A car can only can only pass what it's made to pass. A C6 with headers isn't passing anywhere.

 

I never knew that. I thought I had seen posts where they had passed. I guess I am lucky I live where there are no emission inspections yet.
Jeff

 

To be clear, I'm not that worried about emissions. Here in PA, it's not a sniffer test, so I could care less, but it's best to have them on there. What they do is plug into OBDII and make sure you're good, then do some sort of vacuum test on your fuel filler. They don't actually sniff the pipes in an OBDII car, and I'm exempt from emissions because I drive less than 5K/yr. If I go over that, though, then I'll have emissions. No biggie either way, but I'll put the cats on there, even though I also have the delete pipes.

And that brings me to today's update:
Got the stupid O2 sensor out. It was a rear sensor. The threads were mangled pretty good. I cleaned it up the best I could with a wire brush, but it didn't do much, so I took it to a mechanic buddy, and we were able to file it out a bit. I brought it home and gave it a shot, and I was able to get it seated all the way after threading, backing out, threading some more, etc. That got the threads back to a point where they'll work. At least it's usable

And now, today's questions:
The instructions are a little vague. What I'm wondering is 2 things: First, how do you route the extension wires in the engine bay for the O2 sensors? Anyone have pics of where they routed them? I just don't want them to melt.

Second: the rear O2 sensors. I'm really stumped on these. I've got the headers in place, and will do the rest of the exhaust stuff tomorrow or Sunday, but I don't know what the heck to do with these things, and the pics in the instructions are of zero help. They mention drilling a hole in the plate above the exhaust to route the wires through, but how the heck do you position the sensors themselves? I see they're staggered a bit, so I don't know if they get mounted (almost) horizontally, or do you drill holes and mount them vertically, or what? That placement is really confusing me. This is how I assume they'll be positioned after the cats:



Will the wires be OK above that plate? Do you have to take the plate off to drill the hole, or is it OK to do it on the car (there are exactly eleventy billion little bolts holding that thing on)?

Other than that, I think I'm doing OK. Once I figure the rear O2 placement out, I figure I've got maybe 2 more hours of work to do. Not bad for doing it on ramps and a pair of jack stands.

 

Here it is...hard to photograph but it clips on a flange down there. Its' purpose?....dunno

Photobucket seems to be down at the moment so it's attached as a thumbnail to this post

 

Ah, thanks!

I'll probably just leave it out.

 

The front 02 sensors are pretty easy. Just hook up the extensions and pull the slack out from the top and zip tie the harness wire to something to keep it fairly taught.

Rear 02 sensors:
Look at your photo. The tube closest to you looks perfect. The tube farthest from your feet needs to be rotated counter clockwise. The bungs should be pointing up and to the opposite side of the car.
Loose fit those pipes on the headers and make a mark on the tunnel cover that is in the vicinity of the bungs.
Take an 1-1/2" hole saw and cut a hole in the tunnel plate. No need to remove it. BUT take care as there are steel lines (brake?) underneath the tunnel plate.
You will need to disconnect the harness from it's mounting point to get enough slack to connect the rear extension wires. At first I thought they had sent me extensions that were too short but after disconnecting them and pulling them down I was able to make the connections with the extensions.
You will need something stiff to feed through the hole you cut to the front of the car. I had a 36" zip tie that i used but you could use a coat hanger or whatever.
When you are finished the connectors will be pushed up into the hole in the tunnel plate and the only thing visible will be a few inches of wire.
I spent abut an hour and a half routing the wires and making sure they were away from anything hot. Use a lot of zip ties, take your time and you will be fine.
Have fun!!!

 

That thing has been on my desk since I installed my headers in November. Never had figured out what is was.

 

What if I just don't install the rear O2 sensors? I read in another thread that several people are running that way. Any drawbacks to doing that? If they basically get "tuned out" during a tune anyway, then I might as well make my life a little easier by not installing them in the first place, right?

What about pre-tune: how will the car run if the rear O2 sensors are disconnected on the stock tune? Obviously, I assume I'll get a CEL, but will it affect the drive-ability at all until I get tuned?

 

the link i posted earlier shows the mystery piece, function is unkown.

from the article. "This function-unknown piece of black plastic on the passenger side obstructs removal of the number 8 wire from its spark plug. An upward yank pops it out"

 

Rear O2s are only used to monitor Cat performance and their absence should have no effect on drivability. I did install rear O2 sensors but I ran the wires through clips that mounted with the tunnel plate bolts rather than drilling through the plate.

 

keep us updated .........what made you chose the street series?

 

It was the right combination of price and performance for me, at least on paper. We'll see how it goes when it's all installed, but everyone I've talked to that has them has positive things to say Can't wait to hear em!

