Over the weekend I decided to put on my Pacesetter Header w/downpipe for my NT 2.0 but go figure the guy who I bought it from didn't send the complete kit. So I had to get exhaust piping and I had a mechanic friend of mine weld the missing piece... he cut half my test pipe to make it work. Well... here's the problem:
Car seems to be running lean...
It seems like I'm not getting any real gain or power until I'm in 3rd gear at WOT around 4,000. The rest of time it seems like I'm not going anywhere just making a lot of noise
I don't have a wideband or anything like that... just a regular air/fuel ratio gauge and at idle it lights up 1 bar in LEAN and then fades off and keeps coming on and off. When I drive it goes crazy like the rest of those air/fuel ratio gauges but then when I stop at the redlight it does the same as if it was parked running... 1 bar LEAN fading on and off.

Now I was told today I don't have any back pressure and I need to put a catalytic converter back on to fix the problem. That my gas is burning too early.

Any thoughts what it could be? I know the car was running fine before installing the header and the extra exhaust pipe.

 

sale the cheap gauge that you have and buy a real wide band/ go and get on a dyno and fine out i am sure your not running lean and i bet your still running rich

 

That does not solve my problem... spending money on both or even 1 of those things you suggested could of been money I spend on fixing the problem.

 

I think the first problem is putting headers on a 2.0 NT plus a test pipe, you should put the car back to stock and it will work just fine. If you want get a cheap 1G GSX and build it up, you would be surprised how little you can spend and have some awesome power. Look at the goodwill car, those guys did an amazing job for cheap.

 

Well I had a Talon TSI, traded it for this car... since the TSI was a money pit and it was more off the road then on the road. Turbo 1g's been there done that... I've had less problems with this car. I'm modding a NT... yes slower then a turbo 1g but its more reliable. I had a test pipe on the Laser I had which was a 1.8 with cat-back exhaust and had no problems. The eclipse runs the similiar setup that was on it a year ago and it ran fine with the pacesetter headers, test pipe and 2 1/2" cat-back a year ago... but it was the complete pacesetter system then and now I had custom piping done.

Still does not answer any of my questions....

 

how are you going to solve your problem then ? sell the gauge for 40 bucks call a dyno place see what they will charge might be 50-60 bucks and it the end it cost 10-20 dollars ...

 

None of these replies has helped him in any way. It's his car, let him do whatever he wants to it. The blinky light gauge isn't going to give him an exact air fuel ratio, but it can easily tell him that something is wrong as it's sitting at dead lean at idle instead of cycling like it should.

Maybe the exhaust shop messed up the o2 sensor and it's messing with your fuel trims? That backpressure thing is crap- if you've got a full exhaust w/ test pipe, you shouldn't be having any problems. Running open header, yes, it might throw things out of wack somehow, but you don't need a cat choking up your engine for it to run.

*edit* Have you checked for exhaust leaks? Maybe you have a big exhaust leak at the header flange? That can mess things up.

 

is your check engine light on for maybe o2 sensor?? did the welder guy unhook the battery before welding on the car?? agree with jordan, make sure the o2 sensor is ok and possibly didnt rip any wires to it, make sure there are no leaks in the exhaust...... cant think of anything else

 

I think I do have an exhaust leak. When he welded the piece he didn't disconnect the battery. Would there be any problems due to not disconnecting the battery?

 

Well started up the car... 2 big exhaust leaks...

Today, ended up calling Pacesetter... ordered 3 different parts...

I ordered the test pipe from SBR... yesterday

So hopefully all of this will solve my problems... will keep every updated