I am sure that everyone will say they seemed to have more power but I say where? At the cost of what? Are you wide open throttle every time you go to work or driving around the neighborhood? My buddies WS6 has full blown headers on it and no cat--off the line I get him every time and by the time he catches (because eventually he will) we are at the next stop light and it pisses him off. Sure on the highway we have fun but I try and spank him before he hits 5000+ when that is where headers truly make the most power. It boils down to buy a cam kit FIRST before buying the expensive headers because you lose torque down low where street cars need it the most. I do too much research that is my problem because money does not grow on trees when you have a kid, mortgage, insurance, e.t.c.. and if I want to spend a ton of dough on headers; I would buy a cam or heads or even gears. changing your gear ratio to lets even say 3.23 to 3.42 and we can both be stock except your full out race exhaust and my gears and I will spank you, People look for speed so they think the exhaust and intake should be the first things done when in reality and especially growing up around nothing but gearheads all my life I was shown that the first step should be gears- then cam-heads-then exhaust. Most people will beg to differ. Remember this is only a matter of opinion and based on real life cars and situations. I have my (worthless) Skip barber school cert and have 5 years of drag experience under my belt--doing 80 percent of my own engine building (minus the machine shop work) and testing every possible thing that will give you "bang for the buck". To get back to quoting you the 96-up dual to single is longer then the 93-95 so it makes more torque due to the length and yes they are both dummy duals but the length of the pipe is what sets the stage for torque--the shorter the length-the more up high and vice versa

 

Well, you say you beat your buddy in his WS6 off the line every time. Do you have the same engine mods, gearing, transmission/clutch/stall and how do your driving abilities compare? I'm not trying to give you a hard time but could it be that your driving ability is what is giving you the edge?
Then you go on to say that his car has the edge at high rpms and suffers at low reps because he has headers. Certainly a more radical cam will have the same effect, all other things being equal. Finally, you keep going back to headers being such an expensive mod, and I'll agree it's not cheap, but a cam change is generally accompanied by gaskets/springs/rockers/guideplates and maybe pushrods, and gears plus installation isn't so cheap either.

 

Well every car magazine will also tell you to start with the intake and exhaust and go from there.Now as for Losing low end torque,all my mods are in the signature and they were all done one at a time and i can tell you i have never lost any low end torque and i think that i have even gained some and as for drivability this thing drives and idles every bit as good as it did when it was stock.

 

We both have the M6;3.42; but he has the borla catback with no cats and obviously an LS1 I truly can say we are matched in abilities since I drove his car too. We both suffer from loss of traction and mine being worse then his. A cam swap does not really mean all those factors springs/rockers/guideplates and maybe pushrods you can reuse stock parts if they are in good shape. Headers are an expensive mod; but not the most expensive. On this board everyone keeps asking the same questions about power adders and a lot of people are saying headers headers headers catback. I am thinking if a lot of people are reading our posts here they can truly get better educated to the factors that will make you have an edge on the street. So far everyone who has responded to my post has done their homework because their are a lot of good points being made such as cost per horse and such but read some other posts of people installing their headers and losing e.t.a and mph on otherwise great running engines? I know if you do a cai and 52mm TB with full exhaust you can and will feel a better throttle response but look at the cost? and for how much rear wheel horse at the most? 30 possibly 40? How much did that cost you? close to 1500 including install am I right? Put a cam in and it cost you what? 600 including install for the same power if not more.

 

On the LT4 Chevrolet used roller rockers because of galling problems with the LT1 rockers at the higher rpms seen in those motors. I would learn from their experience and insist on roller rockers with any cam swap regardless of my original parts' conditions. As far as springs, how much more lift and rpms would you expect the stock 85 lb. springs to handle? Plus you have not addressed programming costs or emissions increases which are a consideration for some of us.
I don't know about $1500, I spent about $725 for headers, stage 8s, gaskets, new O2 sensors and welding.
Understand that I'm not saying that there aren't other paths to increasing power on a stock motor, but that headers are a good starting point. Certainly I consider a (shorty) header install to be less intimidating than a cam install.