zooterboy

I have a quick question. How much Hp do you think the stock Headers can handle? Do you think 400hp?

Do the LS6 cars have totlay different headers stk?
They make 400hp.

I have a 01 Camaro SS with a 6 spd and stk 3.42 gears. Would you spend 800.00 on new headers or 3.73 gears?

I'm going to do other things soon, Just looking to used my money wisely. I have read all the other wonderful articles on here and I have become somewhat confused and about certain things to do first. I have ideas but my wallet cannot keep up. Any help or suggestions would be great.

radz282003

iTrader: (1)

My understanding is the 00-02 cars have better manifolds. There are those that say anything less than at least mid-lengths are a waste of money, on these cars. I think you should consider how you are going to use this car, and what, if any emissions regulations you have to consider. Anything more than shorties in Cali, and NY, among other states, is not legal, because it changes the position of the converters. If you plan on lowering the car, clearance may be an issue, with the headers, y-pipe, or both. If you aren' t planning on a cam or power adder you may consider just saving the potential headaches of the headers and invest elsewhere in the suspension, and make the car hook.

zooterboy

I live in Indiana so emission are not a problem, I have a set of Ls6 Heads that I would like to install. I have read that there are better heads out there. Granted there is better everything out there. My mom works at a Chevy dealer and can get factory parts at a little over cost. Bonus for me. I was given a set of LS6 heads. I already have a cam picked out. A Comp custom 224/224 .581/581. 112 Lsa. I would like to get about 400hp out of my car. I have already go the Wisper lid, smooth bellow, asp underdrive pulley, pushrods, wisper 80mm Maf body. I'm going to have my thorttle body ported and polished and thinking about Harland Sharp 1.8 roller rockers.

This put my at my limit for money. I have been told the factory headers can handle all this with a little cleaning of the mounting flange for the d shaped ports on the LS6 heads. I will have a few dollars left, I'd like to hold on to those for the little things that add up.

Am I on the right track or am I a de-railed train?

blkZ28spt

Stock is manifolds, not headers.

You can potentially make close to 400 rwhp on stock manifolds, but it will take a properly setup and tuned heads/cam package intended to do just that.

Search and read up on Patrick G's car. He, at one point, made 396 rwhp on stock manifolds/cats with AFR heads and Thunder's CheaTR cam and it should have passed emissions anywhere. It also drove basically like stock.

You could still, however, make quite a bit more power with longtubes and a little larger of a cam.

gwj

[QUOTE=zooterboy]
I have a 01 Camaro SS with a 6 spd and stk 3.42 gears. Would you spend 800.00 on new headers or 3.73 gears?

QUOTE]

What are your goals? To right now run some better times at the track? Probably get the gears.

If your goal is HP, and you definitely plan more mods in the future, I would go with the headers.

zooterboy

Would it be worth my time to do the things I have planed already?
I mean putting the LS6 heads with the cam with stk Manifolds? In Indiana where I live we don't have the best roads, My drive way is 1/4 mile long gravel. I don't want to loose any more ground clearance. I'm going to check into Patrick G's car.

I'm looking to reduce my 1/4 mile times. We have a lot of fast 4 and 6 cylinder cars around that are pretty fast and I can't let them out run my good old fuel drinkin GM product.

I have seen a lot written about changing gears and Torque Converters in Auto's but not much on 6 spds. I did't know if 3.73 in a 6 spd would be overkill.

gwj

If you want quick bang for the buck in the 1/4, then maybe the gears would be your best bet. Better get some sticky tires, though, and you may want to do some suspension mods to take full advantage of the gears.
But there would be no harm in installing the heads & cam with stock manifolds.
Decent headers aren't going to sacrifice much clearance-I have a 1/4 mile long grass/dirt driveway myself that is heavily rutted.
You can throw about anything on your car - gotta love these cars- but if you have a specific goal you are going to dump some money into, you need to formulate a plan for mods that will compliment each other to reach your goal.
The early things I did were subframe connectors and STB, as I wanted to tighten up the car (but I think all F bods need these anyway).
Read this board and separate the wheat from the chaff, there's a lot of info here, and make a plan that your wallet will handle.
Now where did my money go........

zooterboy

I have been talking to Patrick G. He has given me some great advise. I'm not going to do the roller rockers now. So thats 379.99 saved for headers. Only 400.00 more to go! ( saying in the background to wife) Honey you need a 2nd job!

I have read the kook? (sp) are the best?

Louie83

iTrader: (3)

Your car needs to breath. I STRONGLY recommend getting Longtube headers before heads and a cam. You will get a lot more out of your heads and cam if your car can breath. Kooks if you want the best, coated Pacesetters if you don't want to spend that much on headers. Cut-outs are also a good idea if you want to reduce those 1/4 times.

LS6 head are nice, but you can find better ones out there. Just be sure to get your LT headers before you do your cam and heads. And 3.73 gears are most certainly NOT overkill for the track. Many people opt for 4.10's instead, which will hurt your gas mileage but definitely help out your 1/4 times.

zooterboy

How much to coated pacesetters run? Am I going to have to worry about getting sims for the rear 02's? Do I need a Y-pipe also? I've saved some $$$ on not buying Roller rockers, I can look into Headers now.

I love my computer, I has the window to knowledge..

zooterboy

Whats wrong with the Mid tube header from Pace setter. Do you get any Hp increase? Or is it wasting money? Will they Flow better than stk?

I'm sorry about all the questions. I'm about done with my parts list though and ready to start working on my Tire Smokin, Gas Guzzling, Speeding Ticket Gettin Hot Rod. That my wife only let me drive on Weekends...

blkZ28spt

I wouldn't worry much abour ground clearance. A gravel driveway is no big deal. I have Jet-Hot longtubes, the sport appearance ground effects kit, BMR boxed subframe connectors and a TCI +2 quart transmission pan. All that and I still have plenty of ground clearance for normal driving. I have driven over a couple curbs to access a certain parking lot on gameday when they close one street down, and I worked on a farm over the summer where I would drive it out to the field(s) we were in and it had no problems going 20-30 mph around the bumpy gravel/grass around the farm.

cyphur

iTrader: (10)

If you want to save some money, get the coated long tube headers from Pacesetters. Yes, Kooks are the best, but by all means, either brand, GET LONG TUBES!!

Patrick is a smart guy, very nice fella, take his advice to heart, he knows what he's talkin about. Skip the rockers. Just go for headers with the heads and cam, put the lid and ported throttle body on, get the gears put in, and a good tune. She should be good to go.

300bhp/ton

I love it when people ask this kind of thing.

Headers are a non moving non stressed item. Espeically the big ol cast iron lumps used as stock. It would take more than a highly tuned engine to brake them.

Now if you're talking about HP output that's slightly different to "how much they can handle".

If you wanted you could run a forged 408 with every bolt on NOS and a blower and push 1500+bhp. Stock headers would still work. They certainly would not be ideal however.

Personally if you're going supercharger then a catback + blower will get some good numbers even with stock headers (420-440rwhp) so in manys ways you can argue that it is enough for your purpose.

HOWEVER

Headeds are a good modification as they not only increase BHP, but the will improve the throttle response of the engine too. And as a bonus it will make the car sound different.

On an Fbody I now of no good reason not to get some long tube headers.