i have a 2002 sliverado 1500 5.3l 4x4 that i ordered a set of pacesetter long tube headers and off road y pipe from summit today..so far the truck is stock other then a air filter and muffler. next week i plan to get a blackbear tune or hp tuners to retune the truck and fix the cel.anyways im looking on info for installing these if anyone has any tips they have found i would like to know thanks

 

crossmember for tranny comes out to get the Y pipe installed. lots of patience with the manifold bolts. How many miles? I had two bolts break on my 2002. maybe front driveshaft? not for sure i have a 2wd. but someone will chime in to tell you otherwise
I just hacked up the stock pipes to get them out of the way. then sold my cats for 50$ a piece :p

 

75k on the truck.. i plan to soak everything in pb blast for a couple days before install i would like to keep the stock stuff to reuse if i need to

 

10mm and off they come wouldn't use to big of wrench/ratchet so you dont round them.. just take your time and do it right. once you put those headers on you will never think to put the stock manifolds back on. trust me haha... are you going catless?

 

Not trying to scare you or anything, but when I put my long tubes on removing the old exhaust was a nightmare. I have an 05 with only 48k on it. I presoaked all nuts and bolts for two days. Only the pass side manifold came off without any issues. On the driver side manifold I was able to only get two of the three nuts to break loose with a 3 foot breaker bar. The third bolt rounded off on me. I had to use a grinder to cut the nut off the stud. Lastly, all my O2's were seized. I was only able to get about 1/2 a turn on them then nothing, so I had to get all new one's. Other than those few issues everything went fine. I did this all in my garage with hand tools, beside the grinder of course. If you have access to a lift and air tools I'm sure it will be much easier on you. I wish you luck.

 

thanks for the info guys they will be here tomorrow so ill see how it goes this weekend

 

its not really that hard, it took a couple hours for us to do it in my garage, everyone always says it was so hard to get the stock bolts out of the manifold, i guess mine was just easy, cause i had no problems with them. Youll really enjoy them tho. Good Luck

 

after you install your headers check your transmission lines for clearance.......mine had been touching the header for over a year before i noticed...i am having trans problems now and i feel it was directly related to this

 

thanks for the tip man ill check them and wrap them with heat wrap if need be..header will go on by this weekend i hope to have the tune mid week and then a 90mm tb and cam with in another week

 

i would use a 3/8 impact. you are much less likely to break the bolts with an impact over the constant force of a breaker bar. I have an 03 with 140k and only hit the bolts with PB blaster the day before and broke no bolts...