Pewter99T/A

i currently have mac mids and ORY. based off my mods listed in sig as well as curr RWHP numbers, what kind of gain could i expect over current numbers from Macs? dont get me wrong, the Macs sounds great, and pack a punch for what i paid for em. But im wondering if some QTP's/Kooks/SLP's wont stout up that 368 i put down.....advice needed. worth the upgrade or not? thanks.

96lt1m6

iTrader: (31)

from all i have seen mids or shorties on an Ls1 dont do very much compared to Lts especially with the cam you have in sig,i bet you will pick up 3 or more tenths with Lts in fact you can look up my buddy(mike m)use search function and you will find his posts about his header discovery QTP,kooks and TTS are the way to go on LS1s.

destroyerSS

iTrader: (2)

i went through this exact senario I switched to Kooks 1 3/4- 1 7/8 stepped headers from my Ported and ball flange removed Mac's. This was on my old motor with a 231/237 cam and a set of AS 5.3 stage 2.5 heads. I think my peak gain was 1 hp but i did gain around 16 hp lower in the powerband and also gained some torque. I also have to say that i did not have a great catback at the time which probably didn't help my peak #'s!! would i do it again YES The Kooks are a very nice header and i still use them on my 408. Also the kooks will sound much better than your mac's.

Pewter99T/A

yes im hearing alot of good things about the kooks. any chance i can get to 380 from where im at now by upgrading to kooks/slp/qtp, etc?

CHRISPY

From my experience you will pick up next to nothing at peak and will gain a bit at lower rpms. Through the 4000-6500rpm range you might gain 2-4RWHP. Not worth the cost unless your MACs are getting rusty and you need to replace them.

I ran 122.9mph through MACs NA with stage 1 heads/cam and ran 124.7mph with a powerdyne blower through MACs with bone stock motor. Those were with stock ball flanges etc etc.

Ground clearance with the MACs is awesome too. You will miss the ground clearance with LTs especially if you are lowered.

Better places to spend your money for HP imo

JNorris

iTrader: (4)

I agree with CHRISPY

Although I am very happy with my Edelbrock 1-3/4 stepped to 1-7/8 LT headers the gains from them verses the MACs were not worth it unless you are looking for every bit of HP/ET from your setup.

Looking at your setup info I think I would bolt on a pair of TEA budget heads for around ~$1000 before I spent $800+ on a set of high end headers. You will get a lot more HP per dollar spent.


John

01MMMZ28

At 1st I wasn't going to do the switch but will be swapping out soon. I am changing over to LT's and a TSP true duel set up, seen the results 1st hand on the dyno from my friends SS, he picked up A LOT of torque( 21 ft lbs) and just a few HP(8 rwhp).

lilbuddy1587

iTrader: (1)

You'd be better off with getting a tune than anything. A tune is a whole lot cheaper than LT's. Plus you get the added benefit of better driveability, more power under the curve, solid A/F ratio, etc.

WS6FirebirdTA00

iTrader: (33)

dont waste money on headers, get a tune and get that thing at the power level it should be, that power is low and the tune is what is hurting you, headers will only make the tune worse

Pewter99T/A

I appreciate everyones advice...and i realize the power is a bit low. This is where I agree with most of you that a tune is in order. What does the average tune cost?

Maybe a solid tune and swap heads?

Hardtop

iTrader: (3)

My car in sig ran these times with ported Macs, and a Flowmaster collector for the y-pipe. Borla cat back.

Bruce

Ojustracing

iTrader: (4)

Well we shall see hopefully this week what the difference reallly is on my car. I had unmodified mac and went to pacecetter combo. I felt the ball flanges and the y were hurting the power a bit. I wont know until I dyno/retune. I will let everyone.

PS I did have to port the pacesetter y at the merge. I hope they all dont come that way. That is BS.. If everyone looks like what I saw and is installed without any work you are leaving a bunch on the table.

John

Pewter99T/A

appreciate the advice. next up: tune

1slowls1

iTrader: (1)

About $500

gillbot

iTrader: (27)

+1

I made 399RWHP through my macs. IMHO, they are VERY underrated.

Ojustracing

iTrader: (4)

I made 398rwhp also. but what surprised me was the torque 409 . I like the ground clearance too. I just needed to try the LT and go from there.

+2

John

gillbot

iTrader: (27)

Yeah, I've been thinking about throwing some LT's on just to see what the down low difference would be but I'd hate to lose the ground clearance I have!

Ojustracing

iTrader: (4)

I would say I lost about 3/4 to 1 inch max. I thought it was going to be more, but it is totaly workable in my car and Im lowered 1.5 inches for road racing. The y pipe is the lowest part of the car. But even then, from the side you can barley tell that I have anything done to it. I will say the car pull way better on the top. My tuner struggled to get 400hp, but he came up with a killer torque band with 350ftlbs available at 2600rpm. Will see if what he Lt do for the Torgue number and Hp number. Later John

keliente

iTrader: (22)

I'm bumping an old thread, but thought that would be better than starting a new one on the same subject.

First off what do ball flanges have to do with power? I read a couple posts that said they hurt power but that doesn't seem right to me. I like the idea of the ball flanges because I had so many exhaust leaks and problems with the slip-fit pacesetters, it was a headache.

I have already seen what LT's and ORY can do on a past car of mine, want to try the mac midlengths with cats now...Are there any LT's you can use cats with? Thinking back, it doesn't seem like there is any place to stick a cat on that little ORY...

chino_man279

iTrader: (7)

Already getting out the mods on the new car huh? Maybe you can move that fan in your intake to the end of a y-pipe. Mad horsepower to be had there...lol.

You can run cats in a Y-pipe with the Kooks' headers. I've never had problems with leaks when using stainless band clamps. I do install a ring of RTV before installing all the clamps though. On the other hand I do like the ball flanges on my pacesetter's that are on my V6. Ball flanges have basically infinite adjustment capability...up, down, left, right, etc....