I had done all the searching and read every post I could find so I knew what I was getting myself into on doing this myself without asking too many dumb questions. But here I am anyway...

OK I installed the Headers yeserday, Open Headers =

And today is to be the day for the ORY back, but when checking out the finished header install I think it is too close to the subframe where the tranny crossmember bolts to. I have read multiple posts about this being normal and many more where people talk about clearancing it with a bottle jack... But never found pics of it and how close it can be???

This pic from Jeff H was the only thing I could find but from this angle it doesn't look like his was as close as mine...
Even if you look at mine from some of the common shots I found online it looks good, like these.
http://www.1slowformula.com/images/o...ers_bottom.jpg
http://www.1slowformula.com/images/dside_bottom.jpg
http://www.1slowformula.com/images/dside_clearance2.jpg

I shot a bunch of pics of where I think it is too close, so I hope you guys can give some good advise...

http://www.1slowformula.com/images/dside_clearance.jpg
http://www.1slowformula.com/images/dside_clearance3.jpg
http://www.1slowformula.com/images/dside_clearance4.jpg
http://www.1slowformula.com/images/dside_clearance5.jpg

BTW motor and tranny mounts are stock replacements in good shape...

 

the y pipe is already clearanced from pacesetter, it will be touching the crossmember right there, so i just wraped some exhaust wrap around the y pipe where it was touching the floor to get rid of the vibration noise.

 

i got a custom y-pipe made for this reason... reduced to 2.5" pipe right at the collector. the only time mine ever even touches is if my clutch has a really bad chattering spell. otherwise i can pretty much dump the clutch and everything with no problems. I have ALL original mounts on engine and trans too at 84k. I can take pictures if youd like.

I also JUST got mine done a couple of weeks ago, good feeling isnt it? I drove mine open headers once and wasnt impressed at all... but after i got my y-pipe on i definitely felt the difference. Im also very, very happy with my ground clearance for running cats too... im not even worried about scraping anything.

 

check your motor mounts and transmission mount they might be worn out

 

The y-pipe is notched on the drivers side so that it clears the floorboard. Your y-pipe may hit the chassis brace, that was the case with me. You can either pop it off, or use some spacers to drop the brace down enough to clear the y-pipe.

 

Well I went ahead earlier and put everything together. I got the Y pipe on, my biggest fear this morning was that I couldn't even get the pipe on... There is about 3/16" clearance between that frame rail and the Y-pipe when I finally got everything snugged in. I tested it while looking at everything when my wife blipped the gas and it rocked up but was never really touching, it came withing maybe 1/32"...

So then I took it for a test drive and everytime I hit the gas I could hear/feel banging, even on times I didn't even give it tons of gas...

I got back home and checked and there are no signs of it hitting the frame rail, could it be something else? I did notice that it was about 1/4" or less from the Torque Arm, but the T/A goes up when accelerating right? Isn't that what help the cars lift the front tires? I remeber reading something about the length of the T/A and how much the frontend lifts on launch, but can't find that article right now...

Hold on... If I picture the drivers side of the car and when driving forward the wheels would want to rotate counter clockwise, wouldn't that mean the T/A should also rotate that same direction causing it to move down? Could that be what's banging and I have been looking in the wrong area? I kinda knew my T/A mount needed to be replaced but didn't because I knew I was going to a different T/A later this year...

 

The torque arm was another catch point under load for me. Once I installed the crossmember mounted torque arm, it eliminated that problem, but as a temporary fix, I wrapped that part of the y-pipe in header wrap to dull the sound. Also, have you replaced your motor mounts lately? That can be a source of the problem there.

 

Here are pictures of PaceSetter LT's and Y-Pipe on my slammed Z28.


First a pic to show how low the car is:






And now the LT's...















Everything is pretty close, but no problems anywhere, oh yeah and I have my stock motor mounts with 130Kish miles on them, hah.

 

The pacesetter Y is junk. I cant stand how its notched to get passed the Crossmember. I was going to do GMMG and pacesetter Y but instead went with Xr1s off the collector. I had the place notch and reweld my Crossmember it still holds the same stranght and no it can clear up to 4'' of piping.