To those with pacesetter headers, have you noticed a problem with your exhaust rattling? A friend told me that because of the orientation of a front wheel drive, the exhaust needs a flex section (steel braided section before the cat I think) to keep the exhaust pipes, and such, from rattling around. Has anyone had this problem.
Also, I'm about to replace my valve cover gasket and spark plug o-rings to fix an oil leak I have. One question, if I'm going to take off the valve cover do I have to drain the oil first?

A flex section is a good idea to avoid putting too much stress on the welds of the header, It's possible it is causing some rattling...

No need to drain the oil to pull the valvecover.



15.9 @ 86.7mph
97 Eclipse RS

Injen CAI, 55mm TB, P&P Intake, Crower Stage 2 Cams, Hooker Header, GS-T Muffler, AFX UDP, Crane Ign Amp, S-AFC

The pacesetter downpipe replaces the mesh type flex pipe with a ball joint that is spring loaded thus movement on the exhaust is not restricted. You should not have a rattle anywhere. The only thing that it could be is a loose connection somewhere or during install something became pressed against the piping. Mine have never rattled infact I ran them for a month with stock exhaust in the back and it never rattled. Now when I replaced the catback everything inside my car got a nice vibration to it at certain RPMs but nothing on the outside rattles.


Mods:
Short ram-air intake
Pacesetter 4-2-1 header
custom piping from catback
Z-sport dragger free flow muffler
quad fire plugs

Future Mods:
Final Drive
UDP
CAI

Thanks for the info. I didn't know pacesetter put a ball joint in their header.

The Pacesetter header is made up of three pieces the first the header itself which connects to the downpipe. At the end of the downpipe there is a ball joint with springs on both sides. This ball joint connects to the extension which connects to the cat. Thus during engine torque the header and downpipe can actually pull away from the extension and the springs pull it back. works just like the flex pipe. If you want Ill take some picks of the setup and send them to you just let me know.