsoever--unlike MANY other Fbodies that have a LOT of money and HP, yet still bang and clunk under hard acceleration