I want LT's real bad but due to the extremely gay nature of speed bumps I may have to reconsider. I know you are supposed to gain more power with LT's (or so I have heard) so I was wondering if I went with shortys how much power would I lose instead of going with LT's?

 

I'm curious of the same thing.

 

well, most on here will tell you there is a huge difference. What I have seen in my experience is unless your pushing some good HP (like 450+) your not going to notice a difference. I back that statement up with 2 pieces of evidence: 1. a while back someone did a dyno compare with shorties and LT's and noted there was almost no difference between them on his mildly modified motor, but folks that are pushing lots of HP have noted a good HP increase on the dyno from going to LT's (and true duals mostly, IMO important to note)
2. In the GMHTP bolt on shootout almost everyone there had LT's except 2 or 3 guys, and the person that won in the end had Edelbrock shorties, which are considered the crappiest shorties you can buy. Thought that was kinda interesting

 

Ehh, I think Pacesetter makes the crappiest headers..

 

pacesetters are some pos's...i had em on my old old 97 biggest mistake i ever made...y pipe wasnt even the right size..lol....long tubes will give ya a good 10 more hp...work much better w/ future mods also

 

I would think you would see a little more HP gains from LT's but not much. Depends a lot on the setup.

 

http://www.ls1tech.com/threads/showf...5&o=31&fpart=1

that is with a mid lengh Mac , and on a LS1 though. the shorties will be different. and its not so much the peak power they make, its the curve that LTs have over shorties.

 

OK guys tell me if this is true, from what I have been told (on other boards) shortys are better at making low end torque and LT's are better at making HP at mid-high RPMs to high level RPMs. Is this true?

 

Its like this... if u want to go faster... buy long tubes...

Get a custom y pipe and you'll have enough to clear big speed bumps, just go slow.

Cerwin Vega Fan thats generally true. Depending on the engine set up. A fully built race engine shorties would only restrict power all the way around.
On my cammed LT1 long tubes felt the same as my shorties down low but up top they had a lot more pull than my shorties did. Gained 2 more mph in the 1/4 on a hot day with long tubes over shorties. which is about 20hp

 

I'm curoius to know how would a custom Y-Pipe help over true duels. Isn't the lowest point on the car where the LTs meet the flange on the exhaust?

 

When u look underneath our cars with long tubes you'll notice that the lowest part is where the back end of the ypipe corners over meet the intermediate pipe. This is what ive seen from mine, my friend's and some at the track.
Custom y pipe wont be better than true duels.
But you need a nice amount of power to actually gain from true duels over a 3inch ypipe.

 

But clearence wise a true duel setup and the Y-pipe setup would be about the same?

 

my friends who run true duals have more clearance..
Looks to be almost an inch more... the where the x or h pipe meets the header flange is the lowest part, also the bottom of the mufflers.

 

Unless you are making big horsepower or are planning on making big horsepower(My guesstimate is over 400 to the ground) then I don't think there is much of a difference. I have raced quite a few F-body's with similar setups as mine with only minor differences and they have long tubes with the outcome as we hang side by side or I pull on the a little bit. If you are planning on going with a stroker or big cam/heads combo, then avoid the pain and get long tubes. But shorties are fine with a mild cam and ported heads. I run Mac 1 5/8 shorties.

ZMAN