elderon

Hey all. I just wanted to post my review of the Flowtech Long Tube headers and offroad y pipe. First I'd like to thank Shaun (Blue2002SS) for helping me do this. Couldn't have done it without his help! Thanks man. Anyways I would rate the quality of the headers around the B range (As in school grading). Based on what I have seen, read, and heard. The welding wasn't pefect on a some of the parts, a tad extra 'slag' here and there, but I wasn't too concerened about that. If I was building a show car I probably would have gone with a more premium brand. These things are an absolute bargain though for what I paid. ($406 shipped for coated headers and uncoated y pipe) If anyone is interested in where I got these so cheap let me know.
Everything pretty much was straightforward and what you would expect. The bolts on the stock y pipe were pretty rusty and broke (dosen't hurt anything though), some of the bolts on the engine holding the manifolds are were a REAL pain to get at. What will vary from car to car I believe is some of the things you have to remove to get the headers in. With the Flowtechs, we had to remove the steering shaft, some thingamabob near the oil filter, and some heat shielding. The only real problem we had was the header bolts. The stock bolts AND the new bolts did not want to thread in far enough on about 1/2 of them. We wasted 4 hours playing around with that - including filing some of the header bolt holds in case it was a problem with them not lining up correctly. The solution we used was going with shorter bolts. We went to NAPA the next day and got some and everything else fell into place after that. We did have to slightly bend the y pipe to make it line up correctly - it was off about 1/2 inch. Nothing a mallet and some heat can't fix.
For you convertible owners there will be an issue with the X brace underneath. The aftermarket Y pipe is about 1.5 inches lower and the brace will not go back on without using some spacers or something to compensate. My solution was to leave it off - it only weighs about 3 lbs and really made very very little difference in the handling of the car. O yeah also we ditched my EGR, and AIR systems and some heat shielding. Car probably lost about 40-45 lbs of weight which is always a good thing. Also I came up with a creative way to plug up the AIR provisions on the headers. Just thread the holes and screw a bolt into them! (Assuming you don't have block off plates). The Flowtechs did come with a blockoff plate for the EGR however. We had to fab something up to block off the EGR in the intake manifold. I tried cutting a thin peice of sheetmetal but it was not nearly air-tight enough. Shaun figured we could just put the original hose/plug back in and cut it and crimp it. SO yeah it looks GHETTO now, but it does the trick until I find something more visually appealling
Anyways car is quite loud now. Long Tubes, No cats, and Loudmouth sounds pretty much like a cutout! Not sure if I will change it or not. I kinda like it. Good news is at cruising speeds the car is no louder than before and actually the old droning i used to have at highway speeds is GONE! Under accelleration the car is downright offensive hehe. The exhaust tone change to a strange tone around 2500 rpms. But then mellows out again shortly after that. When flooring the car it sounds amazing. Like open headers or something. Definately makes different sounds depending on what you are doing. I love it!
As far as how much I have gained from it, I'm not sure. Shauns car runs 12.5's and we did a couple of street races and I was walking him - but we only raced up to about 60 mph or so. I let him take my car for a ride and now he wants a torque converter! It really does make a difference. He might pull on me at the higher speeds though. We are going to hit the track as soon as we can and find out. Anyways if anyone has any questions about the install or anything feel free to ask me. I learned ALOT doing this. Great experience overall.

AdamSS

iTrader: (3)

How is the quality of Flowtech headers, as far as thickness goes ? I heard that they bend easilty when you tighten the bolts...Is that true ?
I must say Flowtechs are a steal, but I'm not convinced that they will last for too long...

elderon

I'd say the thickness seemed fine. Granted I'm no expert. The thickness where it bolted to the engine was somewhere between 1/4 inch and 3/8 inch wide if that's what you are asking. They did not bend at all during any of the install or when tightening bolts. The coating seemed to hold up well with all the banging and sliding we did to them too. Time will tell how well they hold up though.

AdamSS

iTrader: (3)

Thanks !

Blue2002SS

iTrader: (13)

I would say the quality on the headers was above average! they looked similar to my FLP's and they fit good. If I had to do it over again I would go with flowtechs headers instead of the FLP's and save $900.

hey Al, we should hit the track on Wednesday the 19th they have a test and tune, I would have to call into work but let me know if your up for it. I need to burn my bald Nitto RII's off so i can get some Nitto R's and get some traction.

elderon

Going to the track tonight. I will post my new times. See what kind of gains I got.