i am trying to decide what brand of longtube headers to install on my 99 Z28. i was looking at american racing or kooks for stainless steel... but with a catted y-pipe the kits price is around 1500. i have heard that the coatings on the less expensive brands do not last,and will eventually rust. should i pay more for stainless?

 

I guess it depends on how long you need them to last for your money. A good set of coated headers will last many years for a lot less than a set of stainless.

 

Pacesetter LTs for $399 ftw.

 

x2.

Although, I wish I would have saved up and went for the 1 7/8 headers. A few HP more and the things will last forever being SS steel.

On a budget, go with the Pacesetters; if you can afford the SS headers, ARH 1 7/8" for the win.

Get those and don't look back, plus they will support bigger cubes if/when you get to that point!

 

The 1-7/8" don't provide as much low-end and overall peak torque (driveability) as the 1-3/4" does from my experience with them on the 346ci motor. They work VERY well for the 6.0, stroker motors, and other FI buildups. Stepped 1-3/4 - 1-7/8" like the LG Motorsports are pretty awesome for the stock-cubed LS1s in Corvettes.

 

so pacesetters are a cheap alternative for kooks or american racing headers... i have seen a ti-tech coating crack and last about one year... what coating should i go with if i get pacesetters.

 

Order them coated.

 

Eldebrocks, 1 3/4" stepped to 1 7/8" to 3 1/2" collector, the Y pipe fits great, a little fabrication, if you are going to modify the Y-pipe to a Flowmaster merge. If you are on a budget, that's the way to go. The Y is only like $120.

The bad about that, is that you have to have the collectors welded on.

If $$ is no object, then ARH or Kooks. I'd have a custom Y made anyway, as neither of them will be optimized in the merge section, imo.

Good luck.

 

I am looking into getting longtube headers too for my '99 SS camaro and yes the ones I am wanting are 1500 expensive! OK I have this problem if anyone can help lol, my cats got clogged and i couldn't afford new cats at the time so the muffler shop took my cats off and put dummy sensors in where my o2 sensors are suppose to go and ever since it has ran funky. I've taken it and taken it to the shop and they can't figure it out, only thing they can find is that I have a miss on num. 2 and num. 7 spark plug and they have checked my plugs and say they are ok, I just don't know what to do? It kinda surges as they call it and kinda cuts out when you are lugging it and give it a little gas. Just looking for some help, thanks.

 

The problem you are having is probably unrelated to having the cats removed. Removing the cats and using sims will in no way cause performance problems. So put that out of your mind and start diagnosing the miss, ie coils, wires, injectors or wiring, fuel filter, fuel system cleaning, ect.

 

Yeah I forgot to add they told me I had water in my fuel tank and that's what my problem is they think, but they think I'd have to drop the tank to fix that problem, and I hate to pay all this money and then that not be my problem. I recently put a new fuel filter on, they've checked my plugs so I figured they would've checked my wires too or noticed? They said they don't think its my coils cause if a coil is bad it will just go out and that would throw a code and be very obvious, and I've ran lucas fuel system cleaner through my car and all this and it still runs kinda funky. Thanks for the input and help much appreciated.

 

Also, in the past I had a problem similar to this and it was my lower intake manifold gasket and it had to be replaced, but they figured that out last time, I don't know if that could be happening again or not? It would run funny then too and I lost horsepower too.

 

Put a couple of cans of drygas in to absorb the water and fill up with good clean gas.

 

I've never heard of that what is drygas? Is that the same thing as heet? Heet is stuff you pour in your gas tank to remove water from your gas in case you didn't know I figure you do, but I've tried that already (the heet) and didn't help. Maybe I just need to try it more times I don't know? Thank you for your input and advice.

 

How many tanks of gas have you gone through since they said there was water in the gas?

After adding that heet stuff to absorb the water, it could take a couple tanks to get all the water out.