dc sports headers install help

alright, decided to get off my butt yesterday and installed my headers. everything went fine until they got on. turned the car on, it was running horribly horribly rough. anyway, it was getting dark so i said screw it, i'll deal with it later. this morning, tried a couple things. adjusted timing, didn't help. put back on the old spark plug wires (because i ripped one on accident when i was taking the stock header off so i got new ones) and it improved only marginally.
moving on, it's running extremely rich. so rich that what's coming out the tailpipe smells like pure gasoline fumes. i've heard that the dc headers sometimes have to have the o2 sensors switched to run right, tried that, still didn't work. so i was next going to try to just put in the o2 sensors off the stock headers and see if that does the trick. but would bad o2 sensors cause it to run rich like that? it's running so rich that when i rev it a little, it nearly dies when i lay off the gas. i'd say it sounds flooded.

It's very easy to connect the wrong sensor to the wrong plug. Did you switch the sensors or the way they were plugged in? I would also reset the ecu.

Well, it seems like it's an O2 sensor related problem. A bad sensor will make the car run rich although rarely to the extent that you're describing. But you should definately try putting in a known good sensor.

edit, oh you have 2 sensors, listen to LX-incredible then.

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Originally Posted by LX-incredible

It's very easy to connect the wrong sensor to the wrong plug. Did you switch the sensors or the way they were plugged in? I would also reset the ecu.

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yeah, i've tried plugging the sensors in both ways possible.

The left sensor should be connected to the green plug and right to white. Pull the ecu fuse, reinstall, and start car. Let the car idle for 10 min without accessories or depressing the throttle. Shut it off and restart. If that doesn't do it I would assume you got a faulty sensor.

left facing the engine bay or facing the front?

Left, closest to the transmission. Sorry.

ok. i'll try it when i get home.

yeah did you reset the ecu?

also make sure you have the valve cover ground installed still, sometimes my car did silly shit with that thing missing. :)

neva come across a car with 2 o2 sensors.
alot of people mistake the cat temp sensor for an o2 sensor tho.
Most likely the batt needs to be disconnected for ten minutes or so to reset it.
Didnt weld anything on the exhaust without diconnecting it did you?
That'll fry things and it either wont run right or wont run

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Originally Posted by Hauntd ca3

neva come across a car with 2 o2 sensors.
alot of people mistake the cat temp sensor for an o2 sensor tho.
Most likely the batt needs to be disconnected for ten minutes or so to reset it.
Didnt weld anything on the exhaust without diconnecting it did you?
That'll fry things and it either wont run right or wont run

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We got 2 of 'em on the 88-89.

wow 2 sensors. you americans are up there with the emissions shit! I cant really see an oxygen sensor making the car run that rough tho. mine only made fuel milage bad and black smoke but it still purred nicely. May have to check your wiring maybe you accidentily unplugged something while installing the headers and you didnt know you did it. i have done that heaps lol.

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Originally Posted by wohdog

wow 2 sensors. you americans are up there with the emissions shit! I cant really see an oxygen sensor making the car run that rough tho. mine only made fuel milage bad and black smoke but it still purred nicely. May have to check your wiring maybe you accidentily unplugged something while installing the headers and you didnt know you did it. i have done that heaps lol.

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yea sounds about right, maybe the wire or connector got damaged so there is no signal at all. Also may want to check egr in case it was disturbed, that would make it lean but still it may try to compensate. You should not have run into any problem like you describe by just changing the exhaust header. Back track everything you touched, check the firing order too :)

yes, firing order was first thing i checked, along with the connections. connections are all good, and firing order is correct. and i looked at everything i touched, which was really just the headers and egr, and it all checked out right as well. :wtf: going for the battery right now...

after surveying the damage a bit more with the engine running, i discovered that there's exhaust escaping through the egr fitting. could that do the trick?

i had to plug my AS valve since it would leak air and it sounded like a ricer. it should of worked fine tho....when i did my header swap it sucked because damn pacesetters hit the front crossmember and it shook the whole car.

no rice sounding here. it just sounds like it's not running right, because, well, it's not. i'm almost tempted to just take them back off and see if that helps.

outch that sucks if you have to work on it again....the stock manifold is so heavy

How conductive is that ceramic coating? Connect an ohm meter between the shell of the sensor and a solid ground, make sure there is no resistance.

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Originally Posted by LX-incredible

How conductive is that ceramic coating? Connect an ohm meter between the shell of the sensor and a solid ground, make sure there is no resistance.

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now see, that is why I love this forum, think tank... that would have eluded me, the coating keeping the sensor isolated.
Egr leaking air into the exhaust will make the 02 read lean thus tells the ecm to richen up. It sure wont hurt to correct that problem regardless, it will make your idle rough.
No way would I take the header back off, no way. there is something else wrong.
You can try advancing your dist. timing two degrees as long as you dont have ping. That is not going to fix the root problem but with the header you can stand more advance than factory spec. I made pipe plugs out of the flange nuts on the Air purge AS valve. Just welded some short fat bolts with a washer inside them, careful not to distort the flange nut though.

i've pretty much ruled out o2 sensors. i tried both sets (stock and ones on the header) with the same results. and on the old accord, it ran rich, but the timing was also off and it still wasn't as rich as it's running now. but i'm thinking it is bc of the egr. when i was putting them on, i had a hell of a time getting them to fit. it took some effort and quick work w/ the impact wrench to get the primaries and secondaries to go together. so i think the headers might actually be a little warped. so i'm leaning heavily toward putting stock back on 'til i have more time to fiddle around. in fact, i might just go do that right now. should be much easier now than at first since the bolts are all nice and loose.

that sucks if you have to put back on stock mani. i wish i could help but the only thing i can think of is bad 02's and you ruled that out. good luck man hope you get it figured out

:nervous::nervous: using an impact wrench on the header, or anywhere near the header, or egr valve for that matter. This stuff must be fit without any binding what so ever, and forcing them together with an impact will guarentee problems with sealing and stripped bolts. Hopefully what I envisioned by the post is not what actually happened :)
If you had no leaks, then you shouldnt have the lean reading by the 02. There has to be another explaination. I know on a Civic you can easily crush the fuel lines with the floor jack, they are right by the unibody jack points, I dont think these cars have the fuel lines routed there though. A rag or something left inside the exhaust pipe? wouldnt be the first time....I dont know it has to be something else.. :wave:
oh did you have any ecm codes ?

there is a leak. the egr won't screw in far enough to seal up the connection so it's leaking past the egr.

dont sound like a 02 problem cuz i have ran my car without any 02 sensors since march lol