So I just read something someone posted that made me think about something. Right now I have a China stainless shorty on the passenger side that I ceramic coated. So someone mentioned that the manifold retained more heat. Wonder if it’ll spoil even better if I put the manifold back on and I’ll get rid of the header “tinny” noise too. You know how you can hear the cam. I might even have a small leak, sounds like it anyways. Should I swap back to it? I never used the manifold with the turbo, hopefully I don’t lose power. Shouldn’t since shorties really don’t do **** anyways. Plus gto manifolds flow way better than truck manifolds. What you think?

 

You should leave it the hell alone and enjoy the car.

 

right.

 

Don’t fix what ain’t broken! Unless your just that bored

 

Lol. Yes. I’m bored. Lmao

 

Changed it anyways. Nananabooboo. Lol.

I had new density oxygen sensors for it so I figured why not. Only takes a few minutes to change on that side anyways. Can always change back if I need to. I’ll update my impressions.

 

I spoke too soon lol......

 

Well. As I was putting the manifold on I realized it’s a bit heavier than the header, so lining bolts up was more difficult. So I went grabbed a couple studs and started screwing the first one in with the manifold laid back off the head. Big mistake. I dropped the stud in the manifold port and it bounced it’s way to the abyss. Inside my crossover. So after breaking a extendable magnet tool from “trying” to bend it, I realized I had a flexible one. Well I wasted probably 20 minutes jacking with that. The studs I used were “stainless” although slightly magnetic. Evidently it just wasn’t enough. So I removed the crossover. Which I should have done in the first place. It’s just one v band at this point. Lol. Got the stud out. Whew.

now comes the hard part, little DID I KNOW....

so I bolt the manifold up. Then I go to line up the crossover. Lmao. I built it to fit the China header. So with the original exhaust I had when I put the headers on, it’s a little more forgiving so the China header lined up. Well it didn’t line up. So I pried it over. Nope. Big exhaust leak. Sliced my arm open somehow in the process. Didn’t even know till I saw blood on the concrete and under the hood. I also burnt my leg being under the car with it running to hear if the exhaust was leaking. I ended up (try to imagine this) wedging a pry bar on the exhaust to move it over and hooked a ratchet strap on it to pull the pry bar over while I tightened the nuts. Lmao. Big leak now. Flock. So I loosen it up, pry it a little by hand again and tighten it with an impact with anti seize on the threads. Whew. That got it. Thank goodness. It was all worth it too. Much much quieter under the hood. Two header tubes were leaking (I though I could hear a light tick). The tinging noise at idle is gone. Overall much quieter. Even though I fucked myself all up, it was worth it. Took it for a spin just now. Still get 10lbs in 1st, 12bs in second and 15lbs in third. Feels the same and it’s nasty weather right now. Hope I entertained you guys for a few minutes. Lol

 

Precisely why I said leave it alone. I would have put $ down that something would have gone wrong.

 

Well yea.....it always does...with me lololololol. I dont regret doing it, just took a couple hours instead of a few minutes. This car is really easy to take a header off and the crossover pipe takes less time to remove than it does to drive my car up on the ramps. but no worries, I just want less noise from under the hood and it worked out better than I thought it would. Plus, yea...I was bored. Been trying to find **** to do to keep me entertained. I did finally order my fuel system parts so i can quit farting around, when i get to 15psi it starts to lean out. So a second pump and a return system is going in it next week when my parts get here. then I can start breaking drivetrain parts again.

 

You ever decide on a meth kit?

 

I have a home made setup I put together. I just haven’t put it on yet. Right now I can run 15psi and my iat rises to 120’s and I’m throwing decent timing at it for being on pump gas. Think 13-14 degrees. I need to go ahead and install it. I have all the junk for it.

 

What did you piece together?

 

im using the washer bottle because it has a low level sensor. I made a funnel shaped fitting to go in the bottom of it.

shurflo pump
few different flow nozzles from McMaster
3/8 hose suction side
boost controller for activation
Fast acting iat sensor for timing advance
one way check valve from snow
various fittings
I’m sure I forgot a few things

 

I think I got a GTO washer reservoir as part of the stuff I got but ended up using the stock Camaro one. Lmk is you want it.

 

I don’t guess I’d mind having a spare....I wasn’t crazy about drilling mine.

 

Does this look about right?

 

Since you went ahead and changed it, I'll just go ahead and say that almost every dyno test ever conducted, the tubular header made more power with a turbo setup than the cast manifold.

 

I’ll have to look under the car tomorrow.

edit. That has to be it. The part number says it is.

 

too bad the manifolds I have just happen to be one of the best manifolds you can get. There’s an article (link below if you want to read it) where they tested “corvette” manifolds vs long tube 1 5/8 and 1 7/8 headers. The manifolds beat the 1 5/8 headers and hung with 1 7/8 headers. So I’m pretty sure they will out do my china shorties lol. The part number on the manifolds in the article is the same part number as mine. That was a gto engine in the article too btw.

https://www.hotrod.com/articles/ls1-engine-header-test/