**WARNING LONG THREAD**Help a newb thread (and upcoming mod list)

[Red97v6Bird]

Alright so I finaly ordered a set of long tubes, gonna be overkill on my stock motor but they will support future Mods.

http://lpparts.com/store/page6.html

Upcoming mod list:

Delete Egr and AIR systems and delete CATs (purchased egr block off)
Electric water pump (purchase OEM)
The above mentioned LTs
Plan on new o2s
Replace all lights with LED bulbs
New opti (water pumps gonna be off anyway and 70K on the clock) Purchased
New Plugs (NGK ??) and wires OTVC 8.5 MSDs
An (as yet) undetermined cat-back
UMI 3-point tubular SFCs (have em already, just gotta put em on)
Thinking maybe a set of lower control arms since I'll be screwing with them anyway to put on the SFCs

And a mail order tune to wrap it all up

So . . . My questions are:

1.)I'm probably just retarded but I couldn't find a write up on putting a electric water pump in . . .

2.)What block off plates will i need to delete the EGR and AIR system?

3.)Is the flasher in our cars a 2 prong or a 3 prong?

4.)What gaskets, clamps, bolts and what not should I use for these headers, how much torque on the bolts?

5.)Do I need a custom kit to do the OTVC wires and where should I order the looms from?

6.)From what I have read everyone recommends to stick with the delco o2s, sound right?

7.)I'll be doing all this over a long weekend as soon as I get all the parts together. Since I'm a newb and this will be the first time I'll really be digging into my car. . . . Will you guys Pray for me

Thanks a million Guys

[97WS6-Bird]

Those headers look good . What kind of muffler you going with?

[Red97v6Bird]

not sure yet on the cat-back yet man. . .
I LOVE the sound of the gmmg

http://gmmginc.net/Exhaust/

but the price tag

[Red97v6Bird]

Man, almost twenty four hours and 40 views later and not one bit of help or advice or encouragement . . . .was it something i said ? ?

[97WS6-Bird]

Yeah I want to change out my magnaflow for SLP loudmouth I catback
I think it will sound good with headers. Although I'm not sure it'll go with shorties

[Injuneer]

Man, almost twenty four hours and 40 views later and not one bit of help or advice or encouragement . . . .was it something i said ? ?

You asked a lot of questions. When I read the post first thing this AM, I didn't have the time required to provide a complete, detailed response, so I thought I'd save it for later. Please don't jump on people for not responding immediately.

I'll assume you are asking about your 96 WS6.

To answer your specific questions, and offer other thoughts:

Headers - The ones you linked are stainless. They do not appear to be coated. You are going to heat up the engine compartment, and lose a few HP compared to coated headers. The stainless will not rust, but its going to darken and discolor. I see they are also 1-3/4" -> 1-7/8" step primaries. Wayyyyy too large for your stock engine. Its going to dog it at low rpm. I'm pushing 800HP through 1-3/4" primaries. A buddy of mine pushed 1,125HP through 1-3/4" Hooker Super Comps.

I've never been big on the electric water pumps. The shop that built my engine wouldn't even consider using one, because they felt the pump would not have enough flow capacity for a high HP, power adder application. Remember... the electric pump operates at one speed, and flows a specific amount of water. At low RPM, its flowing more than the stock gear driven pump. At high RPM, where you see the largest cooling load, its flowing less than the stock pump. The power to drive the pump will come from your alternator, which uses engine power to convert to electric power. Its not a 100% savings. As far as a "how to", you have to learn to "search", and its not likely you will find it on this site - nowhere near enough members.

If your headers do not have EGR or AIR connections:

To remove the AIR, unplug the AIR pump, remove the air supply line from the ram air box, and cap the nipple on the box to prevent dirty air from getting sucked into the airbox. I think its a 5/8" vacuum cap. Disconnect the vacuum lines that go to the backflow/purge valve, and cap the source of the vacuum. Exactly what lines you have will depend on whether your engine had the AIR pump recall work done.

http://shbox.com/1/air_pump_recall.jpg

The pump can be removed by unbolting the bracket that is mounts to on the front of the engine. As I recall, one of the bolts also holds the water pump. Then remove the metal tubing and check valves. Most people cut the metal pipe where it wraps under the timing cover to allow it to be removed easier.

