5LiterBeater

Headers and lowering your car. Is it a drag?????
Yea I know stupid pun, but I had to get someone's attention. Just trying to see who has what headers, which ones seem to be the best bang for the buck, and more importantly which ones have ground clearance issues.

Also I want to find out if anyone has problems with clearance on their high flow y pipes (preferrably ones with high flow cats) I don't want the smell of ORP's or the rasp.

I have a Corsa cat-back and still want that awesome sound without the wheezing of ORP's.

One more question (Geez you would think I was freakin Alex Trebek) I was looking for lowering springs and Eibach Pro-kits I have heard "settle" and I don't want more than 1 and 1/4 inch lowering. I was looking at the BMR springs the 1" ones.

The main point is I don't want to drag or scratch up my headers and y pipe over every little thing in the road. Can someone please.......................

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!

5LiterBeater

Also what shocks would you recommend?? My car is a daily driver, and I want a semi-comfortable ride with good performance. I have heard that the stock shocks suck terribly once the car has been lowered. And I have also heard that the Hal shocks are horrible for daily driving but great for the strip, and again horrible for autocross type racing. Thanks all for your help. Lord knows I need it.

Darkhalf

iTrader: (1)

I'm planning on lowering my car next spring with the BMR springs and Bilstein shocks with the front 2 revalved from Sam Strano.
I thought about the Eibach pro-kit but I think it is probably too much of a drop. I wanted something between the SLP Eibach springs and the Eibach Pro-kit and I think BMR is the answer.

With my LT/y-pipe/high flow cat combo I will still probably have around 4" of clearance from the lowest part to the ground when I lower it.
If you are interested in the BMR springs Mike at Stealthperformance is having a special on them really cheap, however they are on Backorder and should be shipping out by the end of the month.

FstBlkz28

iTrader: (13)

HEADERS: I think that in terms of ground clearance the top two choices are FLP and Hooker's. People like the FLP's because they come with a complete kit, where as the Hookers you have to peice your own kit together. Between these two, the Hookers have better ground clearance because the collectors are slip fit, meaning they have no flanges to lower the ground clearance even more. I'm going with the Hookers, a Mufflex Y pipe, and 2 carsound Hi flow cats through corsa just as you will be doing. I should have the setup in a month, and i can't wait to hear it. YOu could have a custom Y made for maximum clearance also.

LOWERING SPRINGS: As far as lowering it, my car is lowered with G2 spings...about 1.5" drop all the way around. I've researched the hookers and i dont think i'll have any scraping problems with the combo. However if you want to be on the SAFE side, you could go with some BMR springs, which only drop the car 1".

Hope that helps.

<small>[ November 14, 2002, 12:47 AM: Message edited by: Ballistic Z ]</small>

5LiterBeater

Thanks for the help, but I could definately use more advice on this matter from anyone who has some. Thanks again. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Confused]" src="images/icons/confused.gif" /> <img border="0" title="" alt="[Eek!]" src="gr_eek2.gif" /> <img border="0" alt="[Banging Head]" title="" src="graemlins/gr_banghead.gif" />

Dope

iTrader: (2)

I have FLPs and SLP Eibachs/bilsteins. About 1" drop. I've scraped the flange on both side a few times in the past 6 months or so, always on some nasty speed bumps (not regular size ones, speed mountains, the ones where you have the front and rear tires on the speed bump at the same time) and in REALLY bad construction zones (where they totally remove the pavement, I scraped it twice before). Otherwise they have been fine.

I am not willing to lower my car another tenth of an inch. I haven't scraped in a while. Never scraped the actual header or y-pipe btw, just that flange that hangs down another .25" from the pipes. Hookers might be better maybe, they are slip fit but I don't know if they hang any lower than FLPs. Would be hard, as my FLPs required some floorpan banging to make them clear. Can't get much higher than that.

I wouldn't go lower than a Prokit drop (1.5") for any kind of daily driving application, unless yer crazy, or have taller tires, or something like that. No fun hearing those babies scrape, and it's embarassing if you have a girl in the car, for example. "Oh don't worry about that, that horrible grinding noise is just my exhaust scraping on the speed bump"

Dope

Elite_Hot_Rod

I gotta ring in here,

I lowered my T/A with the Eibach pro kit,I also have the FLP LTs and the HAL shocks. You will have to have 17" wheels or the header clamps will scrape the ground. You can adjust the HALs making the firm enough so as not to scrape. I don't know who told you the HAls aren't good on the street but they don't know what they are talking about.With the adjustability feature you can make them great for the street and great for the track.

Mark

NX†C

well i guess i can provide some quick insight.
currently im running an eibach pro-kit with deCarbons, however once the switch is made, hals will take their place. my car was lowered 1.15" up front and 1.3" around back. it sits perfectly(period). as for the headers its running stepped dynatechs (1 7/8") with full 1 7/8" to 3" merge collectors and through a full 3" ORY...so yes i have a good 3.5" of clearance which is low. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Eek!]" src="gr_eek2.gif" />

now for scraping: avoid steep inclines, speed bumps that look like they will become snow capped in colder weather, potholes that rival excessive amounts of below sea level, and anything that just looks plain disgusting. do these and scraping will not occur. another option is just put on the 18" street wheels/tires <img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="gr_grin.gif" /> <img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="gr_grin.gif" />

5LiterBeater

Luckily I already have 18x9.5 ZO6 wheels. They have 265/35's on them so I don't know if that helps. I was thinking of when I do replace the tires getting 275/40 18's or 275/35's something like that. The 265 just seem a little thin for the rear. What about when you are driving down the interstate (at the speed limit of course <img border="0" alt="[bullshit]" title="" src="graemlins/gr_bs.gif" /> ) you know how sometimes the road changes and you get that floating feeling as you go over? Well when you come back down when your shocks compress are your headers scraping on that?? Is it a 4th of July show out the back of your car?

Dope

iTrader: (2)

Wheel size doesn't matter one bit as far as ground clearance or header scraping goes. I have no idea where that idea came from. Overall tire diamter will matter though. If you have taller than stock tires, obviously you will gain ground clearance. The factory 16" and 17" setups are both the same height. So are the C6 and Z06 setups too (or close to it anyway).

I've never scraped under any actual driving conditions. Just the speed bumps and construction zones (1mph) type deals, as previously mentioned. I have at least 4" of clearance at the lowest point. It would be very hard to scrape the headers on the highway unless you drove off of it or something. Maybe if you had those SLP headers too, heh (ps - bad idea).

Dope

Sears

Rolling on prokit springs here with FLPs for about 2 years and have never scraped the headers. However I did scrape them when I was stock ride height, huge speedbump and I was careless. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Embarrassed]" src="gr_emb.gif" />

FLPs are the way to go for lowered cars. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="gr_grin.gif" />

Justin