1LESSZ28

I hear that you lose some lowend torque (or it shifts up in the powerband) when you install shorties?

Anyone with shorties how do they compare to stock lowend torque? better/worse. please specify which headers you used.

..

Javier97Z28

You heard wrong, and if you can, go with longtubes.

BarneyMobile

Shorties are a waste of time & money, and you wont really see much of a gain either. Go long tube.

Dansean1

Shorties are only good if you live in CA like I do where emissions are crucial. If you have the hookup or live in a non-emission state, long tube all the way. Anything for that matter is better than stock manifolds and you will gain power.

turbo_Z

You guys simply don't have a clue. LTs are more pain than they are worth and the gains and negligable. Only positive aspect of LTs is the plug access but they are dyno proven the same power as shorties. An old member on here made 420rw with shorties and heads/cam from AI.. they were SLP shorties. Find a shorty with a 1 3/4" primary header and be happy they dont drag and burn things up like the LTs.

RedRyder518

I don't have any experience with shorties, but my mids are awesome, especially if you are lowered and do have to worry about emissions. I have a bolt-in cat for my inspection, but I have a straight pipe for everyday use. With my listed mods and crappy weather, I run 8.80s compaired to 9.20s stock. Pretty good gain if you ask me.

As far as the powerband, I have to say I did feel a slight decline in my low end. My buddy has a stock exhaust '96 Z28 except for a Flowmaster and it definitly feels faster around town like from stop signs and such, but I feel more power in the upper RPMs where it seems to really matter. But to answer you question, a little low end is lost, but it is well worth it for the top end gain.

Ray86IROC

I didn't have any noticeable low end torque loss w/ the Edelbrock midlengths (earlier single cat style w/ y-pipe).

I don't think the true shorties, the ones made for dual cat cars to reuse the stock y-pipe are very good at all though, if nothing else the factory y-pipe is holding them back. But I think the earlier shorties/mids for single cat cars and the true mids are just fine.

Javier97Z28

I can get my driver's side header in, oh in about 15 minutes.

I can get my passenger side header in, eh maybe an hour now, since I do have to lift one side of the engine a bit.

Big ****in' deal, I'm not afraid to get my hands dirty.

My headers don't drag, they don't burn **** up, they're not a pain to install, the plug access is easy.

Oh, I ran with 12's with boltons, and was .007 away from running 11's cam only.

I think I have a "clue" as to what I'm doing with this.

I'm not much of a dyno queen but I gained 20rwhp from just LT's, and that was after installing a Vigi 2800, so figure in whatever loss from that and add it in to the gain of LT's.

Ray86IROC

Yes but that's 20 rwhp over stock manifolds and y-pipe. I believe he was arguing the point that LTs don't usually make significantly more power than the mids or better designed shorties out there making them a questionable upgrade for the generally higher cost and average install headaches.

Cman

Shorty headers don't lose any low end torque, if anything they'll give you the gains up top also, best of both worlds.

And whoever it was that say d/c headers don't work well compared to single cat headers, check your facts before posting and misleading others. People thought this 5 years ago and for 5 years after I installed my SLP d/c shorties I've shown that they work and give the gains equal to or better than s/c shorty headers.

On the LT subject, all I'll say is that if I didn't have emissions to worry about there would be a set of them on my car, and there may be sometime down the road. When I bought my Spohn TA I got the version with the cross brace designed for LT's.

Tony

onebadponcho

What do you based this on? I know of a certain VERY well-known member of this board who is making 800hp with SHORTY headers - and with the knowledge this person has, I'm sure there's reasons besides ground clearance he's running what he has . This topic has been beaten to submission many times; why don't you try and do some research before you make a statement like this all right?

Joe B

How much Horsepower, and more importantly TORQUE, across the useable RPM range you gain when going from a correct size primary shortie header to a correct size longtube header, ALL depends on that particular engine combo.......In the past 17 years Iv'e had some (close to stock motors) only gain 10 to 15HP across the useable RPM range when going from shorties to longtubes(still we'll worth it to me) and Iv'e had motors like my last Naturaly asperated 575 HP 420CI stroker gain almost 55HP across the entire useable RPM range after a switch from 1 3/4 shorties to a 1 3/4 longtube header......Iv'e seen a lot of people make decent PEAK power with shorties(means nothing by itself), but in ALL cases iv'e personally seen where people switched to full length corect size primary longtubes there were gains to be had.......plain and simple FACT shorties all have pipes WAY shorter than optimum for ANY 9000 and under RPM motor and were designed ONLY for the purposes of fitting pretty easy and to comply with emissions in some states.......NONE are comparable to a properly tuned (correct size primary) full long tube header.........

ABA383

Shorties make a big difference over the stock log type manifolds and offer true emissions compliant set ups because most leave the cat in the stock location. I ran LPE shorties for 10 years and ran 11.50s at 118 mph with them. I just switched to Kooks stepped LTs and picked up nothing across the tested rpm range 3500-6500rpms...It does feel faster and picked up .2 and 2mph on the dyno 1/4 run, but the track will tell the truth...imho shorties are worth it for LT1s because the stock manifolds are very restrictive. On LS1s they don't help much because the factory manifolds flow pretty damn well and most go to LTs on LSx build ups...

--Alan

urbaNHunter44

Are there any dual cat shorties that come with an ORY?

1LESSZ28

Well it seems as though shorties are a win-win for a street car. I don't want long tubes because they only really help in the upper rpms and I don't care that much about having the best flow - I don't have any engine mods done so I don't think I really need much more flow than shorties will give me.

I need my car fast for all the stoplights with all these ricers. Sub 50mph racing is one thing. Highway racing is just plain stupid unless there is no one else on the highway. I don't go to the track anyway so more power up top doesn't interest me when I lose torque in the lowend. I love killing them from a stop anyway the more torque the better.

More opinions??? thanks for the responses guys.