Before anyone says go right to LT's i have emissions to worry about and want to keep the car emissions legal up here. These will probably not go in for a while, just planning for "down the road".

Is there a definate "best" Midlength/Shorty header out there? Best being, ease of install, plug access, coating, performance and quality.
Jet-Hot MAC's seem to be a good choice, but would anyone recommend anything else? Kind of looking for a bit more than "I have XXX and they work great" I've seen lots of different brands, hoping I can narrow it down a bit with the help of the board....

 

Macs are a good choice, there are quite a few people runing close and some over 400rwhp with head and cam packages. So they work out preety good. Also plug access is awesome compared to other headers systems ive cussed at

 

I'd take a look at Arizona Speed and Marine mids. Big Primaries, emissions legal

 

i have hooker super copm. mids, you can get them ceramic coated with all the emmisions hook-ups. i have the rce version that has all that removed and they are awesome not to be long tubes.

 

I have the AS&M mids they work great ,sound great, look great. It was a good buy...

 

Ditto.

 

If I didn't go LTs I would've DEFINITELY gone with the AZS&M. Give them a look...

-J

 

I went with Jethot coated MAC's and really like them. My future plans for the car do not involve going for 400 rwhp or anything like that, though. The 1 5/8" primaries might eventually be a bottleneck if you plan on serious mods, but on the other hand Advanced Induction shows customer dyno results with the same head/cam package getting about the same results between 1 3/4" primary long tubes and MAC's, so the difference can't be that great.

I've heard nothing but good things about AS&M's, not sure about the plug access though. If I had an extra $300 to spend on headers, I would have probably gone that route myself. They look like top quality stuff. RKSport's are supposed to be AS&M knock-offs. They are alot cheaper, but I haven't heard about their quality. They are also uncoated.

 

When you look at the AS&M's they look pretty much just like the SLP's, and RK sports. All of which should be very good flowing headers. I have the SLP's and they won't really choke up the engine. The exact set i have was on Dr. Mudge's car and he put down 414rwhp with AI heads and cam on stock short block. I don't think they held him back any. My only complaint is plug access isn't much better than stock. Mac's would be a good header to have too. Supposedly they have the best plug access of any headers. Ai also has a car putting out over 400 rwhp with just their heads and cam on stock short block. So they aren't that restrictive. The only down side is they have 1 5/8" primaries. Over all i wouldn't have any problem running any of the headers i listed. I would probably just go with which ever one i got the best deal on.

 

over the summer I am planning on putting in a cam , 227/233 , and everything else that goes along with that. I will also be upgrading to Pacesetter LT's and will be wanting to sell my SLP headers. If you are interested pm me. I know you said that you wont be ready to buy headers in awhile and this summer will be in a while!

 

I agree witih Z95m6. I am running the Arizona Speed and Marine headers and in my opinion they are probably the best looking out of all of the brands and the material quality seems to be superb. However, I have not installed another set of headers so I can not compare ease-of-installation or plug access. There is one plug that really sucks to get too (back on the passenger side) but the rest aren't so bad. and the passenger side bolts seem difficult to get a wrench on but i'm sure there is a proven method for doing that, i'm just unaware of it.

 

AS&Ms are gonna set ya back a little though.

 

AS&M..... im gettign a set soon... mm mmm mm =-)

 

I have MACs and have had good results with them. Plug access is also really nice compared to anything else I've seen.
I have changed all 8 plugs in about 40 minutes. No one was injured.

 

My AS&M look and work great! A good comprimise for the LT's