SouthernRex

I was told by my exhaust guy that I should "get shorty headers" because longtubes would scrape on the ground a lot. I really don't want shorty headers. I went there to ask if he would delete the cat with a pipe, and he said he can't unless we do something about the one on the manifold... which is when I told him I was going to get longtube eventually and he told me it was a really bad idea.

Shorty sounds like a waste of money, especially since I plan on getting a FAST 90mm and such on the intake side. I don't want to restrict my exhaust, and I want LOUD!

Aaron at SDPC

That is definitely not the case unless your car has been lowered a lot. Even then you just need to pay attention to your surroundings and take your time going over things like speed bumps. In my opinion the gains with a shorty header are not worth the cost or labor involved. Go long-tubes or leave the factory manifolds on the car.

SouthernRex

That's what I thought. Thank you. Maybe I should find a new exhaust shop... (they've done great work in the past though. I just don't like being told what I want to do on my own car.)

Aaron at SDPC

Yes I would recommend long-tubes. That is one of the first mods most people perform on these cars.

WS6wanted

I have Texas Speed 1 3/4 longtubes with a custom 3inch y, flowmaster merge collector and highflow spiral cats and I never scrape over anything. My 98 Trans Am is on stock spring and koni yellows. I scraped once going over a large speed bump with a passenger in the car. Go longtubes and never look back

usnfenix

iTrader: (11)

Your guy lied to you. Now if you got the old SLP headers than yea youd probably bang them on a leaf.

I have the BBK header and ORY combo and they tuck up better than stock manifolds. No issues with clearance

AnotherWs6

iTrader: (17)

Everyone has long tubes.

usnfenix

iTrader: (11)

sounds like your exhaust guy drives a civic and doesn't want your 18 year old car to be faster than him.

Seriously we all have LT's as said above

Deeohgie69

iTrader: (3)

This^^^

SouthernRex

THANK YOU. Is it more difficult to install? I can't for the life of me figure out why he wouldn't want my money to install the pipes I want? It sucks, because there aren't a lot of exhaust shops around here.

Oh, well. Either he'll install the longtubes and delete the cat, or I'll find another shop that will. I don't want to settle with this car just because some guy is lazy or misinformed.

After I'll just get a Frost Tune or something to get rid of the SES light (and get better timing while I'm at it.)

usnfenix

iTrader: (11)

just install them yourself, it may seem daunting if you arnt that familiar with automotive work but trust me its easy, just time consuming. Ive done 2 LT installs and the first was car on a lift ( much easier) and second was just last month with car in my garage, biggest thing was getting it high enough. I drove car on rhino ramps and jacked it up further from when it was time to slide the new headers in. A friend is highly recommended otherwise youll have to do what I did and be creative when your trying to slide the pipes in from the bottom and grab them from the top to hold them in place and keep the gasket aligned while trying to thread a bolt in all at the same time lol. Its not hard just take your time and walk away if you get frustrated.

The only thing I can see shorty headers being better install-wise is you probably wont have to remove the steering linkage and you wouldn't have to get the car as high to slide them in. Neither of these two things are hard to do however and the HP and TQ benefit from LT's far outweighs shorties. Some brands of LT fit so well you don't have to do anything but raise the car up and slide them in, My BBK's were one such brand.

SouthernRex

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/b...model/firebird

So with that part I don't need to buy any other hardware? I can just purchase these and have them installed?

98CayenneT/A

You may want to do poly motor mounts also. Even if the stock rubber ones are in good shape the exhaust may still bounce off the floor boards.

SouthernRex

Noted. Thank you, haha.

SouthernRex

http://www.partsgeek.com/catalog/199...ine_mount.html

Something like this?

t_raven

iTrader: (12)

Long tubes hanging too low was a problem on 60s and 70s cars, partly because they had to clear big *** oil filters, and probably also because a low ride height wasn't a thing back then. You should see how low the headers on my 79 TA hang to clear the oil filter.

My '01 TA has no problems. You can see they are tucked up nice and tight. The y pipe on the other hand hangs kinda low, but that's a problem even with the stock one. My car is on BMR springs, so it's lower than stock. I haven't had any issues scraping the y pipe yet, but I'm careful. If it ever gets smashed I'll build an oval one.

Attachment 720838

SouthernRex

I'm going to take this picture and print it and give it to the guy with the longtubes and Y pipe and be like here, you can do it... I believe in you.

AnotherWs6

iTrader: (17)

A lot of shops don't like installing headers because doing so can be a pain in the ***. Grumpy **** just may not want to because he doesn't like to or because he's old school and is thinking about it being 1981 still.

Buy these and the corresponding y-pipe, you'll be happy.

http://www.speed-engineering.com/sho...e-version.html

AnotherWs6

iTrader: (17)

Corresponding y-pipe that will bolt right up to your factory exhaust. As you know, get a tune that will turn off your rear O2 sensors and you're good to go.

http://www.speed-engineering.com/sho...ad-y-pipe.html

Here is a thread on them. You want the 1 7/8 race version that is discussed later on in the thread.

https://ls1tech.com/forums/generatio...available.html

SouthernRex

I should mention to you guys that I have a Borla catback. Not sure if that matters or not on the y-pipe choice.