vetteguy75

I'm looking for a good, hassle-free, best fitting (no modifications with a ball-peen hammer to make it fit), best looking (even after a while), ceramic coated, long tube headers. I've "searched" the forum but was unable to find what I was looking for. Any suggestions? My birthday is this weekend and my wife said "Go for it!" (Great Wife!!!).

By the way...how much better will the engine run after I get the headers installed? Horsepower? Torque?

vetteguy75

johnt365

My car had a set of Hedman 68300 headers on it when I got it. One is easier to get in from top and one is easier from the bottom. They have not been dented or dimpled.

I sent them to a place www.cradin.com they do aerospace coatings and put a 2 or 3 thousand degree black coating on the outside of them. All I know is they stay black and the finish has not changed.

As far as performance, Heads, cam and headers are the holy trinity for a sbc. My stock L48 put 190 rwhp with headers and an edelbrock performer intake with hei. You will like it but you have to be prepared for heat issues.

My next big upgrade will be a 2.5 system with straight through mufflers.

RHD '68 L89

Why Long Tube? Why not Tri Ys? Long Tubes are known for Hi RPM performance. Where in the RPM band do you spend most of your time?

bluedawg

I went with hooker comp ceramic coated. With stock heads, edelbrock rpms & afr 195 straight plug, no modifications. You'll notice a difference. The difference is compounded with further engine modifications.

scottyp99

http://www.stans-headers.com/tri_y.htm

I hope ti install a set of the 109Y headers someday..........


Keep the shiny side up!
Scott

scottyp99

"With stock heads, edelbrock rpms & afr 195 straight plug, no modifications."

Is this a typo?


Keep the shiny side up!
Scott

bluedawg

No typo, stock heads first, upgraded to edelbrocks on the stock bottom end, built a dart 400 when the l48 became tired, it would have been a shame not to run better heads. Correct me if I'm wrong but aren't tri y's long tubes that break two into two and then those merge at the collector, as were long tubes merge 4 into one at the collector.

scottyp99

Ah, I get it now that you explain it. As far as tri-y headers, not sure what you mean by "break two into two", they go 4 into 2 into 1. All you have to do is take a look at a pair of 'em. There are 3 spots where 2 pipes merge into one pipe, like the letter "Y", hence the term "Tri-Y".


Keep the shiny side up!
Scott

bluedawg

Thats what i was trying to describe, it just didn't come out so eloquently.
still to the point they are still long tubes.

scottyp99

Yep, they come down and connect to the exhaust system just like a set of normal LT headers.


Keep the shiny side up!
Scott