im looking into a set a of longtube headers for a bone stock 1988 formula 350.
im young and on a budget looking for suggestions on what to buy,instalation tips,etc. any help is appreciated.


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Can you build an exhaust system? Do you like having no ground clearance? If yes to both of those, Hedman 68460.

 

i have a pair of hooker header super comp long tube that i had installed on my car but i took them off before i sold the car, i drove maybe twenty miles with them on, no problems, the only problem is that b/c the car sat for so long with them on the ceramic coating has been chipping off, you can get them re coated for about 200.00 bucks if you want them pretty looking, i will sell them for 300.00 plus shipping?

 

Like he said ^^^

I would never recommend long tubes on a street car, they are worthless unless opened up.

 

Doug's ceramic coated long tubes find em in jegs ,fit we'll but I had to set motor on top of em cause they don't drop in. I'm using em.

 

I agree with dyno don.

On a street car with stock motor youll notice little difference if any with a LT over shorty...which has exhaust options.

Long tubes will make speed bumps etc. Worse for little gain in HP.

 

my coated 2055s tapped on -2- speed bumps in the parking lot at work...I was mad..they haven't been on the car a month AND I crawled over the bumps.

- ( I now just drive across the back of the lot to bypass them and other cars.)

 

Save your pennies and buy a set of Don's.

 

It depends on the rest of the exhaust. I know two people with thirdgens running 2210's. Neither has ever had issues.

 

I have a set of hookers LT header, And I have ye to drag them on anything, Now my dual cats I do, I would never use shorties or dyno dons over priced over hyped would never flow as well as my hookers,

 

I have had both long tubes and short from my experience unless your building a race car there's no need for long tubes, mainly because of one all the custom bending that comes with getting a y pipe to get good ground clearance. a lot of times your old saggy suspension that's stock and old can even screw ya. So from personal experience keep your eyes open on this site for a good deal I've bought some good used parts here. Good luck

 

I've used both and I disagree. Long tubes helped my track time and acceleration on the street. Shorties are peeky on dynos and longtubes gave me more smooth power. Granted I have true duals and an Xpipe.

 

All the dyno graphs Ive ever seen corroborate this.

The peak power numbers for LT's are higher, but only by a few horsepower, almost within the margin of error. But the LT's always make more torque in the low end. Theres more power under the curve. After peak torque it evens out between shorties and long tubes, but before peak torque the LT's have an edge.

Now Im definitely not recommending LT's. It takes special circumstances to make them a good idea. Most people dont fit those.

 

im stil confused but i can build an exhust and ground clearence is for trucks so i think il be going with the hedmans

 

2055's Y-pipe hangs particularly low compared to the other shorties. Its a documented fact. On my car you can SEE the ypipe hanging.

This is because the 2055's use a ball flange, so the exhaust isn't always as tucked as it should be. Before tightening 2055's ball flanges up you should get the ypipe as close to the floor as possible without it rubbing the floor. It helps, but it still hangs low.

 

Go grab a tape measure and get under your car. measure the distance from the bottom of the transmission crossmember to the ground and see what you get. Most likely you will get between 4 and 6 inches. Now subtract the diameter of the pipe you're using. Thats how much ground clearance you will have.

This is my old dual exhaust setup. I got rid of it because when I put in my T56 I was able to take advantage of the smaller footprint of the T56 trans and use a special crossmember and tuck the pipes up higher.



I would never recommend LT's unless you're 1. A competitive drag racer making 400+hp or 2. You have a T5 or T56. The T5 requires some special considerations (cutting and welding) on the Hedmans to make them work nice together, but it can be done.

You can get 95 percent of the power (power under the curve difference, and Im probably being generous, peak power difference is 1 percent of less) with shorties, AND you can have ground clearance and use a stock exhaust route.

 

I have also run both LTs and have switched to Dyno Dons shorties. Regardless of how well the LT headers might work vs the shorties on a dyno, getting any kind of decent sized exhaust pipes around the trans mount/subframe is not gonna happen on a thirdgen without major surgery.

I know I picked up power going from smashed and mutilated 2.25" tubes off my LT collectors to beautiful mandrel bent 2.75" tubes from the Dyno Dons shortie headers. For a race car w/ open headers, the LTs are an option. For a low street car, you're going to pull your hair out trying to get a decent exhaust on them, giving the real power advantage to the shorties because you are not corking them up with smashed headpipes <on a third-gen chassis>.

TA

 

Scrap that Fbomb and get a C4 Vette like your brother


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Notched crossmembers help tremendously here. I run my 3" duals alongside my th350 and they only hang down an inch more than my deep transmission pan.

 

Here is a crappy pic of said crossmember..... Fabbing up one from chrome moly tubing right now that's even more simple.