Wow, turned out to be a lot longer job then I had expected... We ended up doing the full install probably 3 times... We did this on jackstands... and man, the vette is a PITA getting it on and off the jackstands! Because of its low ground profile it took awhile getting it on and off the stands.

We had to put the headers on and pull them off twice... the exhaust just wouldn't slid into place... It was such a PITA

We probably got all the stock stuff off and the headers on in less than 3hours and if the midpipes would have just slid easy into the axelback we would have been done in less than 5 hours... But, it did not happen.

My suggestion... never buy used midpipes... What happened was since it was a used kit the pipe had already been bent down from the tightened clamp on the previous owners car.. although he was able to slid it off... it was near impossible to slid it in past an inch or so... We tried everything... installing from the rear.. installing the xpipe/mids as one peice, install the xpipe to the headers only.. and then trying the mid pipes... it just did not happen...

All in all, it was a very fun learning experience, but was also pretty stressful, but was very happy in the end!

The 5 hour job turned into about a 15 hour job because of that one stupid drivers side midpipe...

I have some complaints/suggestions/questions as well...
1: The headers fit nicely, but one of the headers is touching, I believe it is the bell housing.. how does other kooks owners look? One of mine looks perfect.. but, the other ( I believe it is the drivers side) is nearly touching/touching the bellhousing.

2: Now that the install is finished and we have fired up the car in driven it a mile or two.. there is a weird sound. I think it may be an exhaust leak.. but am unsure. At start up and idle it sounds like a steady whisping sound... its not like a tick sound, but like a repetative whisp sound... from what I can tell it seems to get louder with acceleration but its hard to hear it inside the car that well. Any ideas on what it could be? If its not an exhaust leak... what else could it be? Again, it does not sound like a tick sound... but instead a whisping sound.

3: This thing is loud! It sound sick.. especially with no cats... it sounds amazing. The sound is COMPLETELY different the my stock system and B&B bullets... I can still hear a little bit of the bullet sound... but inside the car its completely different.. there is a little bit of rasp.. which is to be expected without cats... but, it sounds great... minus the weird sound. The sound seems to be coming from the section where the header connects to the xpipe which leads me to believe it is an exhaust leak... not sure though.

4: I haven't taken it about about 4k rpm and I think it will be best to keep it below that until I have the car tuned next week. This a good idea?

5: The kooks directions were very vague... we ended up doing the install without really looking into the directions which turned out to be the better way because the directions were so vague.

6: we zip-tied the 02 ext. away from the headers, I think this is probably a good idea... the 02 ext were touching the headers in some places. I did not want to take the chance of having them melt for any reason of touching so we were able to find some places to zip-tie them just enough to where they were away from the headers.

7: Be careful with the spark plugs! On one of the plugs, we were just a little off on putting it back in... and ended up having to go and get a tool to rethread the hole ... was pretty scary. but, we throughly cleaned it and rethreaded it and was able to get the one spark plug back in. Just didn't want to take any chances and force it in... so figured it would be better to be throughly accurate before putting it back in. So, be careful with the plugs and don't force them in there! Luckily it was only about 2 turns in when we noticed something wasn't quite right, but were able to clean/fix it with no problems.

8: After installing the headers, I was ready to throw some codes since this is a catless system... but, to my disbelief no codes have been thrown! It has been started about 4 times and driven about 2 miles... and still no codes. Is this normal?

All in all, in was a fun and great learning experience... Me and my two buddies could probably do this install in less than 4 hours now... having done the actual install about 3 times, lol. Minus the weird sound... everything turned out great! I can't wait to get it retuned in a little over a week and see how much power will be gained on the dyno.

Let me know what you guys think and if you have any suggestions.

 

i would definitely recommend buying as many matched parts as possible, makes it much easier to fit together all the pieces. I did one with an off brand headers, off brand h-pipe, and slp muffler section. ended up having to weld most of it together to get it not to leak, and so the tailpipes would sit straight.

 

Well it was matched parts... Kooks 1 3/4 headers, kooks catless x-pipe and the midpipes as well... The problem was the fact that they were used and because they were used the clamps had already bent the piping inward... and so it was impossible to get the pipe on without prying/bending the piping so that the axelback would slide into the midpipe.

