S&S Headers Issue

[Mac0083]

i dont know for sure what the bang is, but when i started tampering with my exhaust, i unknowingly pushed the pipe higher, and it was hitting a heat shield near the back, just in front of the rear axle crossover. it made a weird clanking metal on metal sound when i put it in gear or reverse.

it was an easy fix!

try to figure out where it's coming from. when the pipes are cool enough to touch, get under the car and shake the pipes, side to side, front to back...

might not be a big deal

[G.I.Ceo]

Originally Posted by Mac0083

i dont know for sure what the bang is, but when i started tampering with my exhaust, i unknowingly pushed the pipe higher, and it was hitting a heat shield near the back, just in front of the rear axle crossover. it made a weird clanking metal on metal sound when i put it in gear or reverse.

it was an easy fix!

try to figure out where it's coming from. when the pipes are cool enough to touch, get under the car and shake the pipes, side to side, front to back...

might not be a big deal

Did you have to tune your PCM when you installed the headers. Mine for some reason now is shifting funny but I was really low on coolant. Also when I put this in reverse is when I get the bang. The rear header flange when I installed it was touching the bottom of my car so I think it doesn't have enough room for the flex of the car. Also when the guy cut the DP to fit he did move it up some, so maybe he moved it up to much and is causing that rattle. That rattle is exactly were yours was at. Any suggestions on what to do? This was a lot of work and I can't think anymore.

[AaronGTR]

The headers aren't causing the problem. No one else has had that issue with them. It was probably the shop that connected it to the rest of your exhaust. They probably made it too long/short/high or whatever they did, they didn't check to see where it was positioning the rest of the exhaust and now it's hitting something when your engine shifts. Solution... get the length adjusted, get a stiffer engine mount, tie the exhaust up with some aluminum wire... whatever you wanna try. But it's not the headers fault...


Oh, and no the headers do not require a tune. You might gain a little more power from a tune, but it will run fine without it.

[G.I.Ceo]

Originally Posted by AaronGTR

The headers aren't causing the problem. No one else has had that issue with them. It was probably the shop that connected it to the rest of your exhaust. They probably made it too long/short/high or whatever they did, they didn't check to see where it was positioning the rest of the exhaust and now it's hitting something when your engine shifts. Solution... get the length adjusted, get a stiffer engine mount, tie the exhaust up with some aluminum wire... whatever you wanna try. But it's not the headers fault...


Oh, and no the headers do not require a tune. You might gain a little more power from a tune, but it will run fine without it.

I'm the one that installed the headers and I can only think that I tightened the connecting pipes next to the thermostat to tight. I am going to try and loosen them and see if it lowers the rear header. Other then that I don't know what else to do. As far as the rattle on the back I know what caused that and I think the shop made one of the pipes to tight to the rear flange to connect it to the cat. Also can having way to low of coolant cause my tranni to act funny? I did not have enough in the system after refilling it.

[Mac0083]

i cant remember, do you have the borla cat back? i hink you do, so here is what i did. my borla has a sleeve type of connector near the back, a slip on fitting, where the piece with the resonator connects to the piece that goes over the rear axle. loosen that clamp, spray that joint with wd40, and wiggle it and it should lower the section that is making the rattle noise. it actually moved up and down quite easily.

i think that will solve the noise coming from the back, hitting the heat shield.

don't know what the problem is with your headers/downpipe/rear flange.

take pics, it's hard to understand.

[G.I.Ceo]

Originally Posted by Mac0083

i cant remember, do you have the borla cat back? i hink you do, so here is what i did. my borla has a sleeve type of connector near the back, a slip on fitting, where the piece with the resonator connects to the piece that goes over the rear axle. loosen that clamp, spray that joint with wd40, and wiggle it and it should lower the section that is making the rattle noise. it actually moved up and down quite easily.

i think that will solve the noise coming from the back, hitting the heat shield.

don't know what the problem is with your headers/downpipe/rear flange.

take pics, it's hard to understand.

I'll do my best to try and get a pic up in the next couple of days. Right now I don't even feel like going to mess with that car after as many hours as I put into it. I am really upset that now I am having multiple problems for no reasons.

