camzaro28

a friend of mine put longtubes on my car 2 weekends ago. since then i have put 3 sets of header gaskets on my driver side( now there are now leaks or signs of blowout!) anyway driving along today and i heard a pop then ticking , it is coming from the passenger side now! but from up top there are no signs of a blowout, but cant tell from below. just yet! i did notice a lil hesitation last night whenever i first got on it, but just figured it was a lil exhaust leak in the ypipe! another thing since i have had the longtubes installed, is that, after it gets warmed up( after like 15 minutes) it will stumble throughout the rpm's under full throttle, and at 50 if i just give it a lil gas it will stumble and the whole car will shake. so i either have to let off or give it more so it is less noticeable!
side note: sumit sent me the wrong o2 extensions, so for now i have it rigged with the butt connectors till i get the new ones.
so my ? is if when the car gets cold and i can get under it to see if the gasket blew or not, what do u think is making my car to act up like it is?
TIA, Brian

rocmemphis

1. blown header gasket
2. burnt spark plug wire

My bet is on number 2. Check all of your wires especially the ones that come fairly close to the primaries.

camzaro28

thanks for the reply man! well i let it cool down checked it out, and the passenger side header gasket is blown out on the bottom middle one. then i looked over it some more and found that the spark plug wire on the driver side was touching the middle one as well. and my o2 wires were touching the tranny pan. not all the time but u could see where they were rubbing every once in a while! but the spark plug doesnt have any signs of burntness to it( i mean it wasnt burnt through the plastic ). i pulled it off and away. other then that it looked fine! so i took it for a spin and, it started off fine sounded like it was almost normal, then after about a mile of normal driving i floored it at 40 and it sounded like a machine gun going off! it was missing like crazy, popping( machine gun sound) and a major loss of power. and it got worse the more i drove it. only drove for like 5 minutes, but driveability got worse and worse the more i had the car on.
for the wires to be bad, do they have to burnt through or just crisp on the outside?

camzaro28

TTT

ok i ma startin to think it could be my o2's. the more i have the car running, the worse it gets. i had a friend follow me toda and he said wheni floored it there would be a foot ro so long flame shoot out the cutout. could it be running really rich? will be puttin gnew o2's in tomorrow and hopefully it fixes it. but just wanted to get some more intput. i have checked the wires again and they all seem to be fine. is there any spot on any particular wire that normally burns with our cars?
tia later

camzaro28

just keepin u guys updated, incase any of u care! lol. anyway put the new o2's in and it is driving alot better now. but the popping under WOT is still there at high rpm's , and i am hoping that is the exhaust leak at the manifolds. but it is nowhere as loud as it was b4. i am pretty sure it is. so in a few days i am goin to get around to it. but i am just glad it is finally ok to drive without me gettin all pissed off.