..... so you all stay around.

Got the stock stuff off so far. Hit a couple of snags that slowed me down a tad.

1. Tough to get to the passenger side rear 02 harness plug. Had to go ahead and start dropping the manifold/cat downward so that I could see the plug. Once unplugged a little twisting and turning got the manifold out from underneath just as the driver's side had gone before.

I'll add a little more heat shielding to the starter wires tomorrow as I beat the factory shielding up a bit more than I wanted while getting that manifold out.

2. The slip fit into the axle back exhaust took a little doing to get loose. Took a lot of doing. Twisting, a little beating and cussin'.

3. Finally hit a snag trying to remove the front 02s from the stock manifolds. Can't find my 20mm open ended wrench, which might not get it anyway, and a crescent wrench definitely won't get it. Looks like it will take an 02 socket with the slot in the side to get it. I'll pick one up tomorrow along with some more of the heat shielding material.

The above removal of the stock parts, took me about 2 hours taking my time. Really going at a snail's pace.

Reluctantly I will be going without the rear 02s so this means a tune. This seems to be the easiest way and the car should still pass emissions I am told. The stock system will go back on it at trade in time anyway.

I'll be removing the ECM and sending it to LG Motorsports. I'll probably pull it tomorrow and get it boxed up to ship out.

The advantages to going without the rears include not having to run the wires, or drill a hole into the tunnel plate in the case of the LG Pros, and not worrying at all about the possibility of codes.

As for the mail order tune.............did a lot of soul serching on this one.

My options were.

1. Travel 6 hours one way and have someone dyno and road tune it. But do I tow or drive it there? And what if I need to take it back to stock for whatever reason?
2. Buy HP Tuners and attempt to get it close myself and have the ability to take it back to stock if needed.
3. Mail order tuning to get it close enough to keep from screwing anything up. It was also important, if mail order was the route that I would take, that the shop would be there long term should I require additional support. Hence I chose LG Motorsports.

As for the mail order part of it, well, when you really get down to it, the stock tune in the car right now is a "mail order" or "generic" tune of sorts too. Your car was not put on a dyno and tuned before you bought it.

I'm just trying to get it close for now and make sure I don't screw anything up trying to tune it myself.

I can get the A/F ratios checked here, along with a few dyno pulls, but I would not trust anyone here locally to tune it.

 

I just took and old 7/8 box wrench and ground a slot in it. Wire went right through and boom o2 out....

 

That would work.

The 7/8 fits too.

What did you grind the slot with, a Dremel?

Addendum: I just looked at my 7/8 wrench and I really don't want to cut a slot into it. Besides its pretty thick.

 

Not having to run the rear 02's is going to save you a ton of time. I spent a couple of hours trying to get it just right. If the extensions had been 6" longer it would have gone a lot quicker.

 

I used an old china made from harbor freight. Just used my grinder-took less than 2 min....

It just takes a little to make it loose. I am pretty sure you could use some needle nose vice grips to get it loose as well.

 

I tried a pair of channel locks on it, so yeah I agree with you its in there pretty good. I didn't want to round it off so I quit with those after a couple tries. Needless to say, it didn't budge.

Needle nosed vise grips might get it.

Another option I have is to take it to a muffler shop or even Pep boys or Autozone when I go to buy a bit more of that shielding material, and ask them to break them for me until I can hand turn it.

 

DSOM,
It sounds like you are having a hard time of it now, but trust me you will love them when you are done. The sound is worth it alone. Good luck and don't let that O2 sensor beat you.

 

Just hate I had to stop because of those sensors. I could have gotten those out and into the headers and at least have the headers bolted in and the front sensors plugged in tonight.

I could have done the X pipe and hooked into the axle back tomorrow.

BTW, I didn't start until about 4:30 this afternoon. I worked until dinner, around 6:30, and called it a day. I could have had those headers in easily by now.

 

When your done with that job DSOM you can celebrate with a Primanti Broths. sandwich.

Good luck with the install, but I learned a long time ago to leave well enough alone. If I were 20 years younger I would be doing the same as you and cursing all the way through the job. Maybe you should have considered an '08. Just kidding.

Phil

 

 

Just have to reinstall the coil packs and ready to go.

Easiest header install I have ever done.

 

After doing the install a couple of times on the C6, it gets easier every time! The most time consuming part I found was routing the O2 sensor wires (if you are **** like I am). I used an extra set of wires, plugging two sets together, for the rear O2 sensors and this gave me the additional wire needed to run up through the tunnel plate and out near the bell housing, and then up to the plugs! Used zip ties to keep wires away from anything hot. Works like a charm.

I used an open end wrench (7/8" I think) to get the O2 sensors out of the oem manifolds. Removed manifolds first, after unplugging sensors of course. Didn't have any problems nor did it need any grinding.

Good luck

 

Well...........feedback, hows it sound, feel any different, throwing flames, etc?

 

See my other thread.

 

The AutoZone here loan out O2 sensor removers for free. BOOM and they are done.