After a 21 hour marathon of sweat and cursing, the MAC headers were installed on the 97 TA. Lots of problems, but each one was eventually resolved. The LS1 SLP Loudmouth was installed easily and sucessfully. There is an exhaust leak that will require attention in the next few weeks, which is in turn is giving a flashing SES, sluggish throttle response and some LOUD backfires, but all in all it sounds great!

Once I get the exhaust leak corrected, I'm going to see about another dyno at Axcelerated. That probably won't be until October, I guess.
ron

 

Wow and i thought my header install was long at 17 hours .

 

that happened to me to , turned out to be an 02 , hope its just a leak ,

my header install was fun , it really not a bad job

 

We're pretty sure it's a leak. Reason being is that when we installed the header the first time, the first two threads of the last bolt against the firewall got stripped. Had to pulled the headers back out, quick retap, and reinstalled the header. We are thinking that that process may have compromised the gasket. I'll get another one and slip it in and see if that cures the problem.

No not a bad job, just so much crap has to come out and then later be reconnected. We also did a new OTV spark plug wire install which added to hours.

 

yeah its a lot of crap but notthing to serious , alternator and starter are the biggest thing, well besides the old exhaust

the OTVC wires didnt take that long , i actually liked doing them lol

i said id never do another LT1 LT header install but thinking back on all the aggrivation i actually had fun doing it ,new experiences. im just the type of person that likes to work on friends cars than my own



hope the leak fixes ur problem ,

 

Congrats Ron Look forward to seeing and hearing your car soon Mybe we should meet up somewhere and compare headers/sounds

Ed

 

I think if we didn't have probs, and were not installing new over the valve cover spark plug wires, we could have done it in 15 hours. The exhaust was back in and mounted in just 12 hours. But we forgot to put the oil dipstick in during the header mount and didn't realize this until after the starter was in and the whole exhaust was mounted. That mistake cost us another hour trying to get the stick bracket screw in. Retapping the striped bolt hole in the block took another hour. Making a "dimple" in the header as it was smack against the brake master cylinder took some time. Etc etc etc.

We quit late night Saturday and started Sunday with the wires which required reroutes and stripping and crimping to fit. That took five hours to get them nice and pretty and some them heat shielded near the collectors. Then we had a problem with the coil wire...

I can't tell you how much of a relief it was to turn the key and hear the car start and run...


Ed, I need to get the exhaust leak fixed 'cause the car has a rough idle and a nasty "backfire" gunshot "POW" sound when the pedal is let up. I did make a recording of the stock exhaust before the "operation". I'll do another once the patient is out of "post-op".

 

Yah, LOTS of cusing! Tightening up the header bolts, and the last one on the back of the pass side wouldn't go in the last few turns. More curing, pull it all apart, tap the threads, all back together and ready to do wires and Ron ask ' Hey John, do I need this?' I look and he is holding the dip stick tube OK, one more time.

We did set a record for least amount of bolts dropped and bandages used! I think maybe 3 or 4 bolts dropped max and they all made it to the floor! None lost! I remember when I installed my long tubes every time I dropped either never made it to the floor, or fell between the tubes and I spend hours fishing then out of the collectors! Now That was some major leage cursing!

I really like the quality of the Mac headers, all the flanges mached up nicely with the y-pipe and other then a minor set-back and my oversight of the D.S. tube things went fairly well.

We just need to a few hours to replace the header gasket.

 

hah that happened to me to , couldnt get he screw in b/c i had to "modify" the dipstick after a while we got it in

 

No more E-town for you Mr. Noisey.

 

did you keep the cats or go with orp?

 

Setup is fifty state legal... kept the cats.

Jim... I'll just start slow off the line before I punch it.
Actually at idle it's not bad at all.