.. if I get them for free? A friend of mine has a pair just laying around, and said I can have them on my car till I get LTs. This might be 4-5 months down the road. I guess basically it would come down to the PITA factor of installing them, right?

Will my car see a significant gain with them?

 

IMO it's not worth the labor if your getting long tubes soon.

 

well, the latest gmh perf mag sept 04 issue i believe claims long tubes,cutout and tune on a 99 z28 w117k miles only gained 24hp. seems very low to me. i was told that long tubes would gain 20-25hp. and shorties 8hp plus y-pipe and high flow cats 8hp. i'm not sure either is worth the money unless your going to do lots of mods. just my 2 cents worth. (traction first,such as sfc,lca,panh,ta, drag radials then maybe torque conv if a4. ) pardon me the very first mods would be lid & catback.

 

I've already got lid, cutout, SFC's, LCA's, TCI 3800 stall, and free mods. I figured shorty's couldn't hurt, but I guess they're not worth it

 

I say just leave it alone, when i put on my FLP's LT's, the hardest part was gettin the stock headers off cuz they are a lot bulkier than the LT's were. So i would guess that maybe all shorties are gonna be bulky like that so ur gonna have a hard time gettin those bolts torqued on good. I say just wait for ur LT's, not worth the gains with shorties

 

Actually, i just remembered with ur year u might see some noticeable gains, it comes down to if u really need to do it i guess, are u gonna use that extra power sometime before u get ur LT's. I still think u should just wait for them though to save ur Knuckles

 

Don't waste your time. Go long, or go home!

 

Heck if you're getting them for free. Dyno then swap and dyno again. When you get LTs then dyno again. we all could use some impirical numbers rather than every one just shouting they aren't worth it.
How many of you guys out there saying that they aren't worth putting on have tried them yourselves? Or even personally know someone that has tried them?

 

a couple hp for free...just some time spent wrenching...i'd do it anyday

the manifold/header swap on the ls1 is cake!

and the manifolds on the 98/99 don't flow as well as those on the 01/02 (not sure which side the 00 fall on). so shorties, with an orp i would bet a solid 10hp.

or you could just get em...then sell em on ebay and use the $ for LTs

 

It wouldn't really be right to sell something u got for free...especially from a friend. And he did also say that his friend said he could just use them until he gets his LT's, so i'm assuming he wants them back later on so he can sell his own stuff and get some of his money back that he spent to buy them in the first place.

 

Id go with the Longtubes. Just my 2 cents.