Well I got my Pacesetter LTs with an ORY installed, with a big thanks to my buddy Bryan. Along with a flow 80 muffler (don't flame it was free). We replaced the plats with TR55s. And plug wires looked good. The Headers smack the x brace I believe under accelleration, that's just annoying. The car seems to idle like it has a cam in it it know. It's real rough, and it stumbles. And what is that sensor on the drivers side, because it is cracked (was before install)

Do I need an O2 sim for the rear sensor, is that why it is running so bad? Or should I just get a tune? Either way LTs just sound great.

On another note I gotta replace the timing cover gasket and bothe head gaskets. Damn.

 

You need 02 simms to replace your rear 02 sensors. Either that, or you need to get them programmed out of the computer. Also, make sure none of your wires were burnt from touching header primaries.

Sensor on the drivers side? Was it an 02 sensor that cracked? If so it needs to be replaced.

 

Is your car the 96 that is in the signature? If so, then you will need two 02 simulators as you have two rear 02 sensors. As for the sensor on the drivers side, I am guessing you cracked the coolant temp sensor, it is a common blunder when doing a header install. It runs around twenty bucks from the dealer and is pretty easy to replace. Just put a catch pan under there because when you remove it, some coolant will spill out. As for your car running bad, is it misfiring? I would check to make sure your spark plug wires are correctly placed correctly and nothing is burnt. Also, it is pretty common for coated headers to destroy the front 02 sensors upon initial startup.

 

o2 simms cost money. i bought some for my 2000 Z71 when i gutted the cats. I beleive they were like $70. I would just get a real tune. It's gonna cost more but you will benefit more from it too.

And if you gotta pull the timing chain cover and do new head gaskets why not spend a little more and out a cam in it, at least a hotcam, and then get the tune and it will be a whole new car to you.

That's the excuse i used when i told my wife when my gaskets were leaking!LOL

 

Neither missing O2 sims nor the cracked coolant temp sensor (if that's the one you are talking about - its for the dash gauge) would make it run poorly. Most likely, you have a misfire due to arcing wires or a cracked plug. Or, you have exhaust leaks before the pre-cat O2 sensors, or the header coating burn-off contaminated the pre-cat O2 sensors. Since you have a 96, its easy to put a scanner on there and find out if its misfiring, and which cylinders.

I would assume you have an SES light for the missing after-cat O2 sensors. What did you do about the EGR and AIR systems? If you deleted them, there's the potential for a couple more codes and the SES light.

Its also possible the noise from the headers hitting the X-brace could be causing knock retard.

 

First.. Why do you have to replace both headgaskets?! If your blowing white smoke.... a blown gasket may be the cause of your problems right there...

Double check for crossed/loose wires at the opti, or an injector wire swapped.. if no wires are burn't this would really be the only other thing with a header install that could go wrong to cause it to run rough (sounds like its missing if its running rough all the time).

If its an IAC/O2's/exhaust leak/other sensors, it would either A) run rough only at idle and clear up in the upper rpms a bit or B) Symptoms would appear only after car went into closed loop.

If anyone thinks I'm overlooking anything plz throw that in

 

Thanks for all the help guys. I'll try and answer all the questions. This install was done on my 96z in the sig.

For the gasket issue: I noticed I've been leaking coolant and oil. Oil is visible around the timing cover. The mechanic said I had a leaking head gasket when he did the swap. We noticed some oil around the head. He also smelled coolant and oil burning from the faulty head gaskets since the cats were deleted with the new headers. It's not a huge leak, but one regardless.

I'd like to build the motor but since it has 130k I don't want to go internal. The headers were a straight trade for my zex n20 system, plus an install, chrome valve covers, MSD wires, air foil, and a flowmaster 80 muff. It was a nice deal

The plug wires are brand new supposedly. They are stockers that were replaced by the previous owner. They look pretty good. THe guy is giving me some MSDs he has with about 8k miles on them. I might give them a shot. I took out some champion platinums and put in NGK Tr55s.

I do believe I'm talking about the cracked coolant sensor. It's on the head, not the headers.

I have no egr or air systems now. They're race only headers and he simply plugged up the old holes with a gasket. Obviously this is one reason why it's throwing some codes.

The car is missing and vibrating pretty bad at idle. It's actually shaking, but it never stalls. At WOT it's still pulling hard, much harder than before. And I don't notice anything above say 2-3k rpms that's going wrong. Although it's hard to tell with the y-pipe banging against my vert X-brace.

It seems the consensus it's a plug wire. I'm going to pickup those MSD ones and look around for a possible problem. Although the car did this immediately afterwards. Would that really cause a wire the burn that quickly? I'll check and see if maybe some are crossed then.

For the O2 sims where is a cheap place to pick these up? Since I need 2 should I just get a tune? Since air and egr are gone I don't want another "not ready" status in my PCM that could be caused from disabling the O2s. Is that how they tune them out? Simply disable them? THe reason I'm asking is I have to attempt emissions in a year and a half.

Thanks again

 

sensor cracked where? im sure thats not helping your car just a thought

 

Maybe it's pulling time (due to the "banging") and when you speed up it smooths out and pulls less time. Short anwser fix the banging.......hammers work nice on some things.

 

Yes plug wires can burn instantly after startup especially if they are touching the headers. You should have a flashing SES if you have a continuous misfire.
From how it reads it seems like it is definatly a continuous misfire.

 

I do occasionally get a flashing SES light. So I'll look for that. I'll try and fix the banging with a BFH. It's annoying and if that's casuing it I'll be quite happy to hammer it out.

 

Don't do that. More than likely it is hitting on the raised part of the tranny cross brace. Get a grinder and take the raised areas off the brace where the collector is. That should solve your problem. If you take the cross brace off and beat on it you can distort it and make it a real bitch to bolt back on.

 

I say its running poor from one of the following two things:

1) You didnt check good neough for a burned wire
2) Your headers are coated, and like many, it has ****ed up your O2 sensors during the initial "Burn-In" of the headers.

Get it on a datalogging scanner ( Most any garage should have one ) and see what your O2 sensors are doing. They should constantly fluctuate from 100mV to 900mV. And when you go WOT, they should stick in the 850-950mV range.

 

Alright a grinder it is. I just picked up one actually. Strange enough, I don't have a jack though! Thanks for the tip

 

Also the headers aren't coated. Wish they were, but hell this was a trade. Once it's daylight again I'll see if I can find a burnt wire, it's a little harder with just a maglight. I'll check into that datalogging thing soon.