Hey, i'm at the beginning of my journey into tuning my camaro, i'm interested in long tubes as a start (i've got the SS hood and intake).

What headers do you guys recommend for a street car (daily driver and sometimes race with some friends). I'd like to get something with good heat isolation and complementary y-pipe so i can connect them to the back end of the stock (SS) exhaust.

I don't live in US and pollution doesnt matter, but i'd like to retain all the systems anyway to save the planet (NOT rofl)... so i don't have to answer to anyone about this.

Also i have some problems with it, it seems to move too hard from standstill for a V8, i mean my father's 4 cyl starts no problems, i have to work a while the clutch before i can move (i'm talking about slow starts, not high rev aggressive starting). Also the engine starts slow when cold, i've got new opti, plugs, wires, clean injectors, etc etc...

Thanks!

 

Pacesetter coated LT's are what I have

I love mine. They are a good quality header at a very affordable price

I think I paid like 440 for coated headers and another 120ish for the y-pipe

You save like $100 if you don't get the coated ones - but I would strongly recommend getting the coated ones to prevent rust and decay

 

Depends what end of the spectrum you want to buy from, you can get the emissions style "budget" Pacesetters and y-pipe for around 500 or you can get the much better quality,stainless Kooks and y-pipe for around a grand.

 

coated pacesetter long tubes are the way to go, they are the best bang for the buck. I am running them on my DD with about a 1in drop in the front and I dont have to many problems scraping, you just have to be careful and take speed bumps slow

 

Ok i'll look into these Pacesetter with armor. Sounds like what i need: affordable, efficient...

Should i expect any problems, or any inconveniences from installing long tubes? Any drawbacks?

 

My pacesetter Y didn't even come close to bolting to the stock catback, and I didn't see the point of stepping the 3' y down to 2.75 stock diameter anyway. You will need to work out that transition somehow. I just bought a couple of replacement pipes in 3" from Summit or Jegs, don't remember which. Like $60-$70 each, one to the curve up at the axle, and one from that to the muffler. Cut off the front end and band clamped to the Y, and welded to my muffler.

They were listed for 97-02 cars as I recall, but worked fine for my '95. Needed to tweak the mount at the tranny a bit with a floor jack to bring the exhoust high enough.

 

you can get some coated pacesetters for 385 from places like herron performance and speed engineering, plus the y pipe.

if you wanna keep your cat, just have it moved down the I pipe to after the Y

(on LTs the y comes further back than the stock manifolds)

 

Although a little more expensive, I love my (1 3/4'' primary) hooker longtubes. I consistantly ran 4 tenths quicker in the 1320 over the stock ext. manifolds. they are a pain in the *** to install but, well worth it (imo). Just throwing my personal experiences out there.

 

Pacesetter's are good, but their y-pipe is a joke for making power.
Have a custom one built using a 2-1 3" merge collector.

 

Which style would you go with, emissions or race? No real drawbacks or problems, they are a straight forward job to do, it can just be a little time consuming.

 

I'm going to go for the version with emissions, not that i need them, but i'm afraid if i go in to deep, start disabling systems, what this may result. I don't have someone experienced in this stuff here to guide me so i'd rather not risk it. Also i can't reprogram the PCM no shops here with the software for camaros

About the Y pipe, you're saying it doesn't match up? I have the SS exhaust system, i intend to not replace it in an attempt to keep the car as "stock" as possible (i want to install LTs because i find the stock manifolds ridiculous and because the car is 12 years old almost and no-ones ever replaced the cats... and also after an overhaul of electrics and fuel systems the cat still sounds uneven and rough, i'm enclined to thin the exhaust has holes/cats are dead). I don't really trust the people here who make exhaust pipes, if the Y pipe comes close to the stock place, i'd rather use it anyway just to have safe mounting and clearance... i'm not an adept of "on the go" making up of things...

 

if you just wanna keep the emissions stuff cause you cant do the pcm stuff locally, ill just tell you that thats how it is everywhere, except maybe california. lol. youd have to use pcmforless or madz28 like anyone else.

that being said, you wont get any gains, other than a tiny bit of weight savings, and a cleaner engine bay once you take out your AIR and EGR, and being that you wanna keep your cats i would assume you wouldnt wanna take them out.. so basically.. disregard this post, as its useless to you.

 

You'll need some PCM tuning to take care of the SES light that will result from not having the cats. A mail-order tune should take care of that.

 

Send my computer from Romania to US and back? That would be like a month =)

I'd rather see if i can get the software to update it here myself... or something, mailing doesn't sound like a feasable option...

 

Yes, you can get the file downloaded and install it yourself.