The cat back has no muffler and it is just the pipe but it is a 2.25. Now I know it should be a 2.5 and I am working on getting it built. The weird thing about all of this is that my car with stock headers and 2.5 down pipe was louder then it is now with the headers attached too. Figure that one out. Is it possible that the 2.25 is choking the exhaust flow off at the cat back pipe and that's why it's muffled and the pipe is shaking real bad?

[Mac0083]

if you've got headers now, it should definitely be louder at least. if you have no muffler, then the only thing that could be hushing the exhaust would be the CAT. you did a high-flow cat, right? the 2.50 to 2.25 ain't great, but it's not going to quiet things.

and about the pipe shaking noise, is it only for a second or two when putting into gear, or is it constant? mine shook for a second when going into gear but then stopped, or if i hit a road bump to shake the pipe. it only made noise for a second.


i know how frustrating it all is. trust me!
but take it all in as a learning experience. how often do you get to change the sound of your car? even if it takes a few weeks to sort things out, you know deep down inside that it will be worth it. this is your chance to shine. enjoy it

[G.I.Ceo]

Originally Posted by Mac0083

if you've got headers now, it should definitely be louder at least. if you have no muffler, then the only thing that could be hushing the exhaust would be the CAT. you did a high-flow cat, right? the 2.50 to 2.25 ain't great, but it's not going to quiet things.

and about the pipe shaking noise, is it only for a second or two when putting into gear, or is it constant? mine shook for a second when going into gear but then stopped, or if i hit a road bump to shake the pipe. it only made noise for a second.


i know how frustrating it all is. trust me!
but take it all in as a learning experience. how often do you get to change the sound of your car? even if it takes a few weeks to sort things out, you know deep down inside that it will be worth it. this is your chance to shine. enjoy it

Very true and this was all done by me and I am proud of my work. It's nice to have support and talk to people who have been threw the same stuff because not everyone knows how frustrating it is.

I did find the rattle and it the pipe that is going over my rear suspension so I know how to fix that so hopefully soon the problem will be solved.

Now if I can get the shifting thing under control. I am going to try a crank relearn and see it that does it because of the amount of sensors I unplugged and the amount of stuff I took off the car.

Wish me luck.

[MMGT1]

I have the S&S in as well, and have a custom 2.5" exhaust going to a SLP SS Camaro Loudmouth. I had all kinds of problems getting the "over the control arm" ironed out. I ended up having to remove a small piece of metal from the bumper, under the cover, so I could raise the pipe enough coming over the control arm to not rattle. This was a 3 year affair to get mine to stop the rattle, so hope you get this one fixed quick. I know all too well how nasty this problem is.
Side note: Your exhaust touching the body at any point, allowing a rattle or excessive vibration to travel through the exhaust, can effect timing as well. The VCM can pick up "false knock" under these circumstances and it will pull timing, having a negative effect on your HP and tq!

[G.I.Ceo]

Originally Posted by MMGT1

I have the S&S in as well, and have a custom 2.5" exhaust going to a SLP SS Camaro Loudmouth. I had all kinds of problems getting the "over the control arm" ironed out. I ended up having to remove a small piece of metal from the bumper, under the cover, so I could raise the pipe enough coming over the control arm to not rattle. This was a 3 year affair to get mine to stop the rattle, so hope you get this one fixed quick. I know all too well how nasty this problem is.
Side note: Your exhaust touching the body at any point, allowing a rattle or excessive vibration to travel through the exhaust, can effect timing as well. The VCM can pick up "false knock" under these circumstances and it will pull timing, having a negative effect on your HP and tq!

So any idea how to get the header flange from not touching the body of my car? That's exactly the problem I have too.

[AaronGTR]

Originally Posted by MMGT1

I have the S&S in as well, and have a custom 2.5" exhaust going to a SLP SS Camaro Loudmouth. I had all kinds of problems getting the "over the control arm" ironed out. I ended up having to remove a small piece of metal from the bumper, under the cover, so I could raise the pipe enough coming over the control arm to not rattle. This was a 3 year affair to get mine to stop the rattle, so hope you get this one fixed quick. I know all too well how nasty this problem is.
Side note: Your exhaust touching the body at any point, allowing a rattle or excessive vibration to travel through the exhaust, can effect timing as well. The VCM can pick up "false knock" under these circumstances and it will pull timing, having a negative effect on your HP and tq!

