Need LT's, but which ones? ARH or Pacesetter?
 

Hey all just got my car back from the shop and Im already wanting to get a set of LT's, Ill also need some high flow cats.
So the question is just how much better, in terms of performance, is the ARH header system? Ive seen it around for around 1300-1400(headers with EGR/cats and y-pipe). I understand that this system is great but honestly how much better would it be than say this.....
http://www.texas-speed.com/shop/item...d=181&catid=45
Same deal(headers with EGR/cats and y-pipe) but LITERALLY half the price!
I understand that fittment and quality is great, but pacesetter is pretty much the header by which all others are judged, either better or worse.
So from a performance standard, which is truely better, and is it really worth the price.

i'd go with ARH cause they're stainless steel and offer the best available y-pipe. Plus they have great customer service (if needed).

go with ARH.goin that route soon on my blk one replacing my mac mids.also liked the edelbrocks on my 35th.

I just installed a set of ARH's this weekend on a friends SS, and they fit great. They really did their home work. I would absolutely recommend them. Now if we could just get them GMMG to fit; we could finish it up.

ARH are great headers but at $1300 I would just get the pacesetters.

Qtp' s are $700. Then get a custom y pipe.

What about stainless steel Hooker LT's for $525 from SpeedTweekerz??

Do you want to half-ass your car or not? That's really what it comes down to...

People on here usually fall into one of two camps: those that believe that you get what you pay for (me), and those that will sit there and talk shit about anyone who paid more than they did for something that they believe is just as good (and to those people, I say :gtfo: ).

i would say go with pacesetters!! and u can still have some money left over for other mods. i know alot of guys say stainless steel which is top quality. but ive seen some stainless steel headers in the used section and they look like shit too..


i had the money to get some kooks, QTP's, but i went with pacesetters. i have no regrets with them.

Most persuasive argument yet!
I understand you get what you pay for, What I wanted to know is what would the performance difference between the ARH setup and pacesetter would be, HP wise.

I have had Flowtech, Hooker and now ARH on my cars. Honestly the only time I have had banging issues was with the ARH hitting the kmember, nothing about 2 minutes with a torch didnt fix, but still a pain in the ass. So dont think everything is going to fit perfect everytime. I will say that the ARH are definetly the nicest headers I have seen. The ypipe is great too, no issues with that. The ypipes for the other systems looks like shit like they just slam two pipes together and crimp the hell out of the driver side right after the collector.

ARH is the better header without question, however I bought the headers only and not the catted Y. Im having CMS build the Y with the 4" exhaust they are doing.

As far as power goes ARHs have a better collector design that will give you more power, how much im not sure.

Pacesetters are great bang for the buck.

Have you asked Ryne what he thinks and if he can save you any cash on the setups? He sells ARHs and he also sells alot of teh Edelbrocks too, He deals with stuff like this every day...id ask him!

I have coated pacesetters with a tsp catted y pipe. The headers fit perfect and the y pipe fit right up to the headers.

Already have, hes putting together a list for me of all the next mods I need on monday.

if you got money to burn go ARH...but bang for the buck go Pacesetter..but whatever you do stay away from SLP lt's....they sit too gdamn low

I've been very happy with my Pacesetters. Nice quality and excellent fitment. I wouldn't say they are half-assed at all. However, if I ever get new headers for any reason, they'll definitely be ARH's.

I've only had experience with MACs, standard collector QTPs, and HVMC QTPs.

The MACs, in my case, were the biggest PITA and although probably gave me about ten RWHP with a crappy canned tune. The sounds wasn't nearly as good as LTs. Fitment was good all the way around, but they're mids' and not stainless.

The standard QTPs gave me 20+ RWHP more on the same dyno' after a tune. They truly fit like a glove and were no problem to install. Their Y-pipe was a PITA, mostly because of my SLP SFCs, but I worked it out.

I eventually came up with QTP HVMCs and were a little more difficult to install but required trimming the crossmember, which I didn't like doing. I modified the Y-pipe and now have no problem with it. Changing to these LTs, and with another dyno' tune, on the same dyno' with the same tuner (who only sells Kooks - just trying to show there's no way he'd try to purposely make these LTs make more power than Kooks) and got another 12+ RWHP over the regular QTPs.

My point is I think you should consider the future of this car with you. If you're going to keep it a long time, consider the ARHs if you have the money. I think their design and Y-pipe will flow better (maybe only in the order of UP TO 10 RWHP) than say Pacesetters, but it won't be too much. They'll last longer, look better longer, and fit at least just as good, but just twice as much. If you don't plan on keeping the car long, go with the Pacesetters. Plenty of people have found them to be a great value and perform nearly as good as LTs with HVMCs.

As far as SLP goes, I believe they just finished a redesign of their LTs, so they don't hang as low as they used to. Again, I haven't had experience with either of these three LTs I just mentioned, just from what I've observed and heard through people I know.

Good luck.

got my pacesetter from texas speed with or-y like like them alot nice power gain just got to stop the slight bang on the floor board when I really get on it, it only does it like if you take off hard from a dead stop or maybe like if you are at like 20-30 miles and then floor it

Id do pacesetter save some money

I lovew my ARH, there the best out there and worth the money for sure.