1987 pontiac firebird lg4 305 carb

It seems like alot of effort to put in headers on a car, so i was wondering how worth it is it? Obviously different ones will give you different results but i have a set of hedman headers laying aroung, and my car still has the stock ones on it. Back from that i have loud aftermarket exaust and new air filter.

Is it really worth the trouble putting them in?

 

Absolutely

 

If there's one car in a world that deserves a headers and a good exhaust system, it's a thirdgen!

Stock exhaust manifolds are terrible!

 

And the Y-pipe is even worse:

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/post...837-post3.html

 

That's a Y-Pipe? Looks like a T-Pipe.

 

sure,go ahead. but be aware that no header will just bolt on.most require tweaking or worse ,outright fabrication. then theres the constant attention they absolutely must have .then theres the excess heat they introduce to the engine compartment.and wrapping them not only look like sh#@ but it shortens their like expectancy.so if youre a guy that just cant leave it alone and you like doing things over and over. buy yourself some headers

 

it's a pain in the *** to put headers on but if you intend on doing anything alse to the motor it will benifit you to go ahead an add them .

 

I am tired of replacing gaskets and re-tighting these things. The best advice I can give you is to use graffite gaskets with the locking bolts for said header.

 

header bolt lock washersis acheep way to help

 

I have hedman headers on my 84. Put them on back in 06 and used the graphite gasket, never had a problem since.....no need to re tighten or replace anything. I must have been lucky with my install as it was a breeze.

 

unless i missed it, are they shorties or longtubes? because from what i hear the shorties dont have as big of a performance improvement as the longtubes do but im sure they would be easier to install. so the real questions are, in my opinion, are you looking to make it faster? And what is your mechanical experience/workspace. I say this because longtubes or not, it really is gonna be a chore, and even if you can hook the shorties up to the stock y-pipe.... why would you? so then you have to factor in some welding to get a nice custom or aftermarket y-pipe...... on a related note. if you still have a catalytic converter. keep it.

 

a good set of ceramic coated shorties will help the engine breath, make some power, and help keep under hood temps lower than base steel headers. That combines with a good high flow cat and catback exhaust will wake up the car and give it a nice sound as well

 

I would have to disagree with the fact that no header will bolt in. I got a set of Hooker 2055's for my T/A and they went in with their Y-pipe and bolted up to my exhaust without having to move, adjust or do anything other than bolt them together. Maybe I got lucky, I don't know, but as for bolt in, they came as advertised.

 

Long tubes make more torque through the whole RPM range until peak torque hits, but actual peak horsepower differences between LT's and shorties are actually very small.

 

2055's are shorties and come with a Y-pipe, that's part of the reason they are so popular. As I stated earlier, maybe I got lucky, but it bolted right to the front of the cat. Well, sort of. I'm using a slip joint to connect the two but there was less than 1/2" space between them and with the movement from the hangars, it would ahve been easy to bolt them up had I been set up for that kind of connection. Anyway, with standard hand tools and lots of...well, cussing came to mind, took me about 4hrs start to finish to do both sides and get everything hooked up and bolted in right.

 

I just installed Hedman Elite shorty headers on my 84 w/305 & T5 including their y-pipe. Could not be more happy with the fit and results. Bolted right up to my 2-1/2" CAT bypass pipe. Only issue I had was tightening the spark plugs. I had to shorten a 5/8 spark plug socket w/external hex in order to slip it over the plugs w/o interferring with some of the pipes.

Performance is awesome, very smooth and quicker to rev through the gears. It sure feels like it breathes much better now. Also, previously installed Hooker 3" Cat back w/AeroChamber muffler. Very happy with both products. Sounds great too, the Elites are heavy wall tubing (14 ga) and didn't add much extra noise to the deep AeroChamber rumble.

 

Nice! Any videos?

 

Sorry, no video. We are heading off on a ski trip so maybe when we get back . . .

 

2055s vs Dyno Dons.....I know the DDs are more expensive after adding the Y-pipe ( smog tubes if you run them), but are the DDs worth the extra cost? Or if the gain (if any) is so minimal over the 2055s, are they worth the extra cost?

 

I doubt he would see much adding the headers to a pretty much bone stock car. There are better bangs for the buck out there.

 

worth it, i have hedman shorties in a 91 z28 5.7, car ran 14.6@94mph. installed the shorties and 1.6rockers and droppd down to 13.8@101mph. pretty good for just those to mods, plus the sound of headers grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr8t

 

What other mods would you suggest to do first?

I think 95% of everyone else will agree that headers are by far...the "BEST" bang for the buck you can do to a bone stock car.

 

Engine- Headers, exhaust, intake, heads, ignition(plugs,wires,cap)
Suspension- sfc, lca's, panhard, torque arm

 

He didnt say anything about the overall condition of the car. Is it in tip top running condition or is it running 25 year old carb. Is he running the stock 25 year old cat, etc. You throw headers on an out of tune car with a plugged up cat you won't be happy with the outcome.

The op hasn't posted anything else about the car.

 

Since the op didn't say anything about a poorly running car, the assumption is that it's running "Well" or is in good condition. Even with a 25 year old cat and carb, he'll see a big improvement with the headers. Add a tune, and it's even more so. So, I will stick by my original point with one addition. It's the biggest "bolt on" improvement he can make assuming a decent running car.

 

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

 

Cars all stock besides new springs and shocks, air cleaner, 3.42 gears, and exhaust from muffler to about half way up car where it was rusted

 

Have you thought about a sticker?

 

I think the "worth" of it depends on the result you are anticipating from the install. If you are expecting it to be a rocketship after installing headers, you're going to be disappointed. I threw a set on a TBI pickup, which has a similar crap exhaust setup as the thirdgens. I found that a dual exhaust had a much larger effect on overall performance than the headers did, as I had duals on the factory manifolds before going to headers. The headers tended to smooth out the power band as you went from gear to gear, but they didn't register much on the "seat of the pants" meter. That being said, if you've already added high flowing exhaust from the cat back, you might as well finish the job and get some performance out of it. And this is of course assuming the car is in good running condition and doesn't need tuneup parts. FWIW, I find an aftermarket coil is a worthwhile investment and you can install one of those much easier than headers.

 

Theres not really many bolt-ons that make that much of a difference with these cars. Speed density setups dont seem to compensate well either. But if I had to pick one bolt on that wasnt a waste of time, it's headers/exhaust. After that it'd be an intake, but the options for intake upgrades on the TPI cars are very limited if you're not willing to switch to carb (and I dont think a carb swap is a good idea in most cases either) or pay the big money for an aftermarket intake.

Headers and exhaust should always be the first thing you do. Even if it doesn't make that much of a difference. Now I dont necessarily think spending $1500 on headers/exhaust like some do is really worth the money, but it just depends on how much your money is worth to you. If $5 is the difference between you eating and not eating on a given night, buying a Dyno Don setup isnt really the right choice....

Unfortunately, as far as bolt-ons, headers are not only probably the best option, they still dont do much, and there's not really much else you can do.

In my opinion if you want power, you do heads and cam. You're never gonna get far if you dont cam it and set up the car to support the power band you need.

An LT4 hotcam is what... $150? Get some better valve springs to go with it.... THAT is bang for the buck and will take you a long way. But you cant even start thinking about cam swaps without doing exhaust first.