....I have finally found driving Nirvana with my drop top 98' Z28. I finally understand what it is to drive a true muscle car. I came across it at a dealership by accident this past february as I was leaving my local Target Store. I was surprised to see that it was a V-8 with only 32,300 miles on it. Turned out that the Z was a lease return so their loss turned out to be my massive gain!(..In HP that is.)... But don't get me wrong, my Civic still remains with me as my commuter car. With gas prices the way they are now, Im glad I still have it. So, I like to think I have the best of both worlds. Anyway, i was just wondering how much of a HP gain I would get If I install a set of SHORTY HEADERS. I already have the SS hood and SLP air lid and K&N filter but have yet to install the cold air duct form SLP. Are all ShorTys the same???...How much HP should I expect to gain from installing the the headers and Cold Air duct??.....

 

Congrats on the LS1...smart move.

Go longtubes though instead of shorty's....they'll benefit you more in the long run, especially when you start modding heavily. That's just me though.

 

dont expect much horsepower out of shorties and intake.
longtubes and intake on the other hand

 

shorties are perceived by most on this board to be a waste of money go with Longtubes, a catback, and a new airlid to start

 

I'd love to go longtube but unfortunately, I live in California where Smog watch-dogs are everywhere.....what's the most Hp I can gain without spending 5,000$ on a supercharger....are all shorties the same???

 

Maybe I don't understand whats the problem with longtubes and emissions? you can still have cats...

 

There are quite a few longtube setups that have catalytics and will pass CA smog checks. Shorty headers show 0 gains over the stock manifolds on these cars. Longtubes will add about 15 rwhp.

BTW, tell your Honda-driving buddies what they are missing out on

 

In California long tubes will cause you to fail the visual inspection of the Smog Test. You should blow clean, but the long tubes move the cats futher downstream. This is illegal in Ca. I would check around, plenty of smog stations just see what a car blows on the sniffer, and do a lazy job of visual, you may be able to get by with the long tubes, try asking in the Western forum about friendly smog stations.

 

a little info here for ya
https://ls1tech.com/forums/showthread.php?t=139142

 

hmmm, order the longtubes in black painted (like the Hooker brand ones) and tack-weld some factory heat shields onto the top of them. They won't know they aren't factory then

 

Plus I dont know how it works in Cali, but in the Southern part of the US, FL,GA,SC,NC, all honor each others EMI testing...so its possible that a local state MIGHT not perform a visual on the cats that might be adventatous

 

oh my... tony is getting creative today!

I've honestly never thought of that...

 

you have 1 of 2 choices, comply with smog or dont. i went the later and am now reverting too the former to the tune of an STS setup.

its easy for people to say do this and do that but until you live in the **** smog state and have too try and get your car smogged for registration you dont know how it is.

and honestly, with the packages PatrickG and Vortech have put together it shows you that you can still have 400+rwhp with stock manifolds and catbacks and still be completely smog legal here in cali.

 

Sure that's a good idea? Civic owners are known for rice.........

 

I agree. It is really tough here, and those who have not dealt with Ca smog(Visual, OBDII, Sniffer) wouldn't totally understand.

But, if you are really determined to have the long tubes you can pass the sniffer, just do your homework on a shop(lazy gas station is a good start) that doesn't do that heavy a lookover on the visual.

BTW, the reason the long tubes are illegal is that they relocate the catalytic convertors downstream and thus take longer to heat up, increasing harmful startup and cold engine emissions.

EDIT: Be wary of the CHP/local cop "fix it" ticket if you're caught with illegal(non C.A.R.B.) equipment. There are plenty of horror stories out there on this(hell, look up Ca tint, lol).

 

Thanks All for your help. A few other ?'s tho.....Will installing a set of LT headers give me some ground clearence problems??...Will I have to purchase a set og High flow Cats to keep the check engine light from coming on???

 

don't get SLP LTs if you get LTs. you will need cats to pass the sniffer for sure.

 

SLP long tubes supposedly have the worst ground clearance

 

That should be rephrased... don't get SLP LT's if you are going to lower your car. I've never had a problem with them sitting low (I'm at stock height) and looking under the car it really doesn't seem to me like they hang that low at all. They sound great and I was very impressed with the power they added BUT, if you're going to lower your car they're probably a bad idea.