That is not true. There is a flex pipe attachment on the headers that would absorb anything like that, but more importantly the headers would not transmit the same frequency as knock nor at a high enough level to activate the knock sensor. The knock sensor is screwed in to the engine block and only looks for a specific frequency caused by detonation. It won't be set off by any regular little old bang or vibration.

[G.I.Ceo]

So I am still having problem with when my car shifts it slams into gear hard. It never did this before I installed the headers. It did it when I drove it to the shop too with it just the straight headers and no exhaust attached to it at all. Is it possible that the engine mount is so weak that I just noticed it when I changed the headers or possibly tranni mount as well? I am lost on what to do. I am going to try and post pictures of how close it is to my bottom of my car tomorrow. I have the rattle figured out but when you put it into park or reverse it slams the tranni, especially big time when put into drive.

[MMGT1]

Check the MAF. It may not be pluged in or may have pinched a wire causing SD mode

[G.I.Ceo]

Originally Posted by MMGT1

Check the MAF. It may not be pluged in or may have pinched a wire causing SD mode

What about the sensor that is attached to the UIM? The one that looks like a black rectangle box.

[MMGT1]

at the side just behind the TB or the one on the in front of your coil packs? I am pretty sure the one beside the TB is do do with PCV and the one on the back is your MAP sensor... Aaron?? The one beside the TB... ?

[G.I.Ceo]

Yhe

Originally Posted by MMGT1

at the side just behind the TB or the one on the in front of your coil packs? I am pretty sure the one beside the TB is do do with PCV and the one on the back is your MAP sensor... Aaron?? The one beside the TB... ?

Yeah its the one between the manifold and coil pack. I am going to get this scanned because it is throwing my SES light and I can't get it shut off. It did give me that when I put the dp on but I could get the SES light reset. Now it just stays on all the time. Never thought about checking for a code problem. Could a code problem/sensor problem cause the tranni to slam into gear?

[Grandamgtblk99]

Yes, a couple sensors can cause that. The MAF was already mentioned and the intake air temp sensor can too. Just take it to Auto Zone and get the code read, instead of guessing what your problem is.

[AaronGTR]

Originally Posted by G.I.Ceo

Yhe

Yeah its the one between the manifold and coil pack. I am going to get this scanned because it is throwing my SES light and I can't get it shut off. It did give me that when I put the dp on but I could get the SES light reset. Now it just stays on all the time. Never thought about checking for a code problem. Could a code problem/sensor problem cause the tranni to slam into gear?

The sensor you are talking about is the MAP sensor. That will not cause the tranny to shift hard, but a MAF sensor problem will. The PCM uses the MAF to determine engine load as well as fuel enrichment. If you are getting a check engine light, then obviously you need to get the code checked. That will tell you a lot more than us just throwing out guesses.

[G.I.Ceo]

Originally Posted by AaronGTR

The sensor you are talking about is the MAP sensor. That will not cause the tranny to shift hard, but a MAF sensor problem will. The PCM uses the MAF to determine engine load as well as fuel enrichment. If you are getting a check engine light, then obviously you need to get the code checked. That will tell you a lot more than us just throwing out guesses.

You know what that totally makes sense. When I had that taken off my car a got something on the sensor and told myself that might cause a problem. I am going to take it off and try to clean it if possible. If that doesn't work then I will go have the code read and go from there.

Thank you all for giving me ideas and helping me troubleshoot this thing.

[AleroB888]

Originally Posted by AaronGTR

That is not true. There is a flex pipe attachment on the headers that would absorb anything like that, but more importantly the headers would not transmit the same frequency as knock nor at a high enough level to activate the knock sensor. The knock sensor is screwed in to the engine block and only looks for a specific frequency caused by detonation. It won't be set off by any regular little old bang or vibration.

I'm not so sure about that, I got a lot of false knock going, between having the TOG's (which aren't sealed all that good on mine) and the Magnuson forming a little echo chamber in there. I believe the sensitivity on those devices is higher than it needs to be, even for stock...

just my $.02