ARH Headers Installed
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ARH Headers Installed
Well, I was able to talk the wife into letting me replace my rusty Pacesetters that I've had for 5 years now with some stainless headers. I tried the LPPs only to have the driver's side rest against the motor mount. I returned them and ordered some ARH long tubes from Chris (99BlancoSS). Everything went well. Nick built the headers in a couple of days and I had them in less than a week.
I like shiney metal, so I was drawn to the LPPs due to them being completely polished. The appearance will go away with heat, yet I still decided to put a little work into the ARHs and spent a few hours polishing them up. I only concentrated on the top 6" of the tubes as that's all that you'll really see from the engine bay. They came out just as nice looking as the LPPs.
Install was a piece of cake. Slid right into place. Where the LPP header was hitting, I can now fit my entire hand between the primary and the motor mount. They fit up under the car as good or better then my Pacesetters. The merge collectors actually gain some clearance between the headers and the floorboards over the Pacesetters. I never had a problem with banging the floorboards, but these have plenty of space.
I installed the headers with some Percy's Seal-4-Good gaskets and Percy's split lock bolts. I'll have to report back on how well the bolts work, but I never had any issues with the stock bolts backing out. Just decided to give the split locks a try.
I'll be mating up the TSP true duals this afternoon, but did a test fit last night and it looks like with some minor adjustment, they'll fit just fine. Looks like no grinding or banging. Just slipping the tubes around a bit.
Overall, I'm very happy with the ARHs. I had a friend that was selling a used set of Kooks for half the price of the ARHs, but I wanted to try something new. The merge collectors are awesome and fit was perfect. I can't wait to fire the car up later today.
I like shiney metal, so I was drawn to the LPPs due to them being completely polished. The appearance will go away with heat, yet I still decided to put a little work into the ARHs and spent a few hours polishing them up. I only concentrated on the top 6" of the tubes as that's all that you'll really see from the engine bay. They came out just as nice looking as the LPPs.
Install was a piece of cake. Slid right into place. Where the LPP header was hitting, I can now fit my entire hand between the primary and the motor mount. They fit up under the car as good or better then my Pacesetters. The merge collectors actually gain some clearance between the headers and the floorboards over the Pacesetters. I never had a problem with banging the floorboards, but these have plenty of space.
I installed the headers with some Percy's Seal-4-Good gaskets and Percy's split lock bolts. I'll have to report back on how well the bolts work, but I never had any issues with the stock bolts backing out. Just decided to give the split locks a try.
I'll be mating up the TSP true duals this afternoon, but did a test fit last night and it looks like with some minor adjustment, they'll fit just fine. Looks like no grinding or banging. Just slipping the tubes around a bit.
Overall, I'm very happy with the ARHs. I had a friend that was selling a used set of Kooks for half the price of the ARHs, but I wanted to try something new. The merge collectors are awesome and fit was perfect. I can't wait to fire the car up later today.
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Great write up, thanks for sharing. ARH makes some good stuff. That's why when you ask about a good set of longtube headers, you always hear ARH mentioned, along with Kooks, and LG Pro longtubes (for the vette owners) Again thanks for sharing, its always good to hear about something that may look difficult to some, turn out to be a piece of cake. Posts like this probably encourage some people to try and do the install themselves vs saving the extra money for a shop to do it. I know I wish I had manned up and did my own install, but I was nervous about screwing something up.
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Nice write up OP....cant wait until I order my ARH's. Sounds like its not a hard task after all. Stroker, you love the sound of your exhaust and it looks like your running a LM? That makes me feel better. You dont have a borla or magnamouth? Sweet.
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Just an update, I was able to button everything up and fire the car up. It took very little work to get the TSP duals to fit. Just a little sliding of the driver's side tubes in and out to get the right angle and to clear my BMR torque arm relocation/tranny mount. I know that when I was looking into the ARHs initially, I couldn't find anyone that was using them with TSP duals. So, I'm happy to report that they fit just fine.
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LM w/cut-out. basically i have no mufflers not cats just straight pipes and beleive it or not the cutout does make a sound difference i cant hear anything on my phone or even trying to carry on a convo is pointless when the cut out is open. but when its closed it's pretty docile to me anyways but i like my **** loud.
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I now have Strano lowering springs which run about 1.25" +/- lower than stock (although I think they're closer to 1.5" lower), clearance is still great and I have no issues at all!
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I'll be honest guys, there isn't really any difference in sound between the duals with the Pacesetters and the ARHs. I might be able to get some pics this weekend. The duals could still be tweaked some more to fit a little tighter. They are dumped right now and I'm actually having them extended out the rear under the axle within the next month. When I have that done, I'll have the shop tweak the x-pipe for a little more clearance. To make them fit perfectly, I'll need a new piece of pipe bent for where they mate up to the driver's side header. The bend now is close, but if was bent just a little bit more, it will be perfect.
As you can see by my join date, I've been buying LS1 parts for quite a few years now and I must say that my experience with ARH is one of the best that I've had in dealing with any company. I would most definitely recommend them as well as CC Performance (99blancoSS) that I purchased the headers through. Both Nick @ ARH and Chris @ CCP were very easy to work with.
As you can see by my join date, I've been buying LS1 parts for quite a few years now and I must say that my experience with ARH is one of the best that I've had in dealing with any company. I would most definitely recommend them as well as CC Performance (99blancoSS) that I purchased the headers through. Both Nick @ ARH and Chris @ CCP were very easy to work with.
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No problem, thanks for the compliment
Soon enough, I just have a few things I'd like to take care of first and then I'll start searching...although, watching these C6Z prices steadily decline, I'd LOVE to just do it and go straight to a C6Z. Those cars are amazing and the potential they have is unreal
Same here, as you can see by my join date, I've also been around for quite a bit now and ARH has been the best!
...As you can see by my join date, I've been buying LS1 parts for quite a few years now and I must say that my experience with ARH is one of the best that I've had in dealing with any company. I would most definitely recommend them as well as CC Performance (99blancoSS) that I purchased the headers through. Both Nick @ ARH and Chris @ CCP were very easy to work with.
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Congrats on the install success and like the others said, get us some pics! I run a modified TSP TD setup and am going to AR this year, and am glad to hear that they will mate up.