stereomandan

Yeah, from what I've heard, the Borla's don't sound that great after a set of headers are installed. Especially with !CAT.

Dan

AsianSensation

I have not heard one person on this board that told me they didn't like the way my exhaust sounds with heads/cam/LTs/!cat/ and Borla. Maybe I installed the right combination of quality performance parts.

QCKZ28

people have different opinions of exhaust systems. i got compliments on my old exhaust setup, but i didnt like it.
so i changed it

jesse

white97z/28

Sorry to be a newbie, but where did you guys buy the MAC midlentghs from and how much were they? And also, does all of the emmissions stuff just bolt right up to them?

Steve in Seattle

lol... yeah, good luck pulling those LT's in a weekend, much less one night and installing shorties before the dyno closes the nest day.

I WOULD have gave you my AS&M's, but I just don't think it's possible to R&I headers that fast. honest I would have...

Zepp

You can say what you want about the shorties vs the LTs. I speak from experience with my car. I have a 383 Stroker, stage 3 CNC/P&P heads, cc305 cam. I had the Edelbrock shorties on my car and they seemed to work OK other than they got really hot because they were uncoated. I had my car dyno tuned with the shorties on. I was getting everything I could out of them. I had put the heads on after I had dyno tuned. These heads are rated for about 50hp increase. I sure couldn't feel that much of a performance increase. There should be a SOTP feeling with 50 HP. I just didn't notice a big difference. Don't get me wrong there was a difference but not what I was expecting.

Now, when I switched my headers to the Hooker LTs my car awoke a beast within. This car came to life like nothing that I could have imagined with just swapping the headers. I had to have my car retuned just so that it would run correctly. The motor was starving for more air and couldn't get it. I was not taking full advantage of the heads with those shorties on there. I thought I had a lot of torque with the stroker before the LTs and did. But OMG what a difference there was after the LTs.

Now, I might be an exception to the rule because of the heads and the stroker with more cubes. But I am telling you that I got my moneys worth and then some by putting those LTs on. I love the power increase that I have received from putting mine on. The SOTP feeling was just awesome compared to the shorties. Not to mention how incredible the car sounds now.

I have had both so you can say what you like, but I know what the difference was with my car. Unless you have had both on your car you can not judge the differences fairly. You can quote whatever articles you would like, each car is different and will get different gains based on the person's setup. In my situation the changes were extremely different in regards to performance.

juiced_lt1

***k the longtubes, worth maybe 5-8hp over shorties and cost quite a bit. Get a cutout after the ypipe for $35 for when you go to the track.

94formulabz

You acknowledge that your setup is unique(far from stock) and that your heads and stroker might have something to do with your individual results. Yet you make generalizations strongly advocating longtubes. You also take a negative stance to those of us who have referenced literature and have not personally used both setups on their cars.

IMO your post should be about primary tube size, not length. If you read the vizard article you will find that a 1 3/4" primary would be recommended for your application and that the article is not contradicting your results at all, but rather correctly predicted that your car would gain from the larger 1 3/4" primaries of the long tubes you installed.

This thread has become a somewhat generalized discussion branching from the inital question. That is why my previous post covered both stock and modified cars backed up with some references of actual tests and not just gut feelings about flow or SOTP.

I did infact mention at the bottom of my first post that 93 formy may see gains. Information was provided for him to draw his own conclusions. I personally dread the thought of installing headers on an LT1 so if it where my car i'm not sure that I'd pursue that mod, it just depends what your priorities and goals are.

Your first hand experience/input IS appreciated.

-brent

Cmr0z28

Very interesting thread goin on here.....TTT, I wanna hear more

12SCNDZ

Did you either dyno or track test the car after the swap? No!...Therefore you can't prove rather there was any difference or rather your SOTP feeling was just to justify the money and labor you spent.
Funny thing...I don't see any quarter mile times listed in your posts, or your sig.??? Surely your 383, LT equipped car must be quicker than my stock bottom end 350, mid length header eqipped car, right?

Frank

FastWhiteTA

They're worth a lot more than that. The huge difference between the shorties and the LTs is all the extra torque seen with them at all RPMs. Maybe you only gain a peak of 10 rwhp, BUT, you gain at least 15 or more ft. lbs of rwtq through out the entire rev range, esp at lower rpms. But that's ok if you guys want to stay w/ shorties, just an advantage for us long tube guys .

As i've said time and time again, I swapped from shorties to LTs and will never go back!

'93 formy ...

Well guys, I'd just like to thank all those who took the time to respond to my post. Though not much was resolved as far as whether or not the LT's are worth the extra money, I've decided to go ahaed with the LT's. The general opinion on this forum and others that I have posted on, is that while mid-lengths would probably give you more on the top end, LT's would increase the torque in the low-mid range. The more I thought about it, the more sense it made for me to go with the LT's. I spend 99% of the time driving around between 2 and 3500rpm so it just makes sense to go with a set of headers that make power in that rpm range. I just ordered a set of JetHot's from Fbody Central (anyone have any experience with them?) last night so I should get them, within a week or so. Since I never did buy my Ededlbrocks to begin with, these will technically be the first pair of headers I've bought for my car. I'll post some pics when they arrive.

Thanks again to all those who responded. Man, I hope all that money was worth it and I don't regret it.....

EbeZ28

I have pondered for some time about what kind of headers to get. Based on the dyno information in the link above as well as clearance/install issues, I am sold on shorties/mids. Very enlightening thread

Cmr0z28

Ditto!

FastWhiteTA

I'm still skeptical, BUT, if you must get mids, you must go with 1 3/4" primaries, otherwise you'll be sorely disappointed when you put 1 5/8" primaries on there.