I plan to buy headers wether I sale mine or not. The problem is, I don't want to spend more than 200-300 dollars. Is it possible to get good, lasting power boosting heads for this price. If it is, what are they?

 

It is hard to get a qaulity set of headers (and bolts and gaskets) for your budget. I would strongly consider looking at used sets and look for a set of hookers, SLPs, or macs. Although not the best in design you could probably find a nice set of gently used edelbrocks for a good price.

Just don't cheap out any get any summit, dynomax, or flowtech headers. All of use who have one of these three kicks ourself every day for buying them.

 

I guessed not. I was cautious about buying anything but Hooker or SLP and now I know not to. What about the Hooker Competitions in Jeg's? Are they worth looking at? I think the standard Competitions are 180-200 and the Super Comps are more. Copper gaskets, right?

 

To keep your cost down you are going to need to buy a set that directly fits your applications. If you don't then you will have to do some fab work to get the y-pipe to mate to the cat. The Hooker 2055's, SLP's, and Macs are the best mae headers for our cars. Their qulity is the highests and that offer the best and largest y-pipe design. All 3 also have provisions for AIR (if you need it). Do you currently have a cat-back or a 3" cat? If not I would hold off on headers until you can budget for those two as well. TBI specific header kits come with a tiny stocked sized Y-pipe to mate to the stock cat. You don't gain much by keeping the wimpy 2.25" pipe size. You are better off buying a set tailored for TPI applications so that the y-pipe is a full 3". You can buy a universal 3" cat off of ebay for less than $50 and then you can mate all of it up with a cat-back of your choice.

If your exhaust is totaly stock right now I would spend the $250 on a new cat0back that fits TBI applications. It will have 3" piping but will have a 2.25" reducer on the end of the I-pipe to mate to your stock cat. You can bolt the kit on right out of the box with basic hand tools and zero fab work or unexpected cost. When you have the money for headers, you can buy a good set along with a 3" cat. You can then cut off the 2.25" reducer on the TBI cat-back and then have a full 3" system.

 

In the car I have now, the cat has been removed and there is what I beleive to be and fabbed aftermarket y-pipe and 3-inch exhaust. When I go to replace the exhaust on either my car or the one I am looking to buy, I plan to already have all the parts, and just have the current exhaust pulled and the headers and complete duals with no cats ran. Would this work?

 

Your plan will work but I would double check the pipe size that it already on their. You don't want to have eveything all ready to end up mating a 3" pipe to a margonally larger than stock 2.5" pipe. The fab work there could cost you in the end.

There are a few ways to keep header costs down though. Uncoated and non-AIR headers are the cheapest. Even at that you are looking at a solid $350 before tax for a quality set. You can get flowtech heads and a y-pipe for $200 but they are pure junk. You will end up spending $50 to $100 on top of your final cost to replace the bolts and gaskets that come in the kit. They also only have a 2.5" y-pipe which isn't much better than stock. You can get a pair of long tubes for your beduget but then comes fab work. Some guys have exhaust shop connections and or the ability to make pipe themselves so they choose this route. However, if you are like most of us you want a kit that offers the most potential, the easiest fit and finish, and a set that will last. I am replacing a cheap set of headers only after putting less than 1000 miles on them. I ended up spending more in the long run than if I had spent an extra $150 for so for a better set.

 

Cool. Thanks. My Dad recommended the whole rip and replace. He did the same to his Camaro. It was a 1969 SS, but you get the idea. Flowmasters for the mufflers? Or not?

 

Choosing your cat-back will be up to you. You have about 10 choices to make. I would search and read up on the following cat-backs

Magnaflow
SLP
Hooker Aerochamber (recomended)
Mac
Flowmaster
Borla
Random Technologies
Banks
Dynomax
any 4th gen conversion exhaust

I believe all of these but the dynomax are a full 3".

 

dynomax makes the cheapest set i think, 99 bucks or somthin with no Y pipe tho. i had them on my car and ran 13.9 @ 97. and pulled 100mph after some more bolt ons.

 

Hedman also makes a good set of headers for our cars for fairly cheap. They make both shorty and long-tube headers. Last time I checked, the long tubes were around $110... the shorties I can't remember. I bought a set of barely used Hedman 1-5/8" shorties (p/n is 68470 I think) for about $80. They just needed to be cleaned before I could use them.

 

Whats wrong with these headers?

 

Some more...

