shepss217

iTrader: (5)

yeah it starts with the headers and next thing you know your dumping 5k into a forged shortblock lol

zzcamaro00

guitar is right, headers are not just headers. there is a science to it. yea you get some chinese headers and see a gain. but when your putting some serious power down. everything you do to the engine, including headers, becomes a science. everything from stepped runners to collectors will have an effect on the engines performance.

besides ebay headers are cheap, hence cheap inferior metal. so if that engine moves around enough, prepare to have your primaries welded back to the flanges.

slow ride 02

$159.00! Damn thats cheap!

zacht

iTrader: (18)

true....but for a cheap easy bolt on...ebay headers are pretty bad ***...and they arent super grade stainless or nothing...but the welds on mine (and many others) look great and i havent had any problems with them...matter fact, mine look better than many name brand mild steel headers for that fact...

i wouldnt suggest a 1000 dollar set of headers to someone who wants a few more ponies and just a few bolt ons...they would immediately get tired of dumping money into a LS1 car...start cheap...see what they can do...then go to really modding it...

once again...not knocking your opinion here...and yes your right when it comes to serious power and the overall parts on it...

other side...what are you really giving up on a set of ebay headers vs. a name brand 1 3/4 longtube? 5hp??? i havent seen many comparions of same size headers verses each other....but the difference in price means a lot of cool other parts when starting out...
example...1000 bucks...

early ls1 fbody (98)...
guy 1...arh headers and y pipe...money spent...20-30 to the tires...
guy 2 ebay headers, y pipe, ls6 intake, udp, possibly tune...way more power...

zzcamaro00

TSP headers are 400 and change. For me its quality over quantity

zacht

iTrader: (18)

with the y theyre 550 plus shipping...and yeah thats a good price...i think i got my ebay headers used and like 250 to my door...with the y...ill someday upgrade to the 1 7/8 from tsp...they make awesome stuff, got plenty of their parts on my car...

ds98formula

iTrader: (3)

Have you seen that happen? Have had mine on for three years only problem I had was air tube breaking off but that happens on high end ones too.

zzcamaro00

Ive seen it recently with a GTO 5.7 it had prothane mounts. Cracked at the flange all 4 primaries.

redbird555

iTrader: (14)

No offense but this all a bad comparison. I have nothing against ebay headers but I have seen the quality of them range from all over the place, some fit like a glove and don't hit anything. Some require major cutting to get them to fit. Not to say this doesnt happen with some of the more budget brands but it seems to happen more frequently with the ebay ones. I have bbk's on my car currently and they fit great and made good power. Now I just bought a set of ARH's to replace them as they are becoming rusted after 4 years. There's simply no comparison, looking at the ,merge collector and velocity spike on the arh's I have no problem seeing the dyno gains people post when switching from regular headers to the better brands. The quality of the arh's is light years ahead of my bbk's and the pacestters we put on my buddy's car.

For the budget minded person the ebay headers are a great way to go but I'd rather pay the extra money, get a better header that will make more power, fit better and best of all put some money into a fellow American's wallet.

Also I'd check the ebay headers before putting them in I have seen some advertised as 1-3/4 but come in and the whole tube only measures 1-5/8, so def not a true 1-3/4 primary.

ds98formula

iTrader: (3)

I am not sayin Ebay headers are the best or anything like that. They are a nice budget friendly mod and make good power.

When I was researching them before I bought them I could not find many threads at all about extensive work to get them to fit. Has everyone bringing up the problem even worked with them directly? Not being an azz just want to know if these are actually experances or the "Ebay headers are bad" brain wash. zzcamaro00 thats crazy about the headers on the gto. but that is first and only time I have heard anything like that about them so to tell people be prepaired to have it happen is a little over the top.

AmarilloWS6

iTrader: (3)

Like I said about a year and a half ago when I started this thread, I'm just a college student who loves cars, my budget's of course lower than most because colleges like to shaft students lol. If I could have afforded some ARH's or Kooks you bet I would have bought them, but these headers worked just fine for my application and I put out some pretty good numbers with them. I now own a c5 FRC after selling my WS6 (which had poly mm's and tranny mount and still no busted collectors) and put JBA long tubes on it (the cheapest name brand long tubes for the c5) as well as my friends c5 z06 and they're still doing just fine on both of our cars. In fact, he just put down 430rwhp after a forged bottom end build and mild cam. I don't do these huge engine builds where the kind of collectors or size of the primaries is going to make or break my build, so I just go with whatever headers I can find that are stainless and longtubes for a good deal.

zacht

iTrader: (18)

not sure...you didnt really hit the point of why that isnt a fair comparison...then you bring in some other headers that you say "im replacing them with arh headers because theyre rusting" not sure what your getting at here...im not really comparing these ebay headers to the higher end components....of course they probably looked at a picture of arh headers and said "we can build that".....and they dont all fit right...on the other hand...idk who is against taking a grinder to their stock k-member to get a pair of headers to fit.....i see nothing wrong with that....i dont expect every aftermarket component to fit right...

redbird555

iTrader: (14)

It seemed to me that you were saying that they ebay header are just as good as some of the top header brands, or at least that the gains from quality headers are negligible compared to the ebay ones. I wasn't really making a point with my BBK's? I liked them and they served their purpose but after I bought ARH's I can simply see why people dont put them in the same league...

Simply because they aren't.i have seen and held ebay headers and the quality difference is more than noticeable. I also said how I could clearly see the merge collector and velocity spike on some of the better headers would make more power. My point was that you were comparing cost of the better headers to ebay headers and SEEMED to be saying they were the same product more or less which they are not. Sorry if I took that the wrong way.

As far as cutting goes I have installed many different ls1 headers, pacesetters, bbks, kooks and the original Grotoyohan's and the only one that needed cutting were the grots because the k-member had been tweaked in an accident. But even those once installed didn't come close to the k member.

s346k

iTrader: (4)

my 1 7/8 hooker super comps were almost touching the k after install, so i ground a bit just for clearance. guess i better throw them out and go buy a $1200 set of headers.

zacht

iTrader: (18)

yeah, i understand where you're coming from. I'm not throwing them in the same league with big name headers. If i could afford a set of arh headers I would have some, my main part of the argument is price....and price vs. gains....for instance...say someone just starting to do some bolt ons....ill talk intakes...i would suggest an LS6 intake before a fast...due to the fact the ls6 would be cheaper and get good gains...vs. lots of money for the fast, but it will have better gains...a lot of other things go in there too as far as future stuff...

i'm in no way comparing them to a higher quality header...merely stating the price makes them an awesome buy...

Full-Force

iTrader: (11)

do u know where tsp headers are made?

zzcamaro00

i have a feeling your about to tell me.......

Full-Force

iTrader: (11)

ask them lmao

94 White T/A

China, same place everyone probably gets their material from... Although id rather buy U.S. made, $800 is a lot of money

redbird555

iTrader: (14)

Sadly thats true a lot of the budget header companies probably do. Both kooks and arh get their steel locally from where they are. Kook's is even right out back of their shop. When I was shopping around this time to replace my BBK's I wanted 1-7/8" header which narrowed my options down. The tsp's were going to be right around 600 with shipping and the arh's or kooks were 800. I have never seen someone have to remove their mount with kooks or arh's as I have seen with tsp's.

Again no offense to them as they do make a good product. But for the 200 I would rather not remove my MM and put the money into American industry rather than just a business mans pocket.

If someone has a budget the tsp or ebay headers are a great buy. If they want to step up to something better there's always the option or the better brands