Hey guys. Besides my car being side swiped on friday the 13th i got a question about the passetter header. I installed it a few months ago. There are two compression springs that hold the cat to the header. Does anyone know how tight to make them. It sounds like i have a lil leak somewhere but im not sure where. Thanks.

 

tight enough so the gasket/donut doesnt leak. hehe. sorry i dont have a torque setting or anything for ya, ive just tighened em away until they felt tight enough, started it up and listened for leaks.. and if it leaked, tightened em up a tad more.

 

well i made the header bolts 20 lbs like it said. but it sounds fine when ideling and when its in high rpms but it makes a werid sound when i step on it and befor it picks up it makes a werid gargel sound. hard to explane. did u tighten the bolts all the way ( the ones that have the springs on it). Cuz i know the motor moves when u hit the gas so i was wondering that it might be to tight or to loose so the exhaust it escaping out the side.

 

my motor didnt move. prothane inserts in the motor mounts sure helped that

are you sure the sound(s) you are hearing arent just normal header sounds? it WILL sound different than the stock exhaust manifold...

 

Tighten them all the way. The springs keep somewhat constant tension on the bolts which keeps them from loosening up. The engine will move, whether you have poly's or not, just it will move more with the stock rubber but I wouldn't worry about that unless you hear the exhaust hitting something when you shift hard. If you tighten them and it still leaks, take it back apart and make sure u didn't dent the donut gasket. Good luck.

 

aight thanks guys. Mine only came with a header gasket. whats a donut gasket?

 

The donut gasket is just what it sounds like, a ring shaped crush gasket that fits in between the flanges. If you didn't put one in there when you bolted it up, that is most likely why it is leaking. Maybe its not designed to have a gasket there but that is really hard to imagine. Most likely because pacesetter is an el crappo company, they didn't include the gasket you needed. Give me a link or a picture of the header assembly and I'll be able to tell you if your supposed to have one. If you do need it you might be able to go to a parts store and get one that will work, just measure the inside diameter of the pipe. There is usually a chamfer or recess that the gasket will slip into, measure that diameter also and get a gasket that will fit these two measurements. Personally I'd call up wherever you bought the thing from and ask them because I really don't know what your dealing with but I remember back in the day I bought a pacesetter cat-back for my integra that was less than perfect. Needless to say I had to do some home modifications and buy some extra parts to make it work because I wasn't about to pay the shipping to send it back to them

 

Ok, I checked it out....you don't need a gasket with those headers it looks like. They wedge together when you tighten the sping bolts, which isn't very good but you can't expect much from pacesetter. Just tighten up the flange bolts, thats about the best your gonna get. I did notice that pacesetter makes the claim "modification may be required" lmfao...Next time you buy something, save your money and get it from MOPAR, they make the most power and fit the best - always worth every penny.

 

eh. gotta correct this. the mopar street header, doesnt provide the power gains that the pacesetter does. the mopar RACE header, however, did provide better gains, but it is no longer available for purchase new from mopar.
not to mention, all medium (kirk, tti "long") and long tube headers (Fast Fabs, AFx, Blackdog, etc) will out-gain ALL of the short tubes (pacesetter, obx, mopar, tti shorty)

 

eh, you have much to learn young one - all out power is different than consistent gains throughout the rev range. All the length on the headers do is shift the powerband, what you gain in one area, you lose elsewhere, it has to with the timing of the pulses - acoustics actually. Does five more horse at 6000 rpm and 4 lost at 4000 rpm make you faster on a track where you hardly ever see that 6000 rpm........afraid not. If you ever look at a dyno chart - look at the total area under the curve (not just the peak) because thats what really matters and honestly horse actually has no meaning whatsoever unless you understand what it actually is - torque curves are much more indicative of engine performance because power is dependent on torque and rpm. But you go ahead and fall into the max power trap and watch better tuned cars ape you off the line and out of corners.