So its been a few days and I'm starting to heal up and get rid of the soreness. Being 75 this job took its toll on me, probably 10-12 hours all together plus being there for the lift install the day before for 8 hours, but its done!
Not much more to report than the other recent threads on header installs.
Getting the OEM stuff off was not bad, getting the car on the lift was worse. For some reason the lift points and the lift arms did not want to cooperate, they are so close together and the lift arms were so long the car sat 2/3 behind center point of the 2 post lift after we finally got it in position. Made me very nervous but we shoved on it after lifting a foot or so, plus we used a 2 ton jack stand in the rear just for safety sake and it was stable.
Had a few hiccups which I wont go into detail about, this was the first experience we had with headers on a Corvette so there were questions on how, but all in all it came out very clean. I'm proud of the job we did and with great satisfaction
Kooks make s a nice product, fit was aces, and cant say enough about Stage 8 fasteners I lost a few of the locking tabs and C clips, springy little bastards, so they are mailing me some Xtras.
Took it for a short test run and all went well, no leaks, no CEL's
Now for the good part, Sound was so different, I didn't expect it but its nice, at idle and slow take offs almost the same with NPP open of course, but mash the long pedal and WHOO-HOO, cant describe it accurately but LOUD it was.
Now performance wise, maybe my wallet was trying to convince me it was all worth it, I don't know but it felt and pulled much stronger than I expected, maybe just the excitement ?? But I don't think so.
Was it worth it, only time will tell
Will be going to the dyno In a week or 2 if all goes according to plan, That will be fun
Sorry but no photos, you've seen them before anyways and I was too focused on the work going on.
Hopefully I will remember to video the dyno tune, planning on it
One suggestion, if so inclined to install headers, DO IT ON A LIFT PERIOD!!!!!!!
Thanks
NSF

 

Good for you, you go old man.

 

good job Pops.give yourself a pat in the back.Ill say a lift makes it a whole lot easier.LG superpro here mated to a borla stingers.no problems here.

 

I give you a lot of credit . At 75 years of age , it's got to be tough installing headers . I'm not that far behind you and most of my wrenching days are over although I'll tackle some easier tasks.

 

I'm 46 and I was sore for a week after installing mine on jack stands. Very nice job. Just wait till you hit the dyno.

 

Nice Job Bobby , took me long enough to push you over the edge lol

So how big was that smile when you punched the loud pedal??

Dave

 

 

Well Dave, it was more surprise I think, even my buddy was impressed and sort of scared I think when I hit 110 mph real quick
Now if I see that much more improvement with the dyno tune I'll have a GIANT SMILE

Its been a long wait eh Bruce, so party is in order, as long as its over by 9:30 pm
Bobby

 

Congrats on it. Bobby. And not that it'll hurt the car but go easy on WOT until you get the tune.....just in case. Otherwise, good job. I'm like some of the more honest guys on here: if I stretch over something for an hour or two like the engine bay, I can feel it the next day. Wrenching on the exhaust would do more than make me feel it the next day!

OMG, I just watched a vid on the fasteners. Those c-clips remind me of very small cotter pins and dropping them in the engine bay when doing anything with carb linkage. A friend gave me a package of all sizes of small cotter pins, called them "Jesus pins" because when you lose one, you say something not so nice. Unless you have some kind of great c-clip pliers which probably don't exist, I'd need 3 of them for every one that's supposed to go on the bolt.

 

Good for you that you are still wrenching, It's pretty neat that you are still into modding your car too. Ah, to be young at heart. The feeling of acceleration never gets old.

My father walked outside with me yesterday and is approaching 70, looks at the car and says "Son, I don't see too many of these vehicles without gray or white hair behind the wheel.. you must be doing something right."

AORoads - Jesus pin haha.. Reminds me of:

Jesus nut or Jesus pin is the main rotor retaining nut that holds the main rotor to the mast of some helicopters, such as the UH-1 Iroquois helicopter; or more generally is any component that represents a single point of failure with catastrophic consequences.

 

Congratulations En Es Ef!!

Quite an accomplishment and something for which you can definitely be proud. The aches and pains will fade, but you'll be left with the memories of the conquer!...

...."You did it your way"....

 

Congrats! I hope to get some LTs installed at some point this year. Did you go with a catted or off-road x pipe?

 

Frankie , you want to go with the catted pipe , for the few horses you might gain with a non catted pipe is not worth the GAS smell you will have to deal with while idling . I still get some gas smell even with the catted pipes until they heat up because it takes them longer to heat being located farther away from the engine but nowhere near the smell you get without them

Dave

 

YEP and don't know if its true or not but somewhere in Kooks literature they stated their cats are 400 cells VS others at 200 cells, less likely to setoff CEL's
NSF

 

Bobby , The CEL is not caused by the type of cats, its cause by the rear O2 sensors that test the efficiency of the cats , every so many start cycles the ECM requests a signal from the rear O2 sensors , because they are positioned so much farther back in the X pipe than the stock location they do not send the correct signal that the ECM is waiting for thereby setting off a CEL

if you don't have a CEL yet .... you will get it eventually , but the rear O2 sensors will be turned off in a tune

Dave

 

Hence my smilie of "" cause I sure don't
Bobby

 

Sure you dont what ? Have a CEl ?

If you drive it long enough you will, but some do not get a cel because they get a tune before the ecm does the test or the ecm was ready to do the test right away......

In my case , i never got the cel , so my ecm must have just tested the cats when i installed my headers and was not scheduled to test again for a while

 

Yes , no CEL but only driven a few miles

 

You will be fine , even if you get a cel , it won't hurt anything , put a few miles on it before your tune to let tge fuel trims settle

Dave

 

Congrats NSF! Glad you finally got a chance to get them put on! Keep the updates coming!