no power after installing headers. frustrated....

[love89]

I have a 89 Chevy Silverado 4x4 5.7 with fresh rebuild, mild cam etc. I installed the ultimate tbi mods and After i did all the mods the baby was purring nicely. Then I installed my long tube super comp hookers and she sounded bad as but has no power. It's a real turf all the sudden. I changed the temp sensor and knock sensor. I just can't figure out how I was smiling ear to ear after ultimate mods to a piece now. I also installed new inline fuel filter, water pump, New wires, cap, rotor button and plugs. I'm exhausted. Please help!!!!

[bobfig]

Could there be an air leak? Are the wires 180° out of order? Pluges getting spark?

[SUBURBIAN]

What does the rest of the exhaust system consist of?

[TheBigBlackHD]

Is everything that you may have unplugged been plugged back in? Might have some bad vacuum lines somewhere.

[Fast305]

I have a 89 Chevy Silverado 4x4 5.7 with fresh rebuild, mild cam etc. I installed the ultimate tbi mods and After i did all the mods the baby was purring nicely. Then I installed my long tube super comp hookers and she sounded bad as but has no power. It's a real turf all the sudden. I changed the temp sensor and knock sensor. I just can't figure out how I was smiling ear to ear after ultimate mods to a piece now. I also installed new inline fuel filter, water pump, New wires, cap, rotor button and plugs. I'm exhausted. Please help!!!!

I can think of about 4 different things that would make it run turdish.

A.) Too lean (Toss a quarter or two in fuel pressure regulator to raise the fuel pressure)
B.) Broken Spark Plug (Done this more than once and it causes it to run like hell everytime
C.) 5-7 Plug wires swapped (Too dang easy to do on a small block chevy)
D.) Timing Advance (The stock TBI with a mild cam is undertimed by 4-6*)

[cancritter]

put duals on it?

[2500ak]

o2 sensor hooked up? Did the LT headers move the o2 sensor further back? Were the 89 o2 senors heated sensors? If not it could be affecting what the ecm thinks the mixture is.

[Quyonmob]

o2 sensor hooked up? Did the LT headers move the o2 sensor further back? Were the 89 o2 senors heated sensors? If not it could be affecting what the ecm thinks the mixture is.

Good call, as 89's were unheated O2's. May not be lighting off with the increased exhaust velocity and increased distance from the head.

[love89]

Well I did move the o2 sensor down to the driver collector. I purchased a 3 wire o2 sensor and I ran the power to the Brown alternator battery. I guess I screwed that up because now my battery light is on and the truck was dead this morning. Has anyone spliced in to the Brown alternator battery? Is this a bad spot? I did run a . dual cat back 2 1/2 inch pipes back to two 49 series flows. I will also check the fuel pressure. I bought a gushed and and adjustable fuel regulator. I will also check all plugs and make sure my buddy didn't break one when installing them after headers. We will see what happens. Also I used a 3 m splicer for the 12v power for the o2 in to the Brown alternator wire maybe it didn't like that.

[love89]

Sorry guys my spell checker slides words by me. There 40 series not 49,s and I bought a fuel pressure gauge not gush. One more thing the power and the ground for the 3 wire o2 were short so I spliced them. I didn't have to splice the sending wire though.

[NEUMANNZZ]

do not splice it to the brown alternator wire(charging wire for alternator). you need a 12vdc ignition on source. do a search for heated o2 sensor mod.
probably gonna need to get a custom tuned chip burned.

[love89]

I do plan on getting a tune from westers once I get her running right.

[2500ak]

Another thing I thought of is to make sure the sensor has the best ground it can possibly get. I would ground it to somewhere on the chassis or some other part of the engine away from exhaust manifold heat, and then run a piece of 8-14 gauge wire off the - terminal of the battery directly to that spot so that the ring terminals are on top of each other. Less resistance, and more grounds = less problems.

[NEUMANNZZ]

thermostat housing stud is where the 02 sensor ground should be.

[love89]

well thanks to everyone on this board i got the o2 wired up correctly but i still have no power, cutting out when i give it gas and now the truck is getting hot.. i guess i will pull all the spark plugs and see if any are damaged. why did i put the long tube headers on? im depressed and wish i would have left the headers alone. i also didnt get any check engine lights so im at a loss...

