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Headers and TBI?

firefighter184

firefighter184

Hippie Killer
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While INTERCEPTOR has my motor out, I'm thinking of going to headers. The motor is an 89 TBI350, bored 30 over, a decent cam. I already have a pretty good Magnaflow muffler with less than 1000 miles on the Blazer. Recommendations for headers? Definitely not looking to spend much cash, but I dont want crap either. What do you guys think?
 
Whatever you choose for headers, make sure you put in a three wire O2 sensor(heated), otherwise your computer will throw a bunch of different codes. :confused: Basically, the stock single wire O2 sensor doesn't get hot enough to send the proper info to the computer. I think my headers are Headman, but the different sensor made a huge difference.
Jimbo
 
I have a single wire O2 sensor and I don't get any codes. In fact, I ran without one for a while and it would only throw a code if i was driving for a while and really hammered down on it.
 
I went with the ceramic coated dynomax headers. They look pretty darn good. They leaked at the head after a while, so I put in copper gaskets and haven't had a problem since.
The only thing I don't like about them is how close the collector is to the spring shackles. If I were to do it again, I would go with shorties.

Whatever you choose for headers, make sure you put in a three wire O2 sensor(heated), otherwise your computer will throw a bunch of different codes.
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Thanks for that info Jimbo, I'm going to give it a try.
 
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I have ceramic Flowtechs into magnaflows on my 89...no crossover. I simply welded a bung onto the collector on the drivers side. AC Delco one wire O2...Bosch was bad right out of the box. Been that way on the old motor 7 years, works just fine on the new motor w/ 6K on it. Don't buy Bosch.

BTW: I have to pass the rollers sniffer in my county...My 270hp TBI passed with about 1K miles on it
 
I got my headers for my 89 Jimmy for 87.50 from summit. I also went with the flowtech collectors that had the o2 bung in them, which where about 20 bucks. They fit well and I don't have any complaints, but then again, I only have about 2k miles on them since I put them on in June.

Erik
 
I went with a set of Hedman headers since I liked the ball and socket collector they use. I welded a jamb nut on the collector for the O2 sensor. Haven't been using a 3-wire sensor, or anything but the headers for an exhaust and I get a code once in a while if I drop the hammer. I liked the way the headman's fit and they weren't too pricey. I know Auto Zone sells Flowtech headers for Chevy pickups for about $75 and they're in stock! :eek1: I had those on my last pickup and they fit good... I would reccomend using header paint on them before installing since they rust quickly (as all uncoated headers seem to do).
 
a bit pricey I know but I love my Doug thorley Tri Y headers. they fit great and they still look good 2 years later.
 
So I'm guessing that shorty headers (I'll probably be going for Summit ones, I've had good luck with Summit stuff) making sure I have the appropriate 02 sensor stuff?
 
Shorty headers aren't much of a performance increase. Really more of a pain than they are worth IMO. I have a set for my S10 but thats because thats all that is made for them.

Single wire O2 won't really throw codes but it won't run right. My Burb ran night and day different after I finally installed a three wire O2 sensor. It ran GREAT and had more power after that.
 
3 wire

Hey, my harness has the 2 wire connector for 02. So I bought the cheaper 2 wire unit. If I do put a heated sensor on, how is it wired, without getting a new harness? Does the heat wire run off the ignition... what?
 
hot wire can run to any "hot when key in on position" wire.

The 3 wires are as follows:

-O2 signal

-heater power

-heater ground

The heater power and ground are both white wires usually. Doesn't matter which wire goes to what, you can't hook them up backwards(they work either way). Then just wire the signal wire to the stock connector. I cut the end off and soldered the signal wire to the stock O2 sensor connector then wired the power and ground for the heater seperate. Though soldering an O2 sensor wire isn't heavily recommended. It was very difficult, the wire is a steel wire I believe, its not copper, it is pretty hard to get a good solder connection on.
 
Thanks for the info. I'm gonna file that in case I run into performance problems.
 
sled_dog said:
Shorty headers aren't much of a performance increase. Really more of a pain than they are worth IMO. I have a set for my S10 but thats because thats all that is made for them.

Single wire O2 won't really throw codes but it won't run right. My Burb ran night and day different after I finally installed a three wire O2 sensor. It ran GREAT and had more power after that.
Click to expand...
You should be able to run without the O2 sensor at all if calibrated correctly. They are not used in most race applications or marine applications with no problems. If they get to cool at the end of a header you just go into open loop. Which is fine at idle, then when you drive away it'll heat up and start making adjustments again.
 
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