You will get codes for no AIR flow. The system has to be programmed out of the PCM in such a way as not to set a "system not ready" flag.

For EGR, you unbolt the corrugated tube from the back of the intake and put a blanking plate over the hole in the manifold. Unbolt the EGR valve and remove it, putting another blanking plate over that hole. You can get a 2-plate set from sjmmanfucturing.com Unplug the EGR vacuum solenoid. Cap the vacuum source on the side of the intake manifold. The solenoid and vacuum lines can be discarded.

Again, have the codes for no flow and vacuum solenoid electric circuit programmed out of the PCM.

When buying O2's, use only the correct AC/Delco sensors. You can get them cheaper from the online source listed on Shoebox's website.

Are you askinhg about the directional flasher, or the emergency flasher? You will have to pull it out and look at it. Shoebox has a photo of where it is located:

http://shbox.com/1/4th_gen_tech1.html

My personal preference for the header gasket it the Mr. Gasket Ulta Seal Copper. Make sure its the "D" port gasket for the LT1. The Fel-Pro gaskets are also good. The Fel-Pro stainless steel bolts are good. The Stage 8 locking bolts are very good, but a bit troublesome to install. I doubt you will need collector gaskets. Looks like the headers will need high qualtiyt band clamps. Do not appear to have flanges.

Replacing the bulbs is not my thing... find someone who's into the appearance gimmicks.

Use only the GM Opti.

NGK TR6's will be fine. Iridiums are probably the best bet. The MSD 8.5's are about the best available. Use woven fiberglass heat shield tubes where required. I have my 8.5's running under the headers, and haven't had a problem with them in the 8 years they've been on the engine, but I'm not using the Opti.

Look into a true dual exhaust system. May need to be custom built. Make sure the "3-point" SFC's don't interfere with the exhaust you choose.

LCA's are a good idea. Adding LCA relocation brackets to the install is an even better idea.

Consider modifying the ram air system - cut back the two baffles behind the hood openings, take the grid out of the top of the airbox, and use the $6 Fernco sewer pipe connector in place of the stock corrugated bellows.

[Red97v6Bird]

First of all i didn't mean to sound like i was jumping on anyone. Truth be told i'm kinda nervous about doing all this and i was kinda in a panic LoL sorry.

Fred, your posts always have so much info in them i have to read them a couple times LoL. Thanks for the feed back.

What do you mean about the headers dogging the engine at low rpm tho? I thought backpressure was bad? Is there something i can do to compensate for this?

i'm still kinda on the fence about an electric water pump 2, i think i might just stick with the OEM one . . .

P.S. would it be worth the $$$ to send the headers to jet-hot

[Injuneer]

You have to separate the exhaust system into two parts. The primary tubes need to maintain a high velocity. The momentum of the high moving gas in the primary tube helps pull the air/fuel mixture into the cylinder during the valve overlap when the intake and exhaust valves are open at the same time. This is called "scavenging". In extreme cases, you can even get the air/fuel charge to exceed 1.00 volumtric efficiency - they do that in specialized racing engines (e.g. - NASCAR) where the engine is designed to run in a very narrow RPM band. By keeping the tube velocity high, and adjusting the length of the primary to achieve a resonant frequency that matches the RPM the engine is operating at, the pressure in the cylinder at bottom dead center can exceed atmospheric pressure.

A larger diameter tube slows down the exhaust gas and reduces the scavenging. That's why they use a "stepped" tube size. That helps keep the gas velocity high in the first couple inches of the primary tube. The 1.75" helps low RPM performance. Then at higher RPM, the 1.875" diameter becomes the controlling velocity, with just a small penalty paid for the short length of 1.75" tubing.

But those diameters are for very large cubic inch engines. A 400+ cubic inch engine, operating at very high RPM might need a 1.875" primary. On a 350 its going to slow the gasses down and kill the scavenging. Another problem with the low velocity it exhaust gas reversion at low RPM. The exhause gas can flow backward in a part of the open area, diluting the incoming air/fuel mix. Some large diameter headers will add a small anti-reversion ring to reduce the diameter of the actual port on the header flange.

