I've been looking at 16102-1FLT, which is a ceramic coated set of headers and a Y pipe for $454. I've done some reading and from what I've found, 1 1/2 primaries are more than fine up to 350 HP or so, while I don't plan on getting much over 300. Also, being as I'm building a street engine for torque/mpg, wouldn't the 1.5 primaries be beneficial for maintaining low-end torque, whereas there would be a slight drop in switching to 1 5/8 or 1 3/4 because the larger primaries are used to carry higher volumes of exhaust at higher RPM and speed? I also plan on going with the Dynomax 17391 cat-back, assuming that the 2.5" will be fine, along with the ultraflo SS muffler, which is one of the best flowing as far as I know.

 

Fit and quality usually suffer. 1.5 primaries are pretty small. 1 5/8s or 1 3/4 is pretty normal.

You can make 350 hp through manifolds if the rest of the motor is stout enough. Exhaust is just about making what you have work as efficiently as possible.

Most poeple like to use at least a 3 inch exhaust too for performance.

 

As stated above quality is their biggest problem. There is a reason the are so cheap. Thier instructions should say; step one..throw headers in trash. Joking aside you should avoid these. I had two sets, neither of which ever would seal. The header flanges were warped beyond repair, and the collectors would never seal, no less align. The y-pipe was......how do i say this...pure garbage. There wasn't even an opening in the y-pipe where the passenger side header merged. And by merge I mean a nice sharp 90 degree hack job. Had I not looked into the pipe I would have had a complete exhaust blockage from the passenger side bank. Do a quick search about these with my user name and you will see an entire thread, with pics of my mistake with these headers. Spend a few hundred more for some SLP's, Dyno Don's, Headman or Hooker 2055's and be very happy. Your sanity depends on it.

 

Thanks for the responses, I don't see how or why the quality would be so bad, really. I'm on quite a tight budget though at the moment and if I bought the 2055's, I wouldn't be able to have them coated. Is the ceramic coating really a necessity for heat, performance, and longevity?

 

While I cant speak for flowtechs, if you do end up deciding to go with another brand for quality, Ide reccomend against Hedmen. I used their hustler headers for my G-body and I basically had to build the things myself. They didnt fit in the car without having to modify the motor mount, the bolt pattern's were off, so I had to elongate the holes in order to bolt them to the heads, and their own header flanges(2 flanges her header with hedman), did not match up, so out came the drill again. If hedmens product was this poorly made for a G-body, I'm not so sure it will be better on an F-body.

I know it can be tempting if the price is right but do you really want to have to fight to get their product in? It sounds like shiftycapone has been there and done that with FT's headers...

 

i have a set of hedman hedders on my z... no fitment issues what-so-ever... A++ in my book...

 

I had heddman's on a 79 elcamino, and they fit fine, and it's a G body just like your monte carlo.

 

I've got Hedman LT's, and they dont fit perfect, but they dont fit badly either. A little BFH'ing on one of the primaries and a little trimming on the A-arm perch (not an important part of it) and they fit just fine.

Hedman are probably the best bang for buck headers out there. Cheap and will get the job done. But there are others out there there that are far better. Hooker 2055's are probably the best out of hte box shorties you can buy.

I didnt feel like paying extra for ceramic coating because I was tight on money, but I do believe it's worth it. Keeps temps down under the hood, saves your plug wires, looks nice, and they'll never rust out. With my cheap hedman LT's I could replace them a couple of times over if they rusted out before the coating paid for itself, but with shorties as expensive as the Hookers, I wouldn't be nearly as willing to do that.

 

If you need to cut cost skip the coating now. The coating is very nice but the coating on the flowtechs is also very bad. It will pit and rust right through in a matter of weeks. The quality is so bad that I could barely bolt these up. The header flanges were so warped I was forced to buy expensive percey dead soft gaskets (almost .25" thick) to make them seal. They still leaked at both header flanges, both collectors and 3 places on the y-pipe. It was bad.

It looks like your budget is around $450 or so. You can get a set of Hooker 2055's for around that, give or take $50. I would spend my money there and get the headers coated at a later date. (you can send them to jet-hot or equivalent)

 

Ceramic coating will rust through just like anything else, it just takes longer.

The only way to prevent rust, is stainless steel. And we know how much those types of headers go for unless you go with ebay brands.

Surprisingly my ebay LT's for my 99 went in literally with no problems.

 

The problem is quality control. You never really know what your going to get with Flowtech, and some other cheap brands. One set will fit absolutely perfect. The next set, the bolt holes will be off, or messed up welds that crack, or even worse like he said where one side was blocked off. Pretty much they dont check them before theyre sent out. If you need to skimp on something, Dont make it your exhaust. Its bad enough on these cars without using junk parts. What engine are these going on ? If you have a 350, you can make 300 HP with stock manifolds, easily. Thats less than 1 HP per cubic inch. IMO If 300 HP is all you really want,then stick with the manifolds. If you want all you can get. Then I'd go with some 1 5/8 primaries Hedmans or Hookers. If you plan on a stroker or something like that in the future, then you will need 1 3/4. Ive had both brands of shorties. No issues with either.

 

They're going on an '87 LG4 that'll have an upgraded cam and heads in the future, unless I do end up swapping a vortec 5700 L31 in, but I'd like to get a decent pair of headers. I'm probably going with 1.5" primaries to a 2 1/2" collector, that's all that's really needed for the type of driving I'll be doing anyway. The hedman tork-step don't look too bad, either. 1 1/2- 1 5/8 primaries.

 

ditto, very happy with my hedman shorties

 

Not sure of the price. On my 84 I used edelbrocks header, Y- pipe combo. They worked pretty well, and fit good too. Couldnt you upgrade to a 350 as cheap as you could get heads and stuff for your 305, and make as much power too ? Just a thought, because 350's are cheap. I have a pair of flowtech 's long tubes for my Mustang. They fit great(About everything does for a fox body), but the dont last at all.They needed replaced after about 2 seasons. Thats only using them at the track. Seriously, whatever you get, Dont make it Flowtechs.

 

I just got a set of Flowtech 11102s from Summit and installed them on my '86 T/A. I was pretty happy with the quality except that I had to drill the hole for the oxygen sensor. The bung was there, but no hole! I guess thats so it could be used on cars without oxygen sensors. The headers went on easily and fit well.



Passenger side



Driver side

 

They don't look bad at all from back here, but I'm pretty sure I'm going with something with larger primaries now to accommodate my future upgrades, glad they worked out for you though.

 

i was working at a speed shop and they had to crush part of the collector to get them to fit,but i dont think they were for a 80 el camino they look just like the headers posted above!!!

 

Mine are thirdgen specific.