ErikwithAK01

Bought these from an outfit for $650.oo shipped still expensive in my book, but....Corvette tax and all Coming from the IROC scene, to the Vette scene, has left me with a bit of sticker shock, but it's not disagreeable. PM me if you want to know the name of the business, but know that these are widely available on a certain, famous, auction site. Anyways, onto the good stuff

They arrived very well packaged, and undamaged. They have a nice high polish to them, as you can see in the pictures. One of the ports was a little over zealously ported to match, but that is the only real gripe I have with them, honestly, it is a nice little touch in the first place, and not so much was removed, that it should not seal. All the welds are fine looking, and complete, the insides look good as well. Another nice touch was the 4-bolt flanges (easier to tighten down the bolts, and wont hang down like a three bolt set). The flanges are a thick 3/8" and measured flat, and true. The O2 sensor bungs are square, and protrude appropriately into the flow path. All in all, quite impressed with these; the cheapest set of headers available right now for the C5 Corvette, which end up being as nice or nicer than some more expensive sets I have bought for other cars I have had with small blocks (i'm sneering at you Melrose, and hooker)

More to come as I am beginning the install tomorrow afternoon...
Stay tuned!

ErikwithAK01

more pics

ErikwithAK01

few more

Chicago1

They have been around for awhile couple vendors sell them. You can say ebay all day long nothing wrong with them. Welcome and happy modding

SuperTom

curious how they fit. Some problems in the past looking to see if they fixed issues. Also wondering about the 02 sensor if they are in the right spot or extensions needed

ErikwithAK01

Well, nothing a little extra wire, solder, and heat shrink can't fix. I am going to make my own home made O2 sims in a few days (a process I will also document here), after the install, I wanna romp on it a bit before I dig back into it. I got a couple oil drain plugs from napa to plug the rear sensor holes, I'll post the part number when I get back to my shop, but they were only like $7.

Zmeister

dbs1vette

Several have had fitment issues with that brand and customer service a little suspect. Good luck with the install.

99frccorvette

Those headers say china all over. Put those side by side with good quality headers and you will be the judge. Good luck with install I heard those are pain in the *** to install.

ErikwithAK01

Well that was an awfully snarky, unnecessary way to put it. Yes, they are the "Chinese" headers, but if you wanna pay 250% in Corvette tax for the same performance, then that is your right. Your demeanor about it leads me to believe that your budget is above and beyond these, so my question to you is, why are you here?

By the way, easiest set of headers I've ever personally installed, and I've been enjoying them so much that I havn't even found the time to write the review. Something to do tomorrow

99frccorvette

The way I see it is this ... Do it once, Do it right OR Do it twice & pay double.

If these cars were Hondas the by all means go with OBX.

I know that with my good quality headers I won't have to worry about hanging to low. Smacking the ground or over speed bumps. Won't crack under hard driving conditions. And won't crack from getting wet. Just something's that made me go with good headers instead of cheaper brand.

SuperTom

I would seriously like someone to put a picture of "Chinese headers" and the best America has to offer to really see the difference. $1000 price difference doubtful. I hear of issues with the expensive pipes as well. Hope the OBX work out for the OP

99frccorvette

ARH/Kooks & LG are prob the best fitting headers IMO. They dont hang low and fit nice with no modding or banging them into place .

ErikwithAK01

Sorry it took so long to get this review out, been out driving while the weather is nice

Anyways, the first thing to tackle is obviously the tear down.\ Everything came out easier than expected, even the o2 sensors gave up without a fight! I had everything from the heads back, out of the car in under 20 minutes.

From here on, I'll talk about each side independently, starting with the passengers side. You'll see in this first picture, the starter on the left, and the AC line (the one covered in foil heat resistant tape). These parts are the biggest pain I ran into.

ErikwithAK01

The next part that made the install harder on the passenger side, was the fact that the starter sticks out pretty far from the block, but the problem is two fold, since because of that fact, it did not allow me to lift that side up from the bottom, instead, there was enough room, I felt, to go through the top.