I would think a 1-5/8" -> 1-3/4" step would work better for a 350ci engine. A full 1-3/4" tube is about as large as you need to go for an LT1.

That is also one of the benefits of the cera-metallic coating. It is applied to both the inside and the outside of the tube. The inside coating reflects heat back into the exhaust gas, and keeps the gas hotter. Hotter gas means larger volume. Larger volume means higher velocity = more scavenging.

Once you get past the primary tubes, you don't want backpressure. It kills power. But that's more a factor of the design of the balance of the exhaust system after the collectors.

[Red97v6Bird]

Well it definatley sounds like the jet-hot coating would be worth it. So I think I'll be sending them to get coated after I get them.

Now it there any specific kind of coating that is recommended, any certain company? I know Jet-hot isn't the only one that does the ceramic coating.

And I thought about doing a custom true dual but I'm really concerned about ground clearance. I might be lowering my car in the future. . . .

[Injuneer]

The fact that you chose long tubes means you may have a problem with ground clearance if you lower the car. The problem is on the drivers side. The passenger side has a relief for the stock exhaust and cat, so the passenger side header fits fine, with no clearance problems.

The drivers side does not have a stock pipe. There is no dent in the floor. So the collector of the ling tube drivers side header is squeezed under the floor. Thats where you have the clearance problem - drivers side collector and Y-pipe branch. Doesn't matter whether you are running the Y-pipe or true duals - its going to be the same problem.

I had a cat on each of my collectors. When the front of the car was lowered 1.8", the cat was dragging on the ground. I had to turn all the clamp bolts so they faced upwards, because if I drove with my tires in the typical ruts in the asphalt here on NJ highways the bolts would scrape on the high point in the road.

I raised my car back up.

I have had the best luck with Airborn and HPC for the coatings. I have never tried Jet Hot, but it seemed like a few years ago a lot of people had problems with rust in a short period. Jet Hot warranties the coating, but its a bit of an inconvenience to pull them off the car and send them back to Jet Hot. I have not seen any complaints recently about the Jet Hot coatings, so they may have improved them. Another place to look is Swain Coatings. They have an unusal flat white coating that appears to be very high-tech. Swain has an excellent reputation for coatings on internal engine parts. I have their moly coating on my piston skirts.

[Red97v6Bird]

That coating from swain does seem like some good stuff, i'll give them a call and see how much they want to do my headers.

I thought a single three inch was enough to support over 400 hundred horses. Would't true dual kinda be over kill on my car?

Should I switch my motor mounts to poly while I'm down there screwing around?

I will be doing the airbox mods you sugjested Fred( i'd like to do them right now but it's been raining 3 days non-stop)

Thanks for all your insight/advice Fred. I really appreciate it.

[Joe K. 99 Zeee!!]

Hopefully I'm not too late. I had some SLP shorties in my '96 and had a gasket leak twice a year till I switched to copper gaskets and stage 8 locking header bolts. So I second Fred's advice. I highly recommend these.

For the record, Fred certainly knows what he's talking about.

[Red97v6Bird]

Don't worry, your not too late. . . i still have quite a few parts to round up before i dig in. And trust me i'm going to follow Fred's advice LoL.

i just question everything because i want to learn, so sorry if i'm a pain at times LoL

[Red97v6Bird]

Just a few updates.

I have the headers, they are BEAUTIFUL , honestly I don't know if I want to get them coated now because they are so pretty . . .

I have some stage 8 locking bolts, OEM water pump, new opti, an otvc plug wire kit, NGK iridium plugs, and EGR block off plate all ordered and in route . . .

What should I gap the plugs at ? i ordered them gapped at .035 good idea?

Also think I have decided to add new motor mounts and new lca's

After talking with the local speed shop I think i might also add 4.10 gears to the list (although I would have that done by someone else)

[Injuneer]

With a basically stock engine, and the iridium plugs, you want to use the stock plug gap, which is 0.050".