I have f body manifolds on the car right now that merge into a Y pipe with no cats. Hawks is having a deal on the 1 5/8" headers and Y pipe "package" and im wondering if it is worth the $800. Any clue how many pony's i could add to the stable with this set up?

 

Just an FYI, I am going to buy some headers soon too. I called Hawks and the 1 5/8 are not made by SSW. I will probably go with the 1 3/4 as they are SSW.

 

I often wondered why the 1-5/8 headers looked polished while any other header offered by hawks is raw stainless. Guess we now know.

Not sure of HP gains, but it is generally accepted that ls motors respond well to exhaust upgrades.

 

Yea i know the f body cars will gain around 30hp, but that is going with ORY and i wonder if a lot of that comes from loosing the cats. If it was worth 20hp to go from stock manifolds to lt headers i would do it but i have always wondered if most of the gains are comming from not having cats + getting rid of that smashed pipe they call a y pipe... I am asking this because i am catless and have a decent y pipe already so im just wondering what the LT's alone will do.

 

i would skip the little 1 5/8" tubes and go with the hedman husler mids....1 3/4" primary tubes that are coated, shipped to your door, for a lot less money.

mids and lt's will show you a lot better bottom end torque. how much hp/tq you gain depends on your combination.

 

http://api.viglink.com/api/click?for...13602859542862

there is the link for the hedman headers if anyone diggs this up later

 

I know the headers that I used arent the ones your looking at but in my swap I had shorties with no cats and a 3 inch mandrel bend cat back. I bought Hawks full system: 2 inch primaries and 3.5 inch cat back system complete kit. I went from 391 rwhp to 432rwhp the tourque picked up as well all the way across the RPM range. I'd go for longtubes and dont be scared of bigger tubes.

 

Ive seen ppl barely lose hp if they are using good high flow cats. I think alot has to do with y pip design interms of pipe size and how the bends are done.Going to long tubes generally picks up hp and torque across the board.

 

shorties aren't any better than running the late model exhaust manifolds. to compound the issue, if your shorties had 1 5/8" primaries, that is also a bottle neck......