 

Bad06Vette,

Congrats on getting that bitch figured out! Been in your shoes before on different mods from a complete auto to 5 speed swap, to cam install, heads install and so forth on a bunch of different Stangs. When you run into snags it gets quite frustrating and you say should of paid a shop to do it. But when it is all done and you did it yourself, it feels so much better!

 

I totally agree! The piping was such a PITA that I was getting very frustrated! Then when we ran into the problem with the spark plug hole... and at that point I was thinking that exact thing, should have taken it to a shop! But, it worked out and we got everything together... and in the end I was happy! Just need to figure out what exactly is this sound... and once that is taken care of, I will be thoroughly happy!

 

Welcome to the header club.

You may have to put a pry bar in between the belhousing and header and pry it away enough to see daylight.

You can take a small strip of paper and run it around the joints to look for leaks. Or, you can just use your hand, but be careful not to get burned. Make sure the noise/leak is not from one of the spark plugs!

If the header flange is hitting a spark plug while installing, remove the plug. When reinstalling the plug, start it by hand first to avoid stripping.
I would not immediately worry about the tune. The ECU will adjust the mixture close enough that it should not burn anything up, but the tune will maximize power output.

Do yourself a favor and cut the ends of some 2X10 lumber at a 45 degree angle and use them to drive the front up on before you jack it. You can double the 2X10's and stack them to give you 4" extra clearance.

It probably will not set a code until you have driven it a while and the ECU runs the cat checks.
Best of luck!

 

I am not sure about the prybar... I don't want to put stress on the headers while they are connected to the heads.. sounds kinda dangerous.

Me and a buddy have been inspecting to try to diagnos the small faint sound... I think I am just not used to the exhaust yet.. I think the small faint tisk sound is the valves.. they just are louder.

Anyway, getting the car tuned in a little over a week! So, I am excited.

 

you need to drive the car at least 15 miles, with two different startups inorder to complete the cat check.. trust me,, it will come..

-carl

 

Yeah, so I have heard.

 

I think we have just come to the decision that the tisking sound is just the valve... i guess the valve sound is just louder now.

Does that seem likely?

I don't think its an exhaust leak... we drove around and tried our best to listen to when you can hear the sound when you can't... and so on. It doesn't sound like an exhaust leak..

and all the spark plugs are in correctly and everything as well...

Maybe, I am just not used to hearing that sound? Let me know!

 

yes, headers are generally louder than stock exhaust manifolds. sometimes you hear more of the mechanical sounds...and it sounds like a leak. Kooks in particular for some reason exacerbate this phenomenon. I chased phantom leaks on an SRT charger that i installed Kooks headers on, for a week.

 

Yeah, thats what I figured... I am not gunna worry about it... I will get the car retuned in a little over a week. The car sounds unreal! It sounds like a pure muscle car at idle and low rpms... but, it freaking SCREAMS at higher rpms... sound like a full fledged race car... but, it like has a euro sound to it at the higher rpms... it is really unique. It also sounds a lot different when you are in/out of the car... inside the car ther is a tiny bit of rasp but not really and it has that high pitched screammmm... Outside the car it just sounds absolutely amazing. I assume that inside the car sounds like that because the drivers seat is right by the xpipe with no cats... so I am hearing that sound more than the sound that is coming out of the back of the car.

 

I dread taking off my x pipe for that very reason. One trick... I bought a pipe expander from Snap-On. If I'm having trouble I put that sucker in and SLIGHTLY tweek the pipe back out.

 

You re-tapped a spark plug hole? Where did the metal shavings go?

 

slightly rethread a hole... the shavings stuck onto the tool... if you saw the tool you would understand... and also used a slightly wet q tip to clean/grab any shavings... which worked well. The spark plug was only 2 turns in, when it was noticed that it was off...

This was done very carefully!

 

Yeah, I had been recommended to use a pipe expander... we called up autozone but I don't think they understood what we were talking about... they said they didn't have one big enough to use on my car.

 

hurry and get some pics and videos up from the HD camera!!!

 

Yeah... I think clay is editing the footage still.. Might just wait til I get up to the dyno next week for the retune to post the video.