I read a post on here sayin after this person installed some new headers that his vehicle lost a significant amount of low end torque and he lost the "seat of his pants" feeling when flooring the pedal(this was on an LS1). I have a 99 firehawk with the SLP dual/dual and do not want any power lost what so ever, so can someone tell me what style, brand, size, etc etc etc kind of headers i need to purchase that will fit and add massive gains. It is hard for me because i am new to this stuff and I have read so many posts on here that i am confused now.
thanks

 

I have SLP's longtubes. I'm very satisfied with them. The car feels awesome. I have yet to dyno. So I can't offer hard evidence. Ask for dyno sheets and stay away from "my friends car made this much hp+tq' yada yada crap. If I had to do it all over again.. I would have gone with QTP. But for now I love my SLP lt's.

 

unless you have serious tuning issues or something, you aren't going to LOSE anything with headers. There are so many to choose from. You kinda need to decide how much you want to spend.

 

Does it make a difference what they are coated with?

 

Headers are a great addtion to any LS1 IMO. For a 346" LS1 you are probably best served with 1-3/4" primary/3" collector longtube headers. I would avoid shorty headers unless you have to for emissions concerns, since they will be down on power to a longtube. Selecting which brand/style to buy depends on things like ground clearance, price, availability, installation requirements, etc. I would go with one of the Grotty knockoffs myself. Coating is a good thing IMO - it tends to keep heat in while helping prevent surface rust.

As far as losing power - I wouldn't believe it unless I saw a dyno chart to prove it and even then I would bet that tuning is needed. I found that I was running much richer after installation of longtubes. This is common, so plan on doing some tuning to maximize your gains.

 

Installing my Hooker LT's - I lost .2 and nearly 2 mph. Was very ticked off after spending the time and the money on them and loosing power/ET even with the nice air I was running in.

Came to find out that I went very rich and leaning out with a MAFT helped the problem significantly.

 

What does it mean when you say went very rich? I dont know any of this lingo, its all new to me, also what is a MAFT?

I saw on Jegs some Dynatech headers ceramic coated LTs' for about $500, would this be a good buy? And would I need to buy a Hooker Y pipe as well? (for LS1)

 

I'm not an expert either, but in the air fuel ratio, rich is more fuel than optimum for max performance.

I would think the only way to lose power (torque), is by going with too large of a tube header.

 

I'm another guy that lost power when adding headers, about 15RWHP.
The guy that sold them to me, a very respected vender swore I'd get more power.

The stock air handling through the engine is tuned or calibrated for this specific condition only, screwing with the intake and exhaust may created some unwanted results, such as less power, O2 sensor codes from cold conditions, richer chamber charge, Volumetric efficiency, etc.....

After all this, on a Naturally asperated engine, headers generally add power without tuning. If you really want to use the advantage of the additional flow, you should have the car tuned.

The cold exhaust condition manifests when you get a check engine light for insuficient switching or lean condition. We need the O2 sensors to be above 360 degrees Cel and the headers are not helping.

Rich means more fuel in the mixture. At normal driving or closed loop a richer condition will make more power and colder exhaust, however by Law we need to be close to 14.7 AFR, remember that AFR is the inverse of Fuel/Air. The headers are changing the flow relative to RPM and pressure but the computer was calibrated without them. Not everyone agrees with me but headers make the cylinder charge richer while maintaining the total exhaust reading at Stoich, 14.7AFR. (its a long story)

Cars are generally tuned rich to compensate for gas quality so in power enrichment or open loop the richer condition will not help. You need to tune for this and since the temperatures are lower from the increased flow we should be able to gain power from adding timing also.

IMHO you should only install Headers if you have a tuner that can take advantage of the new hardware, and there are very few of them around. Tuning a car for daily driving is an art.

 

personally i'd take the world of countless people on a variety of ls1 sites that have gain hp and tq over those few who seem to have lost powe r:shrug:

my LT install along with my lid and filter netted a huge SOTP difference. with the LT, custom Y, and magnaflows i didnt notice running rich at, just simply bolted the whole exhaust on and was done. no tuning and it ran fine.

now the cam was a whole different story .

and if your on a budget you cant beat pacesetters LT's coated for 339 from TSP. also from my understanding the dynotech headers dont come with collectors and thats another 200 dollars. jet hots and hookers seem to be popular and a good mid priced header. if you have the bucks to spend though i'd look at kooks or qtp stainless steel headers.