First off, yes.... I did a search and read about both types of headers. I just want some peoples personal opinions based on my circumstances.

I have wanted longtube headers and dual cats (one for each bank) on my 94 Z28 for a while now. The whole setup I want will be really expensive though. I think it will between $600-700 once I factor in the headers themselves, a pacesetter ORY with two catco cats welded into it, new o2 sensors, gaskets, clamps, broken bolts, beer, etc.....

I can't really afford that right now.

A guy on a V6 board I frequent wants to sell me a set of Edelbrock TES middies in very good condition with a single 3" hi-flow cat aft of the "Y", for only $150.

While that isn't exactly what I want, it's a set of good quality headers for really cheap.

I'm not trying to squeeze every last bit of horsepower that I can possibly get. I want a good autocross car with a little more high RPM torque, that sounds good, and that gets better gas mileage. BTW, I'm lowered 2".

What should I get? should I spring for the cheapo used headers, or should I wait several months and get the nice longtubes?

 

Get the headers and cat back if possible. It was the best mod I did.

 

I already have a catback system. Which headers are you talking about, the shorty's or the LT's?

 

from what i've noticed on these boards is a bunch of long tube ******* riders.

Are LTs the best? Yes.
Are you going to gain a lot of horsepower from the $500 difference in price? No.
With your car being lowered 2" will your Y pipe bottom out a lot? Probably.

With that being said, My car is also lowered 2" and I have Edelbrock TES Shortys w/ the factory Y pipe.

I have a friend with a 11 sec '96 SS running who ran through mids and finally switched it out to Long Tubes. He said he noticed less than a tenth in his quarter mile times.

I do however plan on raising my car in the future, and when I build my forged 355 I will go to a LT header. But for a bolt-on and or baby cam car? Save yourself the money.

 

Your right there are a lot of long tube nuthuggers. I think until people have tried both, that they shouldn't talk all the bs about the others. I used shorties previously on my car. The difference was night and day between manifolds. I have bought long tubes, and would have done it first this way, had I known my motor plans for the future.

Mids and shorties, save clearance issues for sure.

Oh and I voted shut up BTW.

 

shut up is winning in my poll. Maybe I shouldn't have put it up there.

Ls1tech has nothing but bad things to say about Edelbrock headers. Holy crap.

I will be autocrossing this car, and the extra 5 HP from longtubes will mean nothing to me in the twisties.

Honestly, I want the car to sound really cool and get better MPG more than I want HP. Do these edelbrock shorties sound good?

BTW, nice avatar 6SpdLT1Z. I graduated from K-state in 2004.

 

Granted the long tubes will probably offer some better gains over the Edelbrocks, for your goals, it doesn't seem relevant. Also, seeing that you have a 2" drop done to the car, having long tubes and a catted y-pipe may make things challenging as well. In your case, I would probably go for the Edelbrocks and save some money.

 

Gotta agree with him on this one. However, I run the Edelbrock shorties and Y-pipe and I am not real impressed with them. The fit and finish is just okay. To top it off after I installed them I had the car dynoed and I gained 7 rwhp but lost 10 ft/lbs of torque. These are peak numbers and its been so long that I can't remember what the entire powerband looked like compared to the stock manifolds. With that being said, I would probably save your money until you can get what you really want.

 

Save your money, i've heard the same bad things about the eddy shortys, i would just wait untill you can get some mids.

 

I've been doing some searching lately on this because I want to put headers on my 96 camaro. I plan on going for the pacesetters but since my car is OBD II i dont know how to eliminate the cat due to the O2 sensor that is behind it.

 

Save your money..i had a set of edelbrock shorties on my first Z and they cracked constantly...

 

Ive tried both, and long-tubes with a 1 3/4 dia tube are my choice.

You do have to consider your lowered vehicle though and if you want your 500$ headers smashed up.

I had hooker shorties and an ORP on my car first with a cc 305 and home ported heads,(when it was a stock short-block) the car ran 12.50s regularly (3000 stall, 3.73 gears).

I switched to Hooker LTs and mufflex Y and ran 12.20s with no tuning , and 11.9s with some tuning.

 

You could always get extrude-honed stainless LT4 manifolds and further port them out...

 

Get an ORY & then have the rear 02s eleminated out of the PCM, all that will happen is the SES light will come on, won't hurt an performance.

 

With your car lowered, get the shorties. I have them and it is a noticable difference from stock manifolds. That will aloow more mod money for suspension goodies.