Bassani
Corsa
TSP Rumbler
Spintech
Mufflex
Edelbrock
Ravin
GMMG
Stainless Works
And custom do it yourselfs are always nice to admire

EDIT: You know I didnt realize all the options for our cars there are a lot! BTW Bassani is working on a Prototype True Dual System.

 

They have rediculously small tubes and collectors. They are very poorly breathing headers. Not worth the money at all.

 

They aren't that bad, and a 1.5" primary and 2.5" collector is technically enough to feed a mild 350 and 305. I would have to agree that a larger size is srtongly encouraged though. The weaknesses these headers have are their quality. They have thin flanges that came warped out of the box. If I hadn;t used the mega thick pearcy's gasket I would have had so many leaks. I have to spend a ton of money on expensive squish type copper collector gaskets to make them seal. The y-pipe didn't want to line up and created a small void that to this day still leaks. The y-pipe itself looks like a 4 year old made it and offers little over the stock unit in terms of performance. The O2 bung wasn't drilled out and the passenger side y-pipe bank wasn't even alligned over the hole that it gets welded to. All of these things required me to get out my tools and grind on them. After I spent all that time, money abnd effort I would have been happier with headers that cost maybe $150 more so that I could have gotten more than 1000 miles out of them.

 

I noticed when I cheaped out and got the blowtechs that they had **** poor welds, warped flanges, welds in the bolt holes which did not allow me to bolt them on without drilling them out, and a really horse**** job of merging the primaries into the collectors. I emailed blowtech/holley about them and what I didn't like. They told me that they appreciated my feedback but they are mass produced which does not allow time to go over each header for inspection.

 

do it once, do it right, get the hooker 2055s and dont look back.

 

Unfortunately, the 2055s need work to make them flow good, too (opening up the ball flange collector).

 

Does anyone have these?

http://store.summitracing.com/egnsea...198+4294902386

 

Those headers are fine but by the time you rig up a y-pipe you could have the 2055's (which have about the best y-pipe) ) for the same price.

 

true, but i could hog those out in 5 min in my garage, not a big deal

 

Actually, I'm thinkin of dual exhaust...

 

You may want to look into long tubes then. It is hard to route the pipe to go from the shorty style collector to the rest of the exhaust tubing. A long tube would make thing easier in that department.

 

I was looking at those, do they have any clearance issues with the air conditioning or anything?

How about these?
http://store.summitracing.com/partde...splayPrice%7C0


(Sorry if I ask too many questions, but money is extremely limited and I can't afford to mess up. School sucks.)

 

Another question, are shorty or long tube headers better for a driver application? I know that there is something to do with the length and torque, but which is better?

 

Long tubes will make more power but they come at a certian cost. Some are hard to fit and you will have to fab up a y-pipe and do some fancy exhaust work to get everything to line up down there. You will also lack serious ground clearance. Long tubes aren't recomended for street cars or cars that are lowered.

 

I am going duals too. What clearance issues will I have with shorties and long tubes? My car doesn't set really low. I have new susspension, so it sets higher now than when I got it. But that isn;t saying much. I want the power, but I don't want to have to be terrified of speedbumps.

What about these headers ? Would they be ok or not?



My AC compressor is on the passenger side. Does this mean I need the braket and the power steering braket, too?

 

The HOK-2055HKR set seem good and are complete, but they are shortie headers. Are the long tubes any better and if so, are there any that good and for a similar price? Thanks.

 

I got the shorties from hooker that are 150 in summit off the TGO classifired for 75 shipped. 20 for bolts, 25 for good gaskets, you could get some rubber one for 5-6 but didnt want to risk doing that install all over again.... Thats only 130ish after tax... It's very possible.

 

Could you notice a performace differece between the headers and the stock manifolds?

 

Yes. I just got my SLP 1 3/4" installed yesterday and stopped at a shop today to get a pipe welded in from the Y-pipe to the cat for $40. Nice difference, my car can actually breathe decently to 5500RPM now, not that it has a ton of power up there, but it has a little bit. Optimum shift point on my car probably went to about 5000RPM, where it was 4600 or so.

 

Every little bit helps. I want the headers and duals. I'llnn eed a bigger intake to get them most out of the motor. I have a 14x3 inch open element that will fit under my SS Ram Air hood.

Does anyone see any problem with these headers? The are at store.summitracing.com part number is HOK-2460HKR.