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ACE1252 · 05-30-2012, 11:31 PM

I've been meaning to get these up for quite a while. Many of the time stamps on the pictures are wrong(was late 2010), so do ignore them. These are big pictures, so rather than blow up the thread with them, I'm just posting links.

Kooks Header pics(1 3/4" x 3").....
http://www.ace1252.com/images/1996_L...s/DSCN3926.JPG
http://www.ace1252.com/images/1996_L...s/DSCN3927.JPG
http://www.ace1252.com/images/1996_L...s/DSCN3939.JPG
http://www.ace1252.com/images/1996_L...s/DSCN3940.JPG

Dual cat y-pipe....
http://www.ace1252.com/images/1996_L...s/DSCN3934.JPG
http://www.ace1252.com/images/1996_L...s/DSCN3936.JPG

Installed in car top view....notice ARP 1" stainless header bolts. Provide excellent clearance for a boxed end wrench.
http://www.ace1252.com/images/1996_L...s/DSCN3962.JPG
http://www.ace1252.com/images/1996_L...s/DSCN3967.JPG

Under shot y-pipe not installed. Notice how I had to sand off the jet hot coating on the ends of the collectors to get the y-pipe to fit. Stainless steel can't be expanded like typical aluminized exhaust pipe...it will split. Sanding was the only option(1" wide emery cloth performed the job). I did have to get my catback pipe expanded just a little bit to fit the Kooks y-pipe.
http://www.ace1252.com/images/1996_L...s/DSCN3984.JPG

A look inside the collector....
http://www.ace1252.com/images/1996_L...s/DSCN3986.JPG

Clearance between Moroso pan and long tubes....Nope, can't use an oil level sensor with these and a kickout pan. Plug was sourced from Canton.
http://www.ace1252.com/images/1996_L...s/DSCN4013.JPG

I made a shorting plug for the oil level sensor connector to the dash lamp. If you don't, the low oil light will be on all the time. Just cut off and twisted a couple of leads from a high wattage resistor(1 watt if I remember correctly...), soldered the twisted wire ends, and capped it with a small wire nut. Plugged it in, taped it up, and zip tied it to the trans in a safe spot.
http://www.ace1252.com/images/1996_L...s/DSCN3994.JPG
http://www.ace1252.com/images/1996_L...s/DSCN3998.JPG

Under shot installed....
http://www.ace1252.com/images/1996_L...s/DSCN4009.JPG
http://www.ace1252.com/images/1996_L...s/DSCN4002.JPG

Review....

These are some very nice stainless steel headers. I got them with emissions connections, jet hot coating, and a dual cat y-pipe. With that said, they are not cheap. The headers, dual cat y-pipe, and jet hot coating together cost around $1500

. That was a very painful hit to the wallet, but I will say it has been worth every penny. Kooks knows how to design an excellent fitting header. The fitment is dead on the money...period. They slide up from the bottom of the car with no clearance problems to the heads or k-member. Do keep in mind that I have energy suspension poly motor mounts. Sagging motor mounts can make for painful header installs.

The headers come with decent gaskets, but I decided to go with Percy's dead soft aluminum gaskets(for LT1/LT4). I have had zero problems with leaks or bolts coming loose. I would not use the header bolts included with the kit. IMHO, they are too short and the heads too big to get decent torque on the bolts without rounding the heads off(open end of the wrench would have to be used).

As seen here....
http://www.ace1252.com/images/1996_L...s/DSCN3919.JPG

I got some ARP 1" stainless steel header bolts. They have a 12 point head and you use a 5/16 boxed end wrench to tighten them(Craftsman 7" 5/16, 1/4 boxed end wrench gives plenty of leverage to tighten them).

When tightening the flanges to the heads, start from the middle bolts and work to the ends last. If the flange is warped in middle(and both mine were....), this will pull the middle of it to the heads with no problem straightening them out. If you tighten the ends first, you may "lock" the flange in place and it may not allow the center to pull to the heads, thus creating a leak at the head.

They tuck up nice to the body and so does the y-pipe.

I picked up ~5 mph and ~0.4 tenths in the 1/8 mile by adding these long tubes. So the stock exhaust manifolds were really restrictive with my stock head/CC503 setup.

Just for reference, here are my baseline times at Farmington and how the car ran after the various upgrades.

5/22/08
Baseline stock with K&N CAI and Flowmaster catback.
Warmed up:[email protected]
Full cool down:[email protected]

10/03/08
CC503, 1.6 NSA Pro Mag Roller rockers, PAC 1518 springs, 10* retainers/locks, Trickflow guideplates, 7.2" Comp hardened pushrods, stock heads, stock exhaust manifolds, catback exhaust, K&N CAI, FMS 30# Injectors.
Warmed up:[email protected]
No full cool down run.

2/19/11
Added Kooks Long tube headers(1 3/4" x 3") and dual cat y-pipe.
Warmed up:[email protected]
Partial cool down:[email protected]

As you can see from the times, there was a ton of hp left on the table by not changing out the stock exhaust manifolds.

They sound awesome paired with the Flowmaster catback. I've got a small video of them just after the install. The sound on the vid does not do them justice and I will try to get some high def video of them a little later. This video will show the clearance under the car very well. The car is not lowered.

Here is the SD video....

1996 Camaro Z28 - Kooks LT1 Long Tubes - YouTube

Here is the HD video...

HD Video 1996 Camaro Z28 - Kooks Long Tube Headers - YouTube

Injuneer · 05-31-2012, 05:14 AM

Thanks for taking the time to put this all together. Great info.

Mystery Bird · 05-31-2012, 08:07 AM

Nice!

ACE1252 · 05-31-2012, 07:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Injuneer

Thanks for taking the time to put this all together. Great info.

