i just installed these headers today, the whole swap took me about 2½ hours even with the modification of a bracket. they fit pretty well except that on about four of the bolt that came with the headers i couldnt use the supplied washers. also a couple plugs i had to use a wrench to tighten them up, and it was impossible to put the passenger side rear bolt, closest to the firewall, they improved my acceleration and my 1-2 shift pull.i am running them open right now until i get my tubes bent and my Spin Tech sportman street muffler, dual 2½" inlets, single 3" outlet, gonna place the muffler where the cat used to be i will get sounds later.

 

post pics of that muffler when you get it installed.

 

lol! your running open headers? That must sound nice! I love it lol. hhmm... wonder how much of a feel your will get of it slowing down a bit after hooking the mufflers back up. *sruggs*


Man.. my header install was a pita! I got some Edelbrocks and didnt know that the only difference between the tbi and the tpi headers were the size.. 2" 1\2 inch for tbi and 3" for tpi.. and the TPI ones had a chrome.. or nicole finish.. one of the two. SUCKS! Mine had burn away black paint that smoked forever. They were the same price! I was redoing the whole exhast! I could have did full 3" .... bagh.. live and learn huh? Those rear bolts are a pain in the ***. I'm sure they have some special took that reaches it easier. I reached mine and it took hours and hours till 3am.. but me and my Dad got it. I would suggest buying a wrench and welding a bar to it and rig it to reach that last bolt just right. Then sell the tool to someone who needs it. lol.. hey.. if you can get a recording of those open headers.. audio recording

 

HEADER INSTALL IN 2.5 HOURS!?!?! That's crazy! I'm on the second day (about 9 hours total) of my Hooker 2055 install... granted, I'm installing my cat-back too but damn that is a fast installfor headers! And I was even lucky enough that I didn't have to jack up the engine to get the passenger side header in! I'd go so far as to say that Tuesday I'll be taking a "break" by replacing my valve cover gaskets.

 

my flowtechs might of took me about 4hrs alltogeter for ypipe and all but i took my goodold time. I did it last wed.

I put my rear pass side bolt in,,,,but i dont have a/c or anything and mine is a carb. and yes it sucks you cant use sockets on all the bolts but a wench got at them all.

 

mine took five minutes

 

Flowtechs probably fit better and are easier to install than anything else on the market, but they're only 1 1/2" primaries and I think 2 1/2" collectors with a pretty miserable Y pipe.

 

Flowtechs are a great deal. Only $380 for ceramic coated headers with matching Y-pipe. Edlebrock TES is over $400 and they aren't even ceramic coated.

The only problem is I live in California and the headers don't have air tubes. Do you think I will be able to pass smog with out the air tubes?

 

No two cars are exactly the same. heddmans and hookers, edelbrocks and SLPs seem to be the most popular. I know of people who have tried installing flowtechs and ended up sending them back. I installed my heddmans in about 10 minutes.

 

anyone thinking of getting flowtechs (aka Summit headers) should consider dishing out a little more for a better header. The reason I say this is not for the primary size but for the flanges. They're poorly designed and thin so they warp and leak after a few weeks. Of course you can double stack some gaskets but thats just ghetto IMHO.

Luckily when I bought mine, Summit was running a sale on them for $62 bucks and I found someone locally who wants them for $75

BTW, the Summit headers have the flowtech part number stamped in them.... I wonder why?

 

To mount headers, is it better to use bolts or studs?

 

I hate my flowtechs but they fit the bill when I bought them. They have small primaries and small collectors and an even worse y-pipe. They are fine for my weak 305 but I will have to change them as soon as I make any power. The collector flanges cause nothing but leaks and the header flanges were warped slightly. Thank goodness they have super thick ultra seal gaskets out there or I would be screaming bloody murder. I would not use the supplied gaksets at all. They will fry up in about 2 days literally.

 

I hear ya about the supplied gaskets. I used mr. gasket header gaskets but the supplied collector gaskets. About 3 days later, I had a hella leak and the only reminants of the gasket was the metal that holds the gasket material together

 

I dont understand why ppl are dissing the flowtechs soo much....the gaskets i got look crapy but if you look closer youll see they are samwitched with metal inserts and I used mine and can say i got no leaks at all (you do have to retorq the bolts and id say some missinterpret this for gaskets going). I mean fine if you rather get the best of the best, then why buy a inexpencive header anyhow...all in all for the $ they are a great header. I have good fit with mine (i dont think its the car that varies maybe as much as there headers workmanship).

I think anyone who wants to really know how they perform and stack up to the others go pick up a Chevy Hi Performance April mag and look in page 88 and read!!!!

 

i'm running Flowtechs, no serious problems yet.......

 

It's not that they are the worst but some people get poor ones while others get good ones. The collector gaskets that came with the kit burnt through in about 30 miles and I had to replace them right away. The header flange did not sit flush against the head. Luckily the thickness of the percy's dead soft gaskets filled that gap in for me. They are far better than a stock exhaust manifold but not as good as a set of 1 5/8".

 

:werd:

 

http://www.chevyhiperformance.com/te...der/index.html


This might be the article.

 

Thank you. I was just gonna mention that article.

Granted, that whimpy 440 HP 383 made more peak HP with larger headers, but the overall performance was better with the Flowtechs. Mainly due to the shorter length 1-1/2" primaries.

I gotta agree with the y-pipe being junk. Someone posted a pic of theirs and it looks like the stock one. Bad bad design.

Take the money you saved on the headers and get a Flowmaster y-piece and have a muffler shop make a y-pipe.

 

You have to look at the average power where you will be at the track. If you shift at 6,000 you will be between 4,000-6,000 most of the way down the track, and if you have a descent stall or good tires you wont even want to launch below that. Looking at the range that counts, the 1 3/4 would be best suited for that engine.