Theres a local guy who wants to sell his flowtech LT's and ORY for 300 plus trade stock mannifolds and y for it. What do you guys think of flowtech and is that a good deal or not? Thanks.

Jared

 

I was also wondering about hte flowtech LT's. I heard that thy're the least on quality, but i was looking at the cereamic coated ones.

 

well i have them....so i can give some first hand info...although i've never owned any other kind so take it as you will

when new the ceramic coating was flawless in look...over 2 yrs the salt and wet conditions of living on an island in south florida (including near flooding by ocean water in a hurricane) the collectors have started to rust. it started towards the inside of where the 4 primaries meet at the collector. sofar its surface rust. and sofar it is isolated to that area...the primaries are still as clean as the day they went in.

the welds on the headers were not pretty. but they worked. which is about all i care about

the flanges were nice and thick, but one was slightly warped and required 2 gaskets to seal it. not all that uncommon with any header.

the Ypipe fit FLAWLESSLY, no problems whatso ever. it had ample clearance and bolted up fine. i was worried since it was a one piece design, not leaving much room for tweaking its fit...but i didn't need to.

when i bought the setup i got:
headers (coated), ypipe, o2 extensions, metal OEM gaskets, egr and air gaskets, block off plates, and some clamps...all for under $600


the only real complaint i have on the design of the headers is the orientation of the O2 sensors. they are outside of the collector (pointing out), which puts them a little close to some of the heat shields. there seems to be more room on the inside of the collector (pointing in). but sofar it hasn't really been and issue

 

alrighty, well I guess I should ask if I would need new gaskets or just reuse the old ones? This guy is looking to swap so would it be possible to reuse the gaskets just swap both? I would also need new bolts right? Thanks for your help and opinion teke!

 

for the small cost...get new gaskets. why not.

and i reused my stock manifold bolts..no problems with them.

 

Since I had FlowTech on Jens car, I can also give my two cents worth. I have a set of Hooker LT on my SS, and I have installed Pacesetters and Jet-Hot headers. All of these headers are based on the same design, the Hooker design. In my opinion, the Hooker were the best headers followed by Pacesetter and Jet-Hot. I placed Pacesetter in second due to their previous quality in the 80s and 90s, which was the cheapest headers you could get, and for any vehicle (which was good). Anyway, off to the Flowtechs. They installed easily and the flanges were decent. After I pulled the flowtechs, to be replaqed by Kooks 1-7/8" to 2" LT, I noticed the pimaries were made from bent pieces. No biggie, except for the fact that the merge from one bend pipe to the next was offset and filled with weld. It pretty much had a step in the primary tube, which will hinder performance. Now mind you, Jen ran a 9.94 with these headers, I wonder what she could have ran if the primary tubes were matched better to improve flow, like the Hookers, Pacesetter and Jet-hot design have done. Just my experience with four different headers (really five if you include the Kooks ).

 

wow...you difinatly have some grounds for comparison. nice.

i will add this. i looked at the pics i have of my FTs...and it looks like only one of the primaries on each header have welds on them. the rest are mandrel bent.

not sure of the reason...probably due to the compound curves and close proximity of the curves...making them as one piece on a bender would be hard.

but look for yourself:



CORRECTION...looks like there is on primary on the one header that is welded near the collector (on the right)

 

I've got some uncoated flowtechs that I got from the sponsors 230 for headers and 100 for Y. I haven't had any problems except for when I first got them. One of the headers flange was not straight, I checked it with a straight edge and it was pretty bad. I called up the vendor and within that week I got a new set. I have been loving mine-they are rusted but I refuse to get coated again because my last pair of expensive jet hot hookers flaked off pretty fast-waste of money now I just go uncoated and they still last for a very long time, just not as pretty. I used my old gaskets and they seal up fine. Actually to be more specific I wanted to see how long the paper ones that they supplied would last, so I installed one header with the stockers and the other side with the paper. Now after a year both sides are working fine, but the paper one looks like its days are numbered, so pretty soon I will put the other metal stocker back in there. Don't bother buying new ones plenty of guys reuse them without any problems. As said by others the quality of the welds is not all to great-they don't look very pretty, but they don't leak either. I had very little problem with installing them, they went right in without a hitch. Just make sure you jack up the car enough. The bottom of my front wheels were 9 inches off the ground, you just have to get the right angle for them to slip in. Also you must remove the steering rod -a few bolts so very easy, make sure the steering wheel is locked so it doesn't wrap all the wires up. As for the Y I noticed that the crossover was only about 2.5 inches on the inside, so I took a long metal pipe and stuck it on the inside and hit it with a sledge to open the hole up wider, which worked perfect.