4REGT4

Here is an overview of the Stainless Works Long Tube Header installation I just completed. Since each system and car have their own variations and differences (most I am not aware of) it is meant to be a guideline and not a definitive write-up. Keep in mind that I may not have listed every item that needs to be addressed and this is strictly my experience installing these headers on a ’95 LT1.

[All of the images are in thumbnail format and clicking them will link to the larger image]

First I’d like to mention some of my personal gains from installing these headers… The only other real modifications that I had made prior the headers was FlowMaster Super 40 mufflers, X-pipe (fabricated from the 3” magnaflow x-pipe), and gutted cats. The gutted cats caused the car to backfire under deceleration and the x-pipe + mufflers caused the car to have an obnoxious resonance/drone at around 1800 rpm (6th gear on the highway). After installing the headers and completely removing the cats I now have absolutely no backfire. What I didn’t expect was that ALL resonance and drone is completely gone. The car sounds amazing and is deeper and louder, but is actually much quieter now on the highway in 6th gear (I used to often put it in 5th to kill the annoying drone – in this case gas mileage is up to ~27-29mpg on the highway). And the performance gain is very noticeable from ~2500 rpm and up. – Weight reduction wise I meant to weigh the new stuff before it went in, but forgot… the old stuff weighed in at ~55lbs (if I still had cat guts it would have been more). The UPS package said 39lbs total so I figure the drop was around 20lbs.

Now for the process I went through… This is for the CATLESS (OFFROAD) set-up shown in pieces below:





I strongly suggest disconnecting the battery before you do any work on the car.

First I unplugged/unbolted the ASR and moved it out of the way (the middle inner fender panel will also need to be removed).


The EGR (air) tubes will need to be screwed off of the manifolds (this picture also shows the first bracket removed from the alternator).


To remove the A/C (and get to the last brace) you’ll need to unbolt the 3rd header bolt, the 4 bolts on the compressor, and loosen the serpentine belt (the engine bay has the diagram for this).


You will need to remove the spark plug wires, oil dipstick (it can be seen easily from under the car and just twists out), spark plugs and the connector attached to the engine that I smashed off from overlooking it (in pic -- I've now been informed that it is a coolant sensor) – I also removed my loom brackets and have since used tie wraps to hold the wires out of the way – this may not be 100% necessary, but it does make it easier to work.


To remove the old manifolds and piping I first unbolted the manifolds from the engine then from the collectors… (pic of one of the collectors from under the car)



((Make sure you have at least disconnected or completely removed the O2 sensors at this point.))

Then I cut (with a Sawzall) the exhaust pipes right behind the factory hangers…



I had already installed an x-pipe in place of the resonator…
After that both cats are held on by brackets… on the passenger side there are two easy bolts to get to…


– the remaining passenger side bracket needed to be moved a little with a hammer to make way for the new headers…
The driver’s side is a bit more difficult… The 3 bolt connector after the cat will need to be removed with the studs (the studs can be pulled by piggy-backing nuts together and twisting the studs out) – the remaining bracket needed to be removed and the top bolt seems nearly impossible to get to…


So with a vise-grips it can be yanked back and forth until it breaks (but it is VERY strong – of course other methods will work as well)…

By now the manifolds and piping could be removed (cutting the brace connecting the factory hangers will help).

Now for installing the new headers… First I have to say that you will either need to modify some of the factory bolts or use shorter aftermarket bolts – you’ll notice from my photos that I used allan head bolts as well to make thing easier.

Anyway… you’ll want to temporarily screw in a couple bolts to hold up your new gaskets…



Then you can pass the headers up from the bottom of the car… the SW installation sheet mentions that you may have to remove the starter, but it wasn’t anywhere near being an issue (plenty of clearance)… -- This is easy to do by yourself as the headers are real light and can hold themselves up in the bay for you to continue from up top…



Bolting the new headers on may be a bit tricky, but it really depends upon what bolts you have available – my combination of allan head bolts and shorter bolts was helpful. Of course you will be reusing the two factory stud bolts that hold the oil dipstick and A/C braces… for these Stainless Works supplies two cheap, crudely hand cut, stainless spacer tubes… -- on the passenger side all I had to do was grind the lips off of the bolt and nut and they fit just fine (but the oil dipstick bracket will need to be altered a bit). On the driver stud bolt I ground the lip off and it wouldn’t fit.. then I belt sanded the head down to a ½” and it still didn’t fit… for me the tube needed to be hit a bit with a hammer to make clearance for the stud bolt and the A/C bracket (which were belt sanded down as well). In this picture you can also see where the cheap sleeve busted…

(I suggest replacing the spark plugs and such before you re-install the A/C braces, compressor etc. etc.)

