Installed B&B Tri-Flow Headers and the Magnaflow X-Pipr this week on my 98. Purchased both of them from venders on the forum through group buys. Two problems I ran into with the headers. The right side O2 sensor hole was not completely cut out and the sensor would not go in. Had to use a Dremmel tool to remove the excess. Of Course I didn't find out about it until it was installed. I had checked the other side prior to installation but not this one some reason. Just my luck. I had to modify it from under the car. Next the pipes with the CATs would not line up with the headers. The left side was off by about 3/8". Those pipes don't flex either. To get them to fit I had to cut a piece out of the cross member just in front of the CATs where they mount to the bell housing and elongate the mounting hole. This allowed me to squeeze the pipes together some and position the right side pipe up to the header. Now the pipes after the CATs are spread apart some and the X-Pipe would not mate up. Had to use a tie down strap to squeeze these two together to get the X-Pipe on. Also, on the X-Pipe I had to cut off about 3/4" of the left pipe that slides up on the pipe from the CATs. This was to allow proper positioning and alignment of the mufflers. The installation sheet (none came with the X-Pipe) gave no hint of these possible problems or how to resolve them. Now that the job is done, I can tell a seat of pants differance with them. I use a G-Tech Pro to measure all my mods. Will see what it says later. I don't like the tearible ressonance/vibration I get from the X-Pipe, especally between 1880 to 2300 RPM. If I had know this before hand, I wouldn't have got the X-Pipe. If anyone has a suggestion on how to reduce it, I would like to hear it. I may take it off. :confused:

 

I did the B and B headers on my 98 coupe. I also did heads and cam at the same time. I was running Corsa Indys. The resonance was terrible. It was really sweet before the headers. It was about 50% louder, so I installed the Magaflow Xpipe. The resonance was still there, just muted down a bit with the X pipe, but still loud. I borrowed a set of Titanium Exhaust from a friend's Z06. The car is quieter and the resonance is gone. Now it has a lope and sounds real stealthy. So, the B and B headers caused my resonance.

 

thanks for the heads up newberd. i'm wanting to do the headers and x pipe
on my 98.

smoknc5
are you saying it sounds great now with headers, x pipe and z06 exhaust or did you remove the headers when you installed the titanium system ?

thanks

ROCKnROLL

 

Thats odd, I put B&B shorties on my 2000 along with a Bassani x-pipe and Corsa Indy system. It sounds great and there is no resenance or vibrations. Everything fit without a single problem. You must be pretty frustrated. Hope it works out. Ben :cheers:

 

If your resonance went away when you took off the B&B headers, I wonder what's different between our 98's and BensC5 2000. I decided to go with B&B because I was pleased with their CAT Backs I'm using (recommended by Mike Patterson at Corvette Mike's) and figured their headers would be a good match. Changing headers is expensive and a pain in the rear. I may take the X-Pipe off and put the stock H pipe back on to see what differance that makes. Doing that is easier. I was going to post a question to Magnaflow to see what they say, but their web site doesn't have a "contact us" address. If its the headers, maybe I'll try posting at B&B. I don't see any other posts from the forum, so I guess we are the only ones that experianced this problem. Thanks for the info. Dave N. :confused:


[Modified by newberd, 7:44 PM 11/11/2001]