Shorty Headers
I've had both on my c5s. Longtubes are great.
I currently have short tubes on my car. Stock heads I make 421 whp.395 torque. A very sharp and flat curve too. I have gutted cats and straight exhaust. C5s also have true duals. Alot of long tubes have cat eliminators. Straight pieces like my LG longtunes. They also eliminate pup cts. You can see some gains and good torque with shorties and gutted cats. But if your going to go big with the motor, like 500whp and up, you'll really need longtubes.
Bottom line, shoties get a bad rap because like my 01 c5 I still have 4 cats after the headers. Longtubes would eliminate 2 or 4 of these cats depending on you choice of offroad pipe. Or do what I did. Shorties and gutted all 4 cats. I will switch over to lngtubes thought when i change my heads and go for 500 whp
I currently have short tubes on my car. Stock heads I make 421 whp.395 torque. A very sharp and flat curve too. I have gutted cats and straight exhaust. C5s also have true duals. Alot of long tubes have cat eliminators. Straight pieces like my LG longtunes. They also eliminate pup cts. You can see some gains and good torque with shorties and gutted cats. But if your going to go big with the motor, like 500whp and up, you'll really need longtubes.
Bottom line, shoties get a bad rap because like my 01 c5 I still have 4 cats after the headers. Longtubes would eliminate 2 or 4 of these cats depending on you choice of offroad pipe. Or do what I did. Shorties and gutted all 4 cats. I will switch over to lngtubes thought when i change my heads and go for 500 whp
Well I have stock exhaust now and it is fine. I was looking at a pair of shorties (I am not going to purchase long tubes) pretty cheap and was wondering if it was worth it to just switch the manifolds. I am perfectly fine with the HP I have now, it's just the shorties are cheap.
TECH Enthusiast
Joined: Apr 2009
Posts: 531
Likes: 0
From: Pocatello Idaho
I'm probably going to get flamed for this, but I picked up a set of shorties on ebay for 88ish bucks and free shipping. Well worth the cheap price if you ask me. Don't know the brand they are, but they have held up now for a couple years.
Staging Lane
Joined: Jun 2012
Posts: 63
Likes: 0
From: Hutto / Round Rock, TX
I have the bbk shorties because they came on the car. I'm probably giving up some power to a set of long tubes but I figure it's better than stock and I don't have any ground clearance issues either.
Lots of replies here, maybe some of the real tuners and experts can us how much power us shorty users are leaving on the table??? Some of us actually purchased our cars with shorties and with the previous owner taking the big hit in $$$ with the high cost. How much and where will i see my gain if i were to install TSP lt/catted y-pipe system? I really like the way the car runs and performs now with an LS6 crate, JBA shorties, Magnaflow direct fit cats, Magnafow cat back, SLP flow-pac and a ported tb. The car is an A4 and idles at an even 500rpm while in gear. It still wants to push through the breaks even at that rpm. Sorry for the long gust of wind here....
Both work but not in the same place. The pressure waves (think sound) travel up and down the pipe. The time it takes is longer on a long tube than a short one.The length of the primaries determine at what "frequency" the pressure waves help with scavenging. Just like a pipe organ long tubes play a low note and the shorter ones play a high note. LTs help more in the mid RPM band were we use it most. Shorties are a bit more peaky and work at high RPM.
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Staging Lane
Joined: Jun 2012
Posts: 63
Likes: 0
From: Hutto / Round Rock, TX
I went from Pacesetter mid length to Pacesetter long tubes on a HEMI motor (very similar to LS1) and picked up hp/tq everywhere but the numbers were not huge. I will look on my old laptop and see if I still have those old dyno runs on it. If memory is correct it was 5 to 15 or 20 across the curve, with 5 down low and maybe 20 at the higher RPMS.
I am growing to dislike the exhaust set up I have currently and may swap from my shorty headers to long tubes but at the same time I will be also changing to a better Y and a different cat back so the results will not be really precise.
Current set up is BBK shorty to stock Y to SLP LM1. I am thinking new set up will be American Racing or Kooks headers to their Y to Magnaflow cat back.
If the shop that does the install wants to test just the headers and Y change with the same cat back I am in.
I am growing to dislike the exhaust set up I have currently and may swap from my shorty headers to long tubes but at the same time I will be also changing to a better Y and a different cat back so the results will not be really precise.
Current set up is BBK shorty to stock Y to SLP LM1. I am thinking new set up will be American Racing or Kooks headers to their Y to Magnaflow cat back.
If the shop that does the install wants to test just the headers and Y change with the same cat back I am in.