Well, like many people have experienced, the tabs at the bottom of the primaries didn't match up with the bell housing bolts they were how ever, very close, and would not take much tinkering to make them fit (my opinion). I honestly just bent them up (in an entirely reversible way), and closer to the primaries so I could clear the starter. This is a pic I took of the angle I used to ease it in there

ErikwithAK01

you'll see in this picture, what it looks like, properly mounted. Note the space between the starter and that AC line, still a little tight, but two fingers width away; more than enough.

ErikwithAK01

One other annoyance on the passenger side was the air tube. It is steel, so I just strong armed it to get it out of the way while I worked, but not after fighting with it for 10 minutes first. do yourself a favor, bend it (within reason) out of your way, and save the headache. A

Also, in the pictures, you'll also notice that I removed the coil packs, and to get that little extra last bit of room, I DID removed the passengers side valve cover, which worked great, after those things, it dropped right in.

Onto the drivers side. As you'll see in the picture, there is a grounding strap that reaches to the block, from the frame, RIGHT where the new headers are going. It is simply a bolt on the side of the engine holding it, and a wire for another sensor down, I just removed it, and taped the wires out of the way, to the frame. You'll also notice the long silver tube on the left, that is the steering shaft, as you can see, tons of room.

ErikwithAK01

I took the coils off the drivers cover so it would be easier to photograph by the way. The drivers side went in from the bottom, so easily, that there was nothing to rest it on as I lowered the car on the lift! I ended up using a length of duct-tape diagonally across the bottoms of the floor boards, just to hold it temporarily, so I could start a bolt in the manifold. In the picture you will see how much clearance there is with the steering shaft.

ErikwithAK01

In the process of breaking down the drivers side, I also removed the alternator, just to give myself more room for workin' on the manifold bolts.

Alright headers are in, and LIGHTLY rand down...time for some beauty shots

ErikwithAK01

The rest is pretty straight forward. The next thing in line are the resonators, then the X-pipe, and that's it. The clamps provided are a joke, get yourself some good, stainless steel band clamps, I had a couple small leaks, and the provided ones were a real pain to get on (they were not perfectly round). The rear actually lined up so good, that I did not even tweak my tips much at all, so that was nice and easy the drivers side did NOT touch the bell housing like many people have experienced, BUT, the passengers side hung down some 3/8" lower than the other side. Once I realized that the bolt holes in the manifold flanges are a little larger, I just loosened the flange again, and worked it around to get a nice even fit. At this point, I tightened everything down from the rear, working forward.

Sorry I don't have any pics of this part, I totally forgot my camera the morning that I finished it

The General suggests torquing the manifold bolts down from the center working left, then working right with multiple passes. The first pass is 11 ft/Lbs, then another pass, same pattern at 18 ft/Lbs (I honestly just snugged them down good and tight within reason, something you'll learn the feel for when you've been wrenching for 17 years, but, DID do a double pass, and DID use the pattern described).

At this point...

Now, if you want them to stay esthetically pleasing, you will want to wipe down the visible parts now, before you go putting anything else on, while you still have the room. If you don't wipe them down, the finger prints, and grease, dirt, etc on the surface, will discolor at a different rate from the rest of the metal, and eventually it will just look dirty. A little preventative maintenance NOW, keeps them good looking, and even for life! Then we are ready to bend our air tube on the passenger side back, and put our coil packs back on.

The threads in one hole, on the passenger side air tube mount, were not cut completely through, so I had to run a tap through it to clean it up, although I suppose in a pinch, one could just put a couple washers under the head of the bolt. Just look out for that before it's already on the car haha...guess how I know

I started her up and WOW SMOKE! for about 20 minutes I let it idle on the lift, then shut her down. Let it sit for a few hours, then came back and let it sit idling until it was up to temp, then took it for an easy drive.

After about the 4th time I took it out, I was starting to notice how much it freed up at the top of the revs. It does not feel like it was fighting to get to 85, where the shift point is. It was smooth, and linear.

And man does it sound great in person! I've gotten so many more thumbs up from people on the street lately, and the car show crowd loves it (was at Cruizin Colby this last weekend), best of all, I love it

Now for a titanium set up with a bypass mod!