Hey i was wondering, is it easy to access the stock header bolts, to replace the header with a performance one because if possible i want to do the installation with my jack stands and it looks pretty tight in the engine bay so iam starting to get worried wether or not iam going to need to send it into a shop or if it will be accesible via 2 front jack stands and a creeper????....

 

its not hard, the downpipe bolts are a bitch though

They bind up on you, it took 3 hours to get all 3 header-downpipe bolts off of mine when i did it

defintely replace them with some higher quality bolts

 

you need a lift to walk under the car...half the bolts you can reach in the engine bay and the other half are only reachable from below the car. The stock header takes a little force to come off but other than that it was a pretty easy install.

 

this is also true..goddamn downpipe bolts lol

 

I did mine with a jack and two jackstands

 

so how did you go about it .... first unscrewing the ones only reachable in the engine bay then jack up and pull the bottom ones ?!?!


Iam getting the downpipe from CA iam prettysure it comes with some nice bolts

 

all the bolts on the block are reachable from the engine bay, but i would go about disconnecting the downpipe first

 

really ?!??? doesnt seem like it but maybe Iam just mistaken .....


ill give you a shout when it arrives, so i dont run into any trouble

 

I did it jsut last month, he manifold bolts were cake, took ten minutes

 

Yeah, same here, but my job took about an hour. I broke off 2 of the 3 studs holding the b-pipe as the nuts would not come off. The thread lock that GM uses on these is way too strong. All bolts and studs can be reached easily from inside the engine bay.

I installed the XTC header and 2.5" b-pipe w/cat. Sweet performance gains. The b-pipe's a little loud and the cat rattles a little on full acceleration though.

 

ok awesome looks like you answered all my questions

 

Cat's are for losers and law abiding kiss-asses

lol j/k

 

seriously...you can get all of the header bolts without even lifting the car up. but like he said, downpipe bolts are insane!! it took me 30 minutes to get it all of except for those dp bolts. that added 2 hours. they ended up twisting in half by the time i started getting them loose.

 

My header is sitting around waiting for warmer weather right now, how easy is it to get out the sensor and whats the best way for that

 

I just used a crescent wrench. It's not on too tight.

 

Yeah, I guess I'm a *****. You know, you are what you eat!

At least I'm not a dick!

 

have a look at my cobalt addiction header install thread. i have no idea where it is, but its in here somewhere. Everything can happen from on top, but i had to double wrench the downpipe bolts. GM engineers are pretty smart. all the manifold to head bolts are accessible with an extension...no swivels needed. too bad the header isnt like that!

 

Don't forget to lube the downpipe studs when you remove the nuts. I had a bitch of a time with the first one then common sense hit me and I sprayed a rust removal oil on the other two and they came off easy once I got the nuts to move. You can pick up a O2 sensor socket at Autozone for $10 -- cheap insurance.

Also found a note in the 2006 Cobalt Service Manual: Page P-7 Notice: Do not remove the pigtail from either the heated oxygen sensor (HO2S) or the oxygen sensor (O2S). Removing the pigtail or the connector will affect sensor operation. At the end of the paragraph it reads: Notice: When replacing the HO2S perform a code clear with a scan tool, regardless of whether or not a DTC is set. Performing a code clear will reset the HO2S resistance learned value. Failure to perform a code clear may result in an HO2S failure.

I swapped out my manifold with a GMPP manifold but didn't perform a code clear. I thought all the mods (GMPP CAI, Cat-Back Perf Exh, and manifold) killed my low end torque. Of course, I found this info after I did the change but after performing a code clear I got my wheel spin back.

 

When you say code clear you mean ECU RESET -correct?!?!

 

"perform a code clear with a scan tool" = quoted directly out of the GM 2006 Cobalt Service Manual (Engine). I'm not sure about a "ECU RESET" - I used an Actron CP9125 scan tool (has an erase button). There were no DTC codes but I used the erase feature and it said "Done".

After I installed the GMPP manifold I talked to Tom at CED and told him I felt the low end torque wasn't as strong as before the GMPP install (wouldn't spin the tires, I figured the GMPP mods moved the torque curve up on the RPM curve) -- then I got the Service Manual and started going through it and found the info above. I figured WTH and tried it. I have no idea if this actually fixed it -- I just know my low end is strong again (low end throttle response with wheel spin again).

 

were and how much did you pick this up for CP9125 scan tool

 

I just bought one from Amazon.com for 51.95 shipped.

 

ive been research the scan tool all night and in a nutshell all it does is clear the check lights so basically even if the problem wasnt fixed the scan tool will shot off the annoying light .... i dont understand how its possible that you say a huge gain from all your parts after using this tool???

 

After installing a mod the engine management system can "learn" the new characteristics of the mod and make the best use of them. Most installation sheets says to disconnect the battery for 10 minutes and it accomplishes the same thing as the scan tool reset. I found that if you don't do this the system eventually learns the new configuration, but it takes a few days of driving. In that time some mods will cause CELs. My GMPP intake didn't.