looking for a 6 speed now in good condition and i was wondering which way i should go. here are my plans:

Cai, 160 thermo, loudmouth, headers(still debating on shorties or not), the other little stuff, "possibly" a hotcam and a 100 shot TOPS. there will be NO future upgrades after this as i have bigger plans and this will be my only means of transportation, and i really cant afford to have it sitting in the shopall the time.

here is the problem. i love the sound of the loudmouth on a stock manifold car, and yes i have heard a loudmouth on a car with shorties and i like that also(there was no crackling and it was running cats). at first i was going to go with this combo and call it a day because ive seen times where i could of had shorties and a loudmouth for around 350. but then i was wondering will i be missing a whole lot with Lt's? my money is kinda of tight and Lt's cost alot more than shorties as it is then i still have to get a custom y pipe. (and the loudmouth doesnt sound so go with Lt's).

so here's the questions. with my plan of mods what would be the differents in rwhp before and after the 100shot? i know tunning is key and that will be done. (pcm4less) im a little cost bias with the shorties right now. but i want to know if im making a big mistake? please help.

edit: yes i used the search button and it helped but wasnt quite what i was looking for.

 

Shorttis are good but LTs are better. However, since you are in cali, you can't run LTs (exept maybe flps, they MIGHT pass) due to smog testing. The same thing happended to me. I wanted Hooker LTs but had to "settle" with MAC mid lenths because I live in NJ.

 

yes i forgot to mention the smog thing. but i doubt that be that big of a problem. because it's sooo many places you can just pay off and they'll let you pass

 

Yoy can find a good used set of LT for way cheap. Just go to the classifieds on all the sites, this one, LS1.com, fbodytech. I got a set of 200 bucks

 

the real world gains ive seen form shorties are 5-15 torque and about 5 HP you can get nearly double that from LTs. and the more mods you have the closer to the high side of those #s you'll be, I hope that helps

 

I would go with some good shorties. Most of the good ones cost as much as LT's or more but they are smog legal and i really doubt some of the better ones aren't almost equal to LT's. I have a set of SLP shorties and with their 1 3/4" primaries i think they would flow just as good as LT"s and they are kind of a mid-length. I would go with some ASM's, SLP's, or RK sports. All good sized shortie headers.

 

hey thanx you guys but thats not what im quite looking for. i know the estimated gains between the to at near stock levels but im asking after hotcam and before and after 100 shot. because even tho you can probably get away with lt's for 200-250 you still have to buy a y-pipe and loudmouth wouldnt suit it well and i'll more than likely have to swap it out. so again at those power levels im trying to see if the rwhp of the lt's is high enough to spend the extra 100's on the lt's, y-pipe, and different exhaust system?

 

"Flow" in CFMs isnt your main concern with headers, Stock manifolds "flow" enough. Headers keep velocity up up to scavenge the clyinder better. And there is a formula for the best length, but stock / bolt-on motors are going to be in the 34-38 inch range. You can get 10-15 torqure upgrading from shorties to LTs. I would reccomend the LT's

 

i have heard people say that you need 35"+ length primaries, for max power but i have seen a lot of people with heads and cam put 375 down with SLP shorties so i don't think they are holding people back to much. Look at DR. Mudge i have a set of his old SLP's and he put down 414rwhp with just heads and cam with these shorties on a stock short block. I would say they aren't a real bottleneck. Just my opinion.

 

they arent restrictive. LTs increase EHXAUST VELOCITY creating a low pressure area around the exhaust vavle that pulls air/ fuel into the cylinder during the first few degrees of intake valve opening. and yes you can make 600 with shortie if you want to, but the same motor with tuned LTs would have 630. ( tuned meaning the proper length for that particular motor.

 

I still question the hype that LT's are better. A couple of months ago, someone wrote up a thread on this site, he had his LT1 built with shorties, had his engine dyno'd @418hp. That's a pretty solid LT1, pretty solid numbers as well.

He decided to switch to Long Tubes, I forgot who the manufacturer was...Anyway, he had the LT's put on, dynoed it again, and guess what???

418hp.

Performance was the same.

I have heard that, if you are planning on building an engine with 450+hp, then Long Tubes will give you the best bang for your buck, bottom line. Shorties cannot compare.

If you're hp aspirations aren't that ambitious, then the shorties will work for you just fine. Most are smog legal.

Also keep in mind that in CA., the smog fine is $3,000.00, and you will have to put your engine back to stock if you're caught.

Food for thought.

 

with the hotcam and all the bolt ons switching from shorties to long tubes is hardly noticeable. i have edelbrock shorties and i dynoed 337rwhp which is not to bad.i love my edelbrock headers,in fact that shootout that gm high tech performance did the edelbrock shorty cars won.now when you stroke the motor or get your heads done maybe then i would switch to long tubes which is what iam doing right now,so iam selling my edelbrock jet hot ceramic coated headers with my y pipe. this is a great site with very knowledgable people but do not always believe the hype hot cam too small..........shorties have no gain....blah blah blah i went 111.8mph with my small cam and shorties thank you

 

I would say get a 93-95 car with the single catalytic converter setup, and get some SLP shorties. If you get a dual cat setup 96-97 then you will really need longtubes because those style shorty headers have very short primaries compared to the 93-95 style. I got my headers for $335 used a year ago, headers and Ypipe.

If you'll look in my sig, you'll see that I have all the bolt ons, HOTcam and headwork- in my opinion the headers aren't holding me back at all.

John

 

Thanks you guys. EXACTLY what i was looking for.
the rest of you can still chime in if you like