king awesome!

So i tracked the car yesterday (2015 Z06), well, for 20 minutes yesterday, and i melted the O2 sensor wires. I had a local shop install the Headers and a cat-less x-pipe last week. They tucked the wires up but so much heat was generated that it melted the wires and extension plugs anyway. It also melted the rubber from the metal clamp that holds the wires in place.

questions:
1. should i ask the installer to eat the repair? is it standard practice to insulate the wires once headers and x-pipe are installed?

2. What should i ask them to insulate the wires with?

3. Do i need to insulate anything else?

4. the shop wants to wrap the x-pipe with exhaust wrap to reduce heat. is this going to help save the o2 sensor wires?

thank you very much for your replies.

pic of my ride home

leadville1

I tracked my car and the same thing happened, they fortunately didn't destroy the wiring but I did insulate the wires with a high temp cover on them.

Spoke to ARH and they said most likely they were installed incorrectly or not routed the correct way. It would be wise for anybody planning on tracking the car to insulate these wires.

leadville1

They used these on mine,

Another good thing to do is use these on the radiator hose since it sits right under your air intake. I had both of mine insulated to help keep ambient heat out of the engine bay.

http://www.thermotec.com/products/18...t-sleeves.html

I didn't wrap my X Pipe but I did wrap the pipe as it comes near the differential and transmission, this ambient heat is a big cause of problems with temps in the tranny and dif.

king awesome!

Thank you very much leadville. I really appreciate the reply. I get the car back this afternoon and i think i will take it down to Joe at CPR to check the work. I also think i'll insulate the other areas you mention.

CDH76

I would expect the tuner shop to be covering that for you. That is unfortunate.

WKMCD

In my experience the only way that can happen is if the installer didn't take the time to properly tie the O2 wires away from the headers. It can be tight and a PITA to do right but now you know what happens if you don't.

The shop should definitely eat the cost.

MindBend

Same here with mine.
And yes, they were installed correctly, tucked up as far as they'd go (did it myself and was REAL meticulous here).

The OE wiring held-up ok, but the aftermarket O2 extenders melted. Get some heat shielding on Xpipe and/or wires. Doing both here. It's NOT the kinda failure you want a the track...mucking around under there SUCKS if you're not on a lift.

Will take some pix of mine.

ZO6ME

Happened here as well. I ordered the plug in from cheapestgmparts.com and put heat tape around all the wiring. Haven't had a problem since.

MindBend

Z06ME, when you say that you "ordered the plug) do you mean the extender? If so, what's the part #?
I didn't know that they made heat tape...just shield. Have to look into that. It's my weekend project.

robert miller

To me this is just a poor job on the shop that put these in for you man. I would call the shop are take it back to them.

I did my work and used the black tie's to pull them up and back and out of the way. No way that anyone that does this work wouldn't know to tie these wires back up out of the way. Robert

MindBend

Disagree. Are you tracking your car? Mine was fine on street, but a lot of WOT gets things MUCH hotter. Mine were tied-up and out of the way as far as I could get them, yet they melted the black ties, etc.

I've never had another car do this, but there's very little room and shielding is the only way.

MikeyTX

Mine were installed correctly ............. Thankfully