Over the winter, I am considering pulling the L98 from my '92 Formula to clean up the engine bay and replace the pan gasket. I figure that while the engine is out of the car, I might as well replace all the other gaskets, and clean and detail as much as I can.

I do not need a racecar, and I don't like heavily modded engines in cars that see regular street use. But, are there are good bang-for-the-buck upgrades that I should consider while the engine is out? Are headers worth the increased efforts associated with later dealing with plug changes and blown gaskets? Are the aftermarket runners worth the money? I see the SLP version sell for $200 plus on eBay. How far can you mod a SD car without having it professionally tuned and a custom PROM burned?

This car will be daily driven in the warmer months. It's less fun than my LT1 because it doesn't have as much power, but as I said, I don't want to modify it too much.

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

Headers and exhaust are easy ways to make some power. If it's an auto, get a shift kit and a stall converter (nothing big). Poly bushings, shocks and springs, decent tires. Maybe throw a little cam in it. That's what I'd do if I was building a 'street car'.

 

Exhaust and a procharger and I promise you it will be alot more fun than that LT1...lol

 

+1

If you can afford it, a supercharger offers good $/hp ratio, and you can even be smog legal in some cases.

 

Given the prices that I have seen the few times I've looked at superchargers, I'd say that one is not in my budget. What, excatly, does a charger for a thirdgen cost?

The exhaust sounds reasonable, but I need to make sure it is legal to add an aftermarket exhaust in my terrible state.

For thos of you with headers, have you found it to be a major or only minor PITA to change plugs? And, how often have you had to deal with leaky header gaskets? I don't want to be busting my knuckles on the exhaust every six months for leaks, and I have heard that headers don't always seal that well.

 

i am also a MA resident.... the aftermarket exhaust is perfectly legal... aslong as it passes smog... and isnt to loud. well i guess what i mean is if the police dont think it is to loud... i run longtube headers and cherrybombs with turndowns year round been stopped once cop thought the bottom of my car was on fire

 

When I was a technician way back in the '80s, tune ups were gravy work. Except on 3rd Gens and full size vans. The spark plugs are in a tight area under the manifolds and the A.I.R. pipes made it worse. Especially on the passenger side of our cars. (Did the '92s stiil have the A.I.R. pipes?)

I don't have headers on my '87 (yet) but, IMHO, headers would make it easier to get to the plugs. As far as leaks, I would suggest getting the highest quality headers you can afford along with high quality fasteners and leaks should not be a problem on a good running car.

For your original question, check this out: https://www.thirdgen.org/tpimod1

 

And what ARE the highest quality headers for our cars? The SLP shorties?

 

highest quality? or the best header? there is a difference i mean you can pay over $500 for a chrome shinny set of shortys or 160 for a black set of longtubes... and the longtubes is where it is at in terms of gains

 

Not quality in terms of shiny chrome, no. I mean the best quality in the sense of thick-gauge steel, clean welds, straight flanges that won't warp/seal well, proper fitment for the chassis, and of course that actually do their intended job of increasing power.

Spitot, what part of MA are you in?

 

southeastern... Rehoboth... where the cows crap

i would say hooker or hedman longtubes without a coating only 150-160... might need a mini starter depending on how new yours is and how much heat it will see... but then ministarters are about $70 then all you are left with is deciding how you want to finish it off... i personally went with the cherry bomb header mufflers and turndowns not so loud unless you have your face infront of the turndown... next project will be nascar boom tubes one of the moderators did a set and it looked and sounded pretty good... besides i dont like my neighbors anyways....

 

If you are taking it out and cleaning it. Depending on how many miles it has on it and you have the pan off, I would replace the timing chain and oil pump. As far is headers, I think the hooker shorties and y pipe are one of the best fitting headers for the 3rd gen. SLP makes 1 3/4 stainless shorties but are more expensive. Actually I don't think they make them anymore.

 

I've got uncoated hedman shorties, bought them used in 01 and they're still fine. I did blast and then vht them before I installed though. Plug changes are much easier then with manifolds. All plugs can be reached from up top now, before the rear plugs were only accessed from the bottom. I did modify my Y pipe though to make it a true 3" Y. The hedman piece is only 2.5 i think.

 

The only engines I have rebuilt are old Pontiac motors. The oil pumps on those are a small PITA because you need a special tool to install the pickup tube into the pump body. Is that the same on a smallblock Chevy?

 

What are you talking about? It's been a while since I built a poncho. What "special" tool are you talking about?