From what I have read – not everyone has this problem with SWs headers, but it is easy to overcome.

After the headers were in place I mocked up the new 3” exhaust piping and made marks accordingly so that the rest of the exhaust system could be removed, cut, and welded to the 3-2.5” steps and later slipped back onto the new 3” piping (making sure all the clamps were loosely in place). The SWs instructions say to go to an exhaust shop to have the piping resized for clamping and of course that is an option as well…

This is where I ended up… (clamps are loose in the first picture)




(If you have clearance issues you’ll really want to pay more attention to getting the whole clamp out of the way -- I later loosened mine and got them up out of the way).

By now you can re-install the EGR (air) tubes as well as the spark plugs and wires… For the most part the plugs are MUCH easier to do than before with the old manifolds… but the front-most plugs are tight. I found that I could get a socket on the drivers side by temporarily removing the sleeve tip (the socket I used had nut-like facets on the end and I could then use a wrench to tighten) – the passenger side however was too tight for a socket, but there is plenty of room to use a box end wrench on it…

As for replacing the O2 sensors.. for a 95 you can re-use the original O2 sensors (95s come with heated O2s) and there is NO reason to use a simulator on the rear O2 – it can remain completely disconnected. I understand that some other years may need to switch to heated O2s or use simulators – I suggest researching the year of your Vette before getting stuck at this point…

Now you can also re-install the rear A/C brace followed by the compressor and the top A/C brace. The alternator bracket will need washers or a spacer behind where the old brace was that cannot be used with the new headers. The 3 washers that SWs provided did not have a large enough ID to accommodate the factory bolt.

Don’t forget to re-install the serpentine belt…

In the end I used tie-wraps to tie the O2 sensor wiring away from the header pipes along with the spark plug wires and one other shielded hose that would have been resting on the headers on the driver’s side (I’d advise looking near the pipes thoroughly for anything else that may be touching before running the car).

This is pretty much it – as the SW instructions mention you’ll eventually want to make sure your bolts don’t need to be retightened after some driving (they suggest 20-30min and then let it cool completely)…

EDIT: Also expect intense white smoke a little while the first time you run the car... This is the oil burning off that was used during the mandrel bending process in the header primaries.



GOOD RIDDANCE!





Here are some additional photos:









Sorry that I do not have any of a 100% completion (But I'd take some upon request).

And for whatever reason I like this somewhat abstract photo of my car… (In higher resolution it has been my desktop background since I took it)







I hope this has been helpful to anyone that is considering Stainless Works headers and wanted to get an idea of what kind of project they’d be getting into (or those who were seeking guidelines). It may not be perfect, but it is a far better write-up than what is provided by Stainless Works. Again, feel free to use this as a guideline, but please do some research on your specific model and make sure you know you can complete the job on your own before getting stuck or damaging your vehicle. Best regards – Greg Jones




Sound clip:
Here is my newest sound clip taken on a cheap digital camera...
http://media.putfile.com/Exhaust-sound-clip-21 Hard to tell what it really sounds like -- next I'll need to get one under accelleration from inside the car -- that sounds the best






. Please let me know if anyone notices any problems or items that I failed to address. Thank you.

DarkMatter

Fantastic write-up. Thanks a million for tackling this first. This should be a great help to those of us contemplating header installs, but haven't yet taken the plunge.



-DM

C4DC

Nice writeup. The sensor you (and I) broke off in the passenger side head is a coolant sensor. I bought 2 from different part stores that were the wrong part, then went to the dealer to get the right one. It only has one lead instead of two like most in the parts stores have. They otherwise look identical. Brought back some recent memories.
Oh yeah, I reused my wire looms and brackets but customized them to fit again. Some had to be grinded and/or bent the mounting tabs to work, but the look like stock now.

