I've been using the polished Hawks headers for my swap that are the smaller primaries. I talked to Bruce and upgraded to the SSW 1 3/4, they're waiting for me to pick up at fedex today. So I'm kind of curious what you guys think I might gain at the wheels with the better headers on a big cam 6.0 with ls6 intake, 6spd. Right now it puts down 420/407. It would be cool to see those numbers jump to 430/415, but what do you guys think?

I'll dyno it later this fall after I recheck my pushrods and rockers, thing is noisy so I don't want to risk hurting something. A dyno test will show the real proof between the two but I am just really curious.

 

What RPM is your peak horsepower at right now?

My guess is that you'll pick up some higher RPM horsepower, and your peak torque might come up a couple hundred rpm, but the number won't change.

 

Well I have 1 3/4 on my car.. And if they made a 1 7/8 that would fit id ditch the 1 3/4... Ls1's pick up power going from 1 3/4 to 1 7/8.. So a 6.0 would surely benefit

 

wow i didn't realize you were using the smaller headers when you put those numbers down....impressive.

 

get them on yet?????????????

 

Heck I made a run last week and beat the 397 mark. 414 Now same tune with 1 3/4 WITH 2.5 collectors and 2.5 Y pipe! I'm sure I have 420 in there with more tuning.

 

Thanks, I kinda thought they were good numbers, all things considered.

Not yet. I will have them on sometime this week or this weekend. I took the extra set of polished ones out of the box and set them up next to the SSW headers, and they're the exact same length, so I may get away with having to add any material to my y pipe after all. Bruce seemed to think I'd have to add 2-3" of pipe between my existing y pipe and the collectors.

 

New headers are on, they're the real SSW 1 3/4" primary headers with 3" collectors. They quality is awesome on them, except I never had a problem with my o2's hitting the floor until I put these in. I had to pry the header down away from the car in order to get the o2's in their bungs. Hopefully the shaking from the car won't break them...If so i may end up putting caps on the bungs and moving them down stream a bit.





Here's some photos for you guys.I currently have 3 sets of longtubes in my garage. The polished 1 5/8" set that came off the car, a brand new set of 1 5/8" that was sent to me by accident back in April, and the true SSW set I just got like a week and a half ago.





This is one of the ones off the car. The flanges started rusting on me which is the main reason why I wasn't satisfied with them.

 

Oh yea, and these were literally trapped insid my passenger side header when i pulled the old set of. They didn't go through the engine because they're not chewed up. But when I removed the header I heard something rattling around. I was like what the french toast is that? I shook it and they wouldn't fall out of the collector, i had to tip it upside down and these fell out of one of the primaries.

I don't know what's up with that....

 

I've heard of having a screw loose, but come on...

There doesn't seem to be anything good to say about the 1-5/8" headers. I've got the 1-3/4" x 2-1/2" units on both cars, and have no complaints. Well, except for the #3 spark plug wire boot resting on the tube (doesn't seem necessary to pass it that close to the plug).

 

Your car + headers are looking sweet Nick.

 

Looks good. I was not able to get the 1 5/8 headers to work at all.

 

I have the 1 5/8 headers and they fit great. How did yours not work at all?? I figure when my pockets are a bit deeper I will get the 2" headers, and pass the 1 5/8 headers off to someone else. I figure though that with ls3 intake and 90mm throttle body and stock cam that I am running, the 1 5/8 headers will be great.

 

The collectors were hitting the frame rail.

 

I didn't have that problem with the cheaper set. The only problem I have is actually with the SSW set with the o2 bungs being too close to the trans tunnel.

 

Funny thing I just had my car dynoed and the owner of the dynotuner shop said that he's gotten the most hp out of a stock ls3 with the 1 5/8 headers and a custom intake and cam.

 

I dont see how thats possible since the stock ls1's make more power with a larger header.

 

Yea, I thought it was odd as well. The ls3 does have way different heads than the ls1.

 

maybe he misspoke , as in the wrong size came out when he was talking

 

So what headers are these from left to right? Mine looks exactly like the ones on the left.