hedder problems

i had a set of pacesetter shorty hedders and ypipe installed on my 94 lt1 camaro and they leaked immediately. the mechanic that installed them told me the shitty gaskets that they sent me had blown out, some kind of white paper looking gasket, was not copper or any kind of metal. paid him again to go back and put new gaskets on.....still leaking. turns out it it was a combination of the shitty gaskets and the hedder flange was bent about 3/16ths of an inch. i got in touch with the guy i bought the hedders from on ebay, he put me in touch with pacesetter, pacesetter sent me one hedder....when i took it out of the box and put a straight edge to it, it too had about a 3/16ths gap. from what i understand that is too much and the bolt heads will break before that thick ass flange bends enough to sit flat. i have emailed and called pacesetter several times and have got no response, the guy i bought them from on ebay is involved too. what should i do?

kill them all. honestly all you can really do is keep calling them. If they dont answer im sorry to say but i think your SOL.

i guess so, bc if they dont call me back im stuck with 3 boo boo hedders that i cant sell.

what about double gaskets? ive heard of people doubling up head gaskets on a warped head, i wonder if it works the same way for hedder gaskets........ :swear:

Its most likely not the gasket's that are causing your leak especially since you replaced the crappy paper one's. What's causing it is your bolts are backing out which is commen with most header install's and not with stock manifolds because GM used rubber washer and over torqued the headers which created a almost suction like effect. So what you need to do is buy some non hardening thread locking compound that is heat resistant to above 1000 degrees and that should solve your problem.

shouldn't the hedders be flat tho?

the way i figure, i shouldn't have to mess with that, the shit should be flat shouldn't it? i mean is it unheard of to get hedders with good flat surfaces to meet the engine?

If one of the bolts backs out, All the bolts will start to back out and even if just one bolt starts to back out, that flange will leak trust me I have seen it a thousand times on lots of cars not just the F-bodys.

i dont think he's got a problem with bolts. i got pacesetters for my car and was nothin but a hassle. i had to work and machine the headers to fit, and i still think i got a minor leak somewhere. my best advice to you is try to get your money back, or you could try gettin new headers from pacesetter. i would bite the bullet and go with a different set from a good company. i try to tell everyone i run into to stay away from paceshitter...

I have helped many friends install pacesetter , As well as talked to many F-body owner's who all use pacesetter because of the discount they offer to fbody.com member's and they all worked out fine for them but every company has defects happen and because pacesetter is a widely used header because of price it just makes sence that they would have more defects.

well well what do you know...the guy from pacesetter emailed me back...he told me he would "inspect a brand new set to make sure they are within the factory specifications and ship them out today" and then send a call tag for the old ones. i sure hope their factory specs arent that the parts have to be f****d up and not work correctly. i mean i got a pretty good deal on the things, i paid $275 for hedders and ypipe shipped, but for the money ive paid to have them installed twice and now a third i could have just got some hookers and been good. but they wont pay me back for the installation they said its not covered under warranty.

Wouldn't the people that installed them of said something if they didn't fit right, or do something to make them fit themselfs? Thats kinda their job I think. Anyways, I got some 305 5.0 valve covers from Mr. Gasket for a little over $100 and they don't fit either. They aren't even symetrical from one to the other. The left valve cover has a shorter sidewall thing than the right one has that holds the gasket, and I can't find one that is skinny enough to fit. it's obvious it was not made right, but they didn't care or do anything about it. Ridiculous...I HAD to get the valve covers because my oil cap on the old ones exploded off and I lost it, and they don't make a cap that fits them anymore. I agree though, garbage like this is a pain in the ass.

and because pacesetter is a widely used header because of price it just makes sence that they would have more defects.

what the hell kind of sense does that make? if they are more widely used, than they should have fewer defects. this is the fourth case of someone coming on here with problems trying to put pacesetter headers on a camaro, mine not included. a performance parts company should make performance parts, not headers that look like they were made in someone's garage in missouri...

It makes perfect sense if you think about it. More people buy pacesetter headers because they are cheaper then there competitor. More headers produced means that if you do a percentage with defect to number produced. You should have more problems with pacesetter header's . I can send you links to other site's where people complain about every single type of headers ever made and they swear they will never buy again this includes hooker which I currently have and had to replace because I didn't buy coated but still think very highly of no matter what some guy say's about how they didn't fit his car. Case in point I have helped plenty of friends install pacesetter with no problems except that there gasket's are crap. So even though you feel very strongly about them being crap my experience with installing 4 of them to date is very good.

It makes perfect sense if you think about it. More people buy pacesetter headers because they are cheaper then there competitor. More headers produced means that if you do a percentage with defect to number produced. You should have more problems with pacesetter header's . I can send you links to other site's where people complain about every single type of headers ever made and they swear they will never buy again this includes hooker which I currently have and had to replace because I didn't buy coated but still think very highly of no matter what some guy say's about how they didn't fit his car. Case in point I have helped plenty of friends install pacesetter with no problems except that there gasket's are crap. So even though you feel very strongly about them being crap my experience with installing 4 of them to date is very good.



I agree totally with this one. If your going to buy pace setter headers for 250 or get something from slp for say 550, the slps will most likely fit way better. Headers and exhausts are known for having fitment issues, especially from cheaper manufacturers who dont bother to fine tune their products to fit perfectly. Why not just use most gasket to fill in the gaps of their crappy hand chiseled flanges :icon16:

grinder,

trial and error, shit, you got one extra header to learn on, fixing the other two after that should be no sweat ;)

thats what i ended up doing: bench grinder and a dremel tool...

i got two brand new ones the guy from pacesetter pulled off the shelf coming in the mail. if these sons of bit*ches aint perfect, im gonna sell all of them on ebay and get some good shits, or just grind one set down true, but either way i dont think im going to send my old ones back. he said id have to send them back after i got the new ones installed and everything is cool. shiiiiiit, ill at the very least make them wait three times as long as i had to.

well dont sell them on ebay. that will just put someone else in your position, which is bad form. if u do, atleast inform the buyer that they are imperfect...

definately

any good machine shop should be able to surface grind headers as long as their not coated

Thanks for the info Harley and welcome to the forum but please pay attention to date of the last post before you revive a dead thread. Thanks

John