I'm leaning towards leaving the rear O2 sensors out. Another added benefit that gives me is an easy spot to put a wideband for tuning purposes, if needed.

 

The engineer I spoke to at Funfest claimed that pieces function is to keep the wiring harness it presses against, which is wrapped in heat tape, away from the hot manifold.

It cannot really do that since it is not attached to the frame securely enough which is the reason it falls off in the first place. For it to work properly it would have to be attached by screws, not clips.

On my car the harness it is supposed to push on is not near the manifold anyway so I didn't bother to reinstall it. I found it laying loose the day I brought the car home from the stealership.

It has got to be the most poorly engineered and unnecessary part on the C6.

 

Thanks for the info. It's not going back in. The weight savings should give me a .5 sec decrease in the 1/4 mile now!

Jeff

 

This goes on the frame of the car. It holds hoses or wires back form the headers.
It goes on teh frame infront of the battery, infront as in towards the front bumper. You'll see little slots on the frame, just snaps in

 

Well, headers are on! Got it all finished up today. I opted to leave the rear O2 sensors out so, naturally, I have a CEL. Car seems to run fine, though.

I didn't really get to play with the headers much, since my test run wasn't until 9:45 at night, and I didn't want to draw too much attention. I did do a nice loop, though, to break the pipes and cats in (they're smoky and stinky at first). I don't think I've got any exhaust leaks or anything, though it's kind of hard to check. I'll fire up the car tomorrow and let it idle for a bit, and see if any condensation drips down from any of the slip fittings; that should be a good indicator.

Initial thoughts:
-Man, it's loud when it fires up cold. Holy crap.
-I forgot how bad new pipes and cats stink. Yuck.
-It's a little more bassy with the butterflies closed than it was previously, but still very quiet. If stock with the valves closed was a 2, this is a 2.5.
-It's a little bit louder with the valves open than the stock system was. And, by a little bit, I mean a whole freakin boat load. With the NPP open on the stock system, I'd say it went to 8, maybe? This one goes to eleven!
-I am not a fan of wedging my hands into tiny little spaces with zip ties and needle nose pliers. Not a fan at all.
-It seems like some of the pop/burble that happened on the stock system with the valves open is gone. Still there, but not as much.
-The stainless pipes discolored immediately, especially at the manifolds.
-The car makes a lot of popping/tinging noise when shut off and cooling down now due to the stainless pipes vs. the old iron stuff.

Can't really comment on power or anything; like I said, it was late when I went out for my test run, so I didn't really get on it too much. I plan on a tune in the next week or two, though, so we'll see. Just debating if I want to do the thermostat swap myself or not. I'll probably crawl around under the car in the next day or two just to go over all the bolts and stuff again.

And, thanks to Chuck at CoW for taking some time to answer some questions for me on Saturday!

 

After driving some more today, this is definitely not the case. I thought someone was shooting at me today on decel down a hill. Yeesh.

I think I've got a leak where the rear O2 pipes mate up with the X pipe; I noticed some water drips on the floor when I started it up and let it sit for a little today in that general area, so I'm going to get back under it and tighten those clamps down a bit more.

 

We can fix some of that noise up for you.....


It has a lot to do with the tune you get.....

Call me when you're ready and I'll get it set up really nice for you!

Stay TUNED!
Chuck CoW

 

The water leaking doesn't necessarily mean you have an exhaust leak, it's condensation in the pipes that has to go somewhere so as long as you've got the clamps tight I wouldn't worry about the drops of water. I also have the LG motorsports street series. Had quite a knock after install and that may be the extra noise you are hearing. Have it tuned, that will fix the knocking.

 

Just an update:
I've got a few miles on the headers now. I'm pretty sure I've got an exhaust leak somewhere, but I haven't found it. The car also starts pretty rough when cold. Whether this is due to an exhaust leak or the removal of the rear O2 sensors (or both), I'm not sure. The engine will rock around a bit like it's got a big cam in it for a few seconds, then idle at about 900, then drop to a rock solid 600ish. There's no problem with it actually starting; it's just the first few seconds of idle after a cold start that almost sound like it's going to stall, and are a bit rough. Warm starts have no issue. I also get a very slight bump in idle speed when coming to a stop with the clutch in once in a while, before it settles back down at 600. It may have done that before, and I never really noticed it; I'm not sure. I'm assuming a tune will take care of all of this.

I'm going to add an intake (most likely Airaid) and a 160 stat, and then take it to get tuned. I'm also going to have the shop go over the header install, just to make sure they get any leaks out and make sure everything is torqued down correctly. That should take care of everything, get it up to where it should be, and make me happy