[TheBigBlackHD]

I wouldnt blame the headers for all of it. **** happens, and usually when it happens its at the most inconvenient times and all at once. My guess if it its cutting out under throttle would be lack of spark or lack of fuel, or both. When you cut the key on can you hear the fuel pump kick on? When was your last major tune up?

[2500ak]

Fuel would be my next suspect. When an engine runs a small amount of the exhaust gas remains in the cylinder even after the exhaust valve closes. That means that it occupies space that fresh air otherwise would. By increasing the amount of fresh air the headers may have increased the fuel demand.

What is the fuel pressure?

Could also be the headers upsetting the knock sensors. Sometimes when an engine is modified so that the noises it makes changes the knock sensors are aggravated. Especially if they are old and sensitive.

Are we sure that there isn't an exhaust leak?

There is also a possibility that the stock computer (unless you've had the tuning rewritten for the changes you've made), may no longer be able to cope with how different the engine is from it's stock configuration.

[gmctrucks]

Reminds me of this guy that put headers without the O2 well he messed up a brand new engine so he installed another new engine and it happened again second engine it heated up big times so he just gave up. I hope you get it running fine. Why don't you just have a the sensor welded in the right place it's easy any muffler shop can do it.

[GreaseDog]

No mention of verifying the correct firing order.... did you pull the plug wires completely off?

[love89]

yes i pulled wires all off and the firing order is correct.

its been tuned during this whole process. new rotor button, distributor cap, plugs, wires. It ran awsome before installing headers after i got new rebuild put in and i put in the new tbi, spacer, injector spacer, flow matched injectors etc. I replaced the collant sensor and knock sensor anf thermostate. new water pump and new inline fuel pump. I have a new fuel pump but my gosh dang bed wont come off. gonna have to have someone with better tools get the bolts loose. i dont know what my fuel pressure is but i do have a guage and new adjustable fuel regulator from cfm to still install. i did crack the back of my distributer cap in the back just a little when putting it on and also would new headers make the fuel pressure that big of a deal? i mean i did plan to fuel adjust but wouldnt think it would go in the tank this bad just from header install and why would it be getting hot? i dont hear an exhaust leak but i didnt think an exhaust leak would make it low on power etc. i dont have a tune yet. i will install the fuel pressure gauge and see what i got...

[love89]

i could put the o2 sensor in the 1 tube but i thought it was best in collector.

[cancritter]

click.....when l did my headers had a issue where it seemed like l had a fuel filter issue...truck would get warm then start to bog like a fuel filter issue...took me a few days to sort it out but what it turned out to be was with the addition of the long tube headers it turned out that my fuel line was to close to the headers....lines would heat up and perculate the gas...basicly heated up the gas...once l redirected lines and insulated the area problem was solved...food for thought

ps.. with addition of diffrent cam tuneing needs to be adressed or it will never be at 100%

[2500ak]

click.....when l did my headers had a issue where it seemed like l had a fuel filter issue...truck would get warm then start to bog like a fuel filter issue...took me a few days to sort it out but what it turned out to be was with the addition of the long tube headers it turned out that my fuel line was to close to the headers....lines would heat up and perculate the gas...basicly heated up the gas...once l redirected lines and insulated the area problem was solved...food for thought


I think I remember that thread. That is a definite possibility.

[love89]

Oh ok!! Welll my gas lines cross at the driver side headers in two places where the steel braided gas lines are 1/2" to 3/4 away from the header. I remember looking under thier at them thinking it didn't seem very safe. I am going to move the
lines and try and get them further away.

[NEUMANNZZ]

hot means your lean especially if the headers get cherry red.

[love89]

Well sounds like my whole issue if running lean could be I'm not getting enough fuel and running lean. I'm gonna get the lines moved too away from the header and get my new fuel regulator installed so I can see about bumping up the fuel. Allthough the bitch ran fine after all the air intake upgrades it just maybe to much after duals and longtube header install.

[cancritter]

l went from brand new duals back to single 3in after l lost torque...that was a 1600$ lesson

[GreaseDog]

I'll never put duals on anything again. Love my single exhaust.