4REGT4

I figured that was what it was, but my digital coolant reading still works perfectly... the analog gauge however is dead (but I figured it could have been dead before and unnoticed as well -- is this what happened with yours?). At any rate, the digital coolant reading seems fine so I'm not particulary worried about it -- thanks for letting me know As for the loom brackets -- I agree that they could have easily been re-used, but it is much cleaner without them and will make other work easier as well...

wolverine1967

we need more detail, informed people like you here. this was a great post for those of us looking to get the SW headers and question if we have the skills for a DIY or not.
Thanks for sharing all that you've learned.

Mr. Peabody

Great write up

ALLT4

They look much better on your car than on your carpet. Good Job!

STEVEN13

Thanks for the write-up!

Steven

C4DC

Yeah, the waterpump sensor goes to the digital guage and the one in the head goes to the analog. I had it replaced before firing it up. If you replace it, be sure to have the new one ready to screw in because the coolant will pour out as soon as the sensor is removed. I was afraid of burning the plug wires, so I made every effort to re use the looms.
I also purchased a few 1X2 feet sections of thermotec adhesive mat for the brake booster (known to melt with headers installed) and floor pans. I also recently wrapped from the cats back to the resonater with header wrap for heat control. I was thinking peace of mind was in order after I toasted a small area of my floor pan.

4REGT4

Here is my newest sound clip taken on a cheap digital camera...
http://media.putfile.com/Exhaust-sound-clip-21 Hard to tell what it really sounds like -- next I'll need to get one under accelleration from inside the car -- that sounds the best

MTVette

I got the SW headers installed earlier this year. So far, I've taken more than a quarter second off my best quarter mile time, but I haven't yet tried it out on a day with good air. my guess is that the net improvement will be in the 0.4 second area. See sig for mods and times.

4REGT4

Yes -- there is definitely a noticed improvement with the SWs headers -- even for the upper RPM range I can't imagine much (or anything) would be gained on a stock motor by going to 1 3/4" long tubes -- there is certainly room for more power. -- As for your sig... I'd ask how you liked the 1.6RRs, but I figure you did the HC at the same time and can't properly judge. That or gears (3.73 or 4.10) should be my next mod. I thought I'd do the HC kit as well, but don't really want to dig into the motor until I'm forced to rebuild or install a new motor/trans. Once the time comes I'll do the research... whichever it is I'm sure I'll do another write-up for.

comp

G-Sting

Thanks for the write up and pics!!

Hey, what size and length are your header bolts? ...or... has anyone else been successful with stainless header bolts (if so, what size/length, where purchased)?

STL94LT1

I'm using 1" SS hex head header bolts that I purchased at Sears Hardware. Sorry don't know the thread or pitch size.

MSR

i have a question about the magnaflow 3" X. i had emailed them for dimensions, and the drawing they sent me showed the overall width to be over 9". from my measurements i didn't think this would fit. yours looks like it fits with room to spare.

are their drawings wrong, or is there really that much room in the tunnel?

thanks.

-michael

4REGT4

As I believe I mentioned in my write-up, I had to fabricate the 3" magnaflow to fit properly (Being universal, that is what Magnaflow expects)... I made my measurements then cut it with a band saw and welded it back together... works great

EDIT: This shot best shows the splice in the middle....You may need to weld a Magnaflow some anyway.. the one I received had some small holes on the side amongst the factory welds.

MSR

apologies for not catching the info sooner. i admit, i skimmed!

thanks.

-michael

4REGT4

"TTT" for those considering headers and haven't seen it yet...

Corvette Kid

I use SS bolts with a 5/16" allen head, 3/8 NC x 1". You can get them from any bolt specialty store for a few bucks for 12 of them or about the same price as a set of cheapie header bolts. I used them with my stainless DRM headers and now my Stainless Works ones. After checking a few times after initial installation, they've stayed tight w/ no problems.
Good write-up, 4REGT4. BTW, 1.6 RR were the first real mod I did on my engine, before even the cam. By themselves they make a noticeable improvement and are definitely worthwhile.