No problem. I should have done it long ago, but it kept slipping my mind. I also edited the post adding in my 1/8th mile times from where I was track testing it after the various upgrades.

ACE1252 · 06-02-2012, 02:06 PM

Updating thread with HD video....

RobsWS6 · 06-03-2012, 05:49 PM

Great write up. Looks and sounds nice!

gangforward · 06-04-2012, 05:08 AM

Thanks for putting this up - been thinking about this myself - pics helped a lot. THX!

ACE1252 · 06-04-2012, 08:20 PM

I was dead set on some shorty or mid length headers because of the stories of headaches with long tubes. Then I started seeing some of the pics of the Kooks setup a few years ago. I was impressed with what I saw....and stainless steel.... no ugly rotting long tubes. However the price made me fall out of my seat. What finally pushed me to do it was adding the Moroso pan. There was no way the driver's cat could bolt up with that pan. I tried another aftermarket driver's cat(which was small enough), but would not bolt to the rest of the stock exhaust(sent it back). Finally, I said "screw it..." and just ordered them.

I'm glad I did. The power boost from the longs tubes is great. Sound is good. The drivers side of the y-pipe is squeezed like an LS1 system for more ground clearance. I haven't seen any other long tubes fit a LT1 Camaro this well. I dare say they are the end all and be all of 4th gen Camaro LT1 long tubes.

The only down side, with long tubes, will be if you have to go over a sizable dead animal. There was some poor dead creature(I think it was a very big dog....) on I40 one day and it was one of those oh s*** moments going 70mph. I went over it without any problem and breathed a sigh of relief. Until I saw the driver's side long tube a few days later. The bottom of the long tube had touched the dead animal and those headers melted flesh all over the bottom of it(drivers side tubes, collector, etc) and the drivers side cat

. That stuff had cooked to the header hard as a rock too. Some of that flesh was over 1/4" thick. I scraped quite a bit off, but had to leave some of it for fear of screwing up the jet hot coating. I never knew that flesh could bake on to metal so hard(like chiseling rock....).

pgerst · 06-12-2012, 09:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ACE1252

What finally pushed me to do it was adding the Moroso pan. There was no way the driver's cat could bolt up with that pan. I tried another aftermarket driver's cat(which was small enough), but would not bolt to the rest of the stock exhaust(sent it back). Finally, "I said screw this..." and just ordered them.

My canton is sitting on my garage floor covered in dust as the stock cat (6" round) won't fit at all. What brand of aftermarket cat where you able to fit with the kickout? Will the level sensor fit or should I wait and ask for a pony for Christmas?

ACE1252 · 06-24-2012, 12:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pgerst

My canton is sitting on my garage floor covered in dust as the stock cat (6" round) won't fit at all. What brand of aftermarket cat where you able to fit with the kickout? Will the level sensor fit or should I wait and ask for a pony for Christmas?

The magnaflow I tried was small enough, but would not fit to the rest of the stock system. I suspect that you would need to purchase both magnaflow cats for the system to have a chance. I sent it back to Jegs, because it would not work. The cats I have now are the ones that come with a Kooks cat y-pipe.

My advice is to not bother with them. Get some well made long tubes with a cat'd y-pipe.

pgerst · 06-24-2012, 08:38 AM

Gracias. Did the oil level sending unit will still fit?

Quote:

Originally Posted by ACE1252

My advice is to not bother with them. Get some well made long tubes with a cat'd y-pipe.

I have thought about it but I have a 2 year inspection at a special test center in CA as a "gross polluter" (think it is related to the original smog pump recall). Would never pass visual with LTs and I have not been able to convince myself (yet) that 10-15 more hp is worth a swap of the entire exhaust every 2 years.

ACE1252 · 06-29-2012, 06:18 PM

Ohhh, I didn't even pay attention to where you live. That would be a problem. Sucks that CA will not allow you to pass if you can pass the tailpipe tests. It might be 15hp compared to CARB approved shorty headers....Edelbrock's LT1 shortys may be CARB approved. However, I'm pretty sure I gained 30+hp with my setup over the stock system. You don't pickup 5 mph in the 1/8th without a pretty good hp boost.

pgerst · 06-30-2012, 10:28 AM

Yes, would make more sense to just sniff and not care how it gets there, but then I would be living somewhere else, somewhere sane

I have added a set of CARB SLP tri-Y 1-3/4 shorty headers and the dual cat setup (1995 M6 cars came as single cat in CA); figure that is probably going to be the best smog legal combo (though technically adding the dual cat to a 1995 M6 is illegal even though it was required by CA on the M6 in 1996 as it is cleaner.)

I ordered the magnaflow (CA legal cat is almost 3x the cost of 49 states and it is the same cat per magnaflow, just amortizing the cost of the testing CA required!) as I do want to run the canton, figure worst case I can relocate the oil level sender to the front of the sump as I have a tube k-member.

As least its usually sunny and warm here

Mundzee · 07-23-2012, 05:30 PM

"Clearance between Moroso pan and long tubes....Nope, can't use an oil level sensor with these and a kickout pan. Plug was sourced from Canton."

Is that because the moroso pan is bigger or a different shape than stock? would there be the same problem if I was just using the stock pan?

ACE1252 · 07-26-2012, 07:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mundzee

"Clearance between Moroso pan and long tubes....Nope, can't use an oil level sensor with these and a kickout pan. Plug was sourced from Canton."

Is that because the moroso pan is bigger or a different shape than stock? would there be the same problem if I was just using the stock pan?

The oil level sensor would work fine with the stock pan. The Moroso pan has "kickouts" for more capacity and trap doors built around them for oil control. The kickouts are what puts the mounting location too close to the headers.