[silverado_lover]

l went from brand new duals back to single 3in after l lost torque...that was a 1600$ lesson

:thud: Better have gotten your dik sucked for paying that much for an exhaust :lol:

[cancritter]

two exhausts

[SUBURBIAN]

It's too bad that people who "overpipe" an engine want to give dual exhaust setups a bad name. Mine picked up power over stock, and was NOWHERE near $1600.

[cancritter]

no cheap labour up here..shop rates are 100+hr and didnt have the equitment l wanted to do the job...first set up was to remove old exhaust(torch) rusted bolts ect as l knew what was gona happen if l tryed without one...install headers and do a nice dual mandrel setup with dynomaxs...after 2 days of lost tourque had them replace them with a single 3 in set up...trust me..wasnt happy to have it done twice but was much happyer to have my low end tourque back and running as it should...lota folks just throw a new engine in and duals and if its not set up right will never realize that they even lost tourque..ive got nothing to prove here..am just passing on my obsevations and experience to the op...on the bright side whenever l need to replace my muffler have a spare kickin around

[silverado_lover]

two exhausts

Including the cost of two sets of headers and 1 ceramic coating job, I've spent probably $1,700 on 4 different exhaust setups :lol:

[GreaseDog]

Including the cost of two sets of headers and 1 ceramic coating job, I've spent probably $1,700 on 4 different exhaust setups :lol:

How many of those setups were mandrel bent, and how many crimp bent? Assuming they're all custom bent.

[silverado_lover]

All mandrel bent :bawl:


My old exhaust shop was a rip off though

[bobfig]

All mandrel bent :bawl:


My old exhaust shop was a rip off though

im not seeing any mandrel bet peaces there? :crazy:


Now that I'm off my phone I'll post some picz

http://i978.photobucket.com/albums/ae267/mrmason17/LS%20Swap/P3190754.jpg
http://i978.photobucket.com/albums/ae267/mrmason17/LS%20Swap/P3190750.jpg
http://i978.photobucket.com/albums/ae267/mrmason17/LS%20Swap/P3190751.jpg
http://i978.photobucket.com/albums/ae267/mrmason17/LS%20Swap/P3190753.jpg
http://i978.photobucket.com/albums/ae267/mrmason17/LS%20Swap/P3190756.jpg

[Doober]

Yeah... all either assembly-line or muffler-shop bent... :whyme:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a164/ctrlraven/0917101222.jpg

[silverado_lover]

Shat meant crimped, also this forum app fvcking sucks ass

[Doober]

...Aaaaand that's why I don't use it.

[GreaseDog]

Shat meant crimped, also this forum app fvcking sucks ass

My money is on a 1D10T user error. BUSTED!

[Doober]

:lol: x50

[silverado_lover]

My money is on a 1D10T user error. BUSTED!

Kettle paging pot :whatever:

[love89]

Well I have been working a lot of hours so I haven't gotten a lot done to the truck but I did get my fuel pressure gauge in and here is something. I have 11.5 pounds. Also one of the injectors was dripping and one was spraying at idle. I played with the injector connection and it was loose so it seemed to make them both spray. So then today I get under the hood and I checked the oil and it has fuel in it. Did I screw something up or what?

[2500ak]

My guess is that the dripping injector was causing some of the cylinder to run over rich, which washed out a cylinder. When there is no oil left on a cylinder wall the rings won't seal completely and the fuel will run into the oil.

Change the oil as soon as possible, if you get too much fuel in there it will cut the viscosity and that can cause excessive wear to happen quickly.

Run some injector cleaner and be sure that the injector that was dripping is no longer dripping.

[88Shortbed]

click.....when l did my headers had a issue where it seemed like l had a fuel filter issue...truck would get warm then start to bog like a fuel filter issue...took me a few days to sort it out but what it turned out to be was with the addition of the long tube headers it turned out that my fuel line was to close to the headers....lines would heat up and perculate the gas...basicly heated up the gas...once l redirected lines and insulated the area problem was solved...food for thought

ps.. with addition of diffrent cam tuneing needs to be adressed or it will never be at 100%

Definate possibility ive ran into this before...

[cancritter]

just a quick question...fuel reg is on return fuel line after the tbi right?

[GreaseDog]

Yes.

[cancritter]

when you put your fuel reg on did you address the reg in the tbi?..has been so long since l did mine cant remember what l did...but know it has to be addressed...mayby someone who remembers can pipe up