Just had this done to my car:

Pacesetter Long Tube Headers w/Y-Pipe
new AC Delco Plugs/Wires/Front o2's

and the car also has the mods in the sig. a friend, who is a skilled mechanic, put all this on for me. There is a bad exhaust leak coming from the passenger side header where it connects to the y-pipe. His welder broke, so he told me to get to an exhaust shop and it'd be fine. Thing is, my car ran 10 times better before all this work. He has done all my mechanic work before and has never done me wrong. Very trustworthy. Pacesetter didnt include 2/4 clamps and so he was forced to weld. Got started welding and the welder broke and it left the passenger side header not completely attached to the y-pipe. Makes a bad tick tick tick at that spot and out the tail-pipes. Would this kill my performance at all? Also, i'm gonna get it tuned for the rear o2's to be deleted. They're just hanging there right now. That wont have anything to do with my loss of performance, would it?

 

Anyone?

 

My car has an exhaust leak on both sides of the where the headers meet y-pipe. Don't get me wrong, it's not HUGE, but people know it's there. I still ran the time in my sig. I think it hurts your gas mileage more than anything. A slight loss of power though.

 

i dont know, mabye its just not what i was expecting or something? I was hoping for a big increase in power. I have read that people lose bottom ed with Long Tubes, but gain top end. Is this true? I ran the car before i took it home yesterday and it seemed to scream on top end. This is my first experience with headers. Didnt really know what to expect, but was hoping for that "off the line" neck snapping action. lol

 

An exhaust leak after the O2 sensors shouldn't really effect performance, but I guess since your leak is within a few inches of the O2 sensor that may be a problem. Also, not having the rear O2 sensors connected won't effect performance, it just throws an SES light. Long tube headers should have boosted your power all acrosss the power band, not just in the upper rpm's. My car ran like crap too after my initial long tube install, but after I got all the bugs worked out it screams.

If you can get a hold of a scanner, check out your long term fuel trim values, that'll tell you if an exhaust leak is effecting you.

 

thanks for that reply. its leaking pretty bad. all you can hear when underneath the driver or passenger side is "spat, spat, spat" lol ... it just needs to be reconnected and welded...hopefully. then with some madz28 tuning, i'm hoping it'll perk up and sling my head back real nice.