 

He's probably referring to the tool you use to drive the pick up tube into the pump housing. If so, then yeah, you need it for the sbc's too. As far as headers go, the original poster said he wants a set that are a good upgrade from stock manifolds, fit good, and aren't a major PITA. Under these requirements, I'd say rule out longtubes all together. They're definitley not a "bolt-on" deal. They require clearancing on parts of the chassis, custom pipes, etc. The Hooker 2055 shorties are awesome quality, plus they come with the y-pipe. The y-pipe is the exact same length as the stock one it's replacing, so the factory exhaust system hooks right up to it. I have a set of Edelbrocks, and also a set of the Hooker 2055's. I compared them side by side, and the Edelbrocks don't hold a candle to the Hookers as far as the thickness, weld quality, and port size. Changing spark plugs isn't bad at all as long as you get one of the short spark plug sockets that SLP sells, or make one yourself. SLP's socket is overpriced, just like everything else they sell, so I just made my own. Only cost $5 for the socket and took about 30 mins. to modify it. Make sure to get the 1/2" drive socket so that the plug will be able to go all the way through the socket, then cut down both ends of the socket until it's short enough. If you want to avoid leaky gaskets and having to re-tighten the bolts all the time, get a set of the Stage 8 brand, locking header bolts, and a set of the aluminum header flange gaskets made by Percy's.

 

Yep, that's it!

Thanks for the header info, Pat. Makes me rule out longtubes and focus on those Hooker shorties you mentioned. Awesome about the Y-pipe length, too. My car having dual cats might narrow my choices a bit further, though.

 

If you go the headers/y-pipe route, you might as well get a descent cat-back exhaust, otherwise the stock exhaust will still be the restriction.

Did you ever say what rear end gears you have? Low gear ratios will make you feel slow no matter what engine upgrades you do.

 

I have these style hookers and y pipe on my ride. I went with a Catco 3" high flow cat. Finishing off with a Borla exhaust and muffler. You can't go wrong with this set-up in my humble opinion. I REALLY noticed a seat of the pants difference.

Tip . . . Please use the Percy's dead soft aluminum header gaskets. Don't do like I first did. I first used a set of header gaskets that were suppose to be top-of-the-line. Ya Right! They were POS's! Since going to Percy's dead soft. Not a problem one.

However, all this will be your decision. I can only offer up my personal experiences.

 

those hooker 2055's are pretty expensive, about $800 coated. only reason i could see paying that much for headers is if you are in california and need to smog the car, do to them being CARB legal. or if you are just a hardcore fan of hooker

X2 on getting the Percy's DeadSoft aluminum gasket's. ever since i used them, i never had a leak on any of my headers.

X2 on plugs being easier to remove with headers than with manifolds. but its much easier for me to remove the drivers side from up top and the passenger side from underneath. all in all for doing a plug change it took me 20 minutes a week ago, but thats after doing changes on them for the past 2 years, the first time i would say it took me 45 minutes, only cause i wasnt used to it.

as for how far you can mod your car still it needs to be tuned with a custom prom... i'd say as long as you dont change the cubic inches or the heads, you'd be fine with the stock prom, shoot even with the mods in my sig my SD car runs fine on the stock tune, even tho im still in the process of trying to tune it even better. i put a stealth ram on my other camaro and only had to disable the egr for the tune to be perfect. basically bolt on mods dont HAVE to be tuned, although you would see more gains with your bolt ons and a tune.

 

If you're stuck on keeping the dual cat setup, then yeah, your choices will be narrowed down considerably. I'd highly recommend switching to a single 3" cat system. You get a lot more choices for headers, and it's been proven that you make just as much power, if not slightly more compared to the dual cat system. If you decide to keep the dual cat system, about the only good headers made is the SLP's, and I'm not even entirely sure if they still make the dual cat headers. You can get the Hooker 2055's cheaper than $800 if you shop around. I remember Jet Hot offering them for somewhere in the $600 range. If you don't absolutely have to have coated ones, you can pick up uncoated ones for about $375 from Summit or Jegs. I got really lucky on my set. A guy here on the boards sold me a new, unused, Jet Hot coated set for $300 plus shipping. He bought them for a project car that he gave up on, and was just trying to recoup some of the money he spent on parts. I have to agree that a good, aftermarket 3" catback system to go with the headers would be money well spent too. I'm running the Edelbrock RPM 3" catback, and I've been really happy with it. The Hooker 3" catback is a good one too for a reasonable price. Seriously though, I wouldn't have any heartache about ditching the dual cats. The single cat system makes just as much power with a good high flow cat, they're easier to work with, and of course it's cheaper to buy one new cat vs. two. There's lots of good info on the exhaust forum about all these issues if you search a bit. I just thought of one more option to consider. Board member Dyno Don makes headers for thirdgens that are just as good of quality as the SLP's or Hookers, for a comparable price, and he might be able to fab up a y-pipe for the dual cats too. Maybe send him a PM.

 

will you pass smog without the A.I.R. PIPES? I think they sell headers with those pipes on them too. I hate the look of those damn things.