Hey guys, once again I need your opinions.

I've been toying with the idea of putting headers on my 85's TPI motor. Does anyone make shorty headers for this car? I have looked at a few places on the net and I can't seem to find any aside from the stock exhaust manifolds. I know they have a set of long tube headers that even have provisions for the smog system, but I have not seen shorty headers with the same atributes. (That and the long tubes are not street legal!) Ecklers magazine sells the long tubes as well but no shorty's. Do shorty headers not exist for this model of Vette, or do I just suck at web-searches? Let me know..D.

 

Fellas,

Just thought of another issue I have with my car. I DESPERATLY need to know what parts of this car are fiberglass and what is metal. Here's my problem. This car was hit on the driver side door some time ago. It was repaired by a bonafide bodyshop HACK. I made the effort to adjust my driver door the other day before it went up on jacks and noticed that the latch striker on the drivers side had this big, thick metal washer around it (3 inches in diameter!) I loosened up the striker and was able to move it around enough to adjust to my door's adjusted height. When I tightened it, it sounded like there was fiberglass underneath getting ready to crack under the pressure.

Now, past experience from other cars has taught me that USUALLY the striker is screwed into the metal body of the car. Not so much in the case of my Vette. I completely unscrewed the striker to see what the mount looked like and the next thing I hear is a large piece of metal fall down into the body of the car behind the bulkhead where the striker attaches.

Lo and behold, there is this big hole there. The hole was blocked by said big washer. It looked as if the original striker mount hole had been cut out with a reciprocating saw. It looks aweful. To make matters worse, the piece of metal that held my striker and it's enormous washer in place is now in a REALLY unaccessible place inside the body of the car. More than likely never to be recovered.

Last surprise, I put my flashlight to the hole, and there is a rectangular cut out behind the striker's bulkhead that can be accessedif you pull back the drivers side rear tire splashguard. I assume this was to get whatever piece of metal they used to attach the striker to to the backside of the bulkhead.

FELLAS! I need to know if this damaged bulkhead can be replaced. I don't want to tear too deep into it if it can't be fixed. I can weld, but i'm not too good with fiberglass and i'm sure a bodyshop will charge me up the butt to fix it right. Is this area where the striker normally screws into metal? Is it fixable without too much cutting and pasting? I'm a pretty capable individual, but I need your help to make a call in determining if this is out of my league or not. PLEASE REPLY!!...D.

 

All of the outside body panels are made of SMC (fiberglass) except for the bumpers which are urethane of course. There is a metal subframe underneath of these panels and most of it is around the passenger area. But to answer your question, I dont think the striker is connected to metal, best to consult a body shop on that.

As far as headers go, try to find a brand that fits with the least amount of issues. From what I hear TPIS, Hedman, and Melrose fit the best. Also keep in mind you get what you pay for and Ceramic coated headers are a lot better.

 

From what I have been told, shorties do pretty much nothing for performance gains. You need to step up to long tubes to get that extra power. I'm using TPIS on my 85 and they are a direct fit. They were quite expensive, but you do get what you pay for.

 

i just got the Melrose headers and x pipe. Very pricey, but fit and finish is realy spot on.

 

I put Lingenfelter long tubes and straight pipes on mine. Getting them to fit right was major pain, but the power gain is incredible. Shorties will give you some gains but i'm not sure how noticeable it would be.

 

Shorties are very little better than stock, especially if you clean up the stockers.I wouldn't waste the bucks.

 

A magnet can tell you what is metal and what is not....except for aluminum.

 

All panels should be SMC except the bumpers, which are urethane.

Don't waste money on shorties. They offer little difference for the money.

 

Thanks for the info fellas. I would like to go with long tube headers, but unfortunetly I live in Utah and the Bast**ds require yearly emissions and safety checks on all vehicles. Right now my car won't pass emissions due to defective emissions components that I need to troubleshoot. Only long tube headers that i've seen that have the provisions for emissions (air tube attachements) are in the Fall Ecklers catalog but are listed for off road use only. Now being that my Vette won't be doing any mud-bogging any time soon...LOL.. The one good thing going for the car so far is that there is only straight pipe comming off of the cat convertor. The mufflers are gone and the sound is great. Oh well, if any of you have any emissions related info on these cars, please feel free to give me some advice.

As for the body problem, I'm working on devising a way to fix this. I would use a magnet to see if it's all metal, but there is a decent amount of body filler covering up the accident damage at that area and I don't want to tear too deep into it unless I know for 100% sure that there's solid metal behind that paint. Oh well..More to come...D.

 

I am assuming you are talking about AIR and O2 apps on headers. More than one company makes such. Look around.

 

Heddman makes longtube headers that are 49-state legal and come with fittings to connect the hoses from the AIR system. Summit Racing has them as does JEG's. You can easily find the specific part number for your car using those sites parts finders.

Don't believe the Ecklers BS. Not only are they way too expensive, there are a number of headers that are street legal everywhere except CA.

Long tube headers on the L98 motors create a couple of problems. First, the end of the collector sits back some distance from the back of the block and the factory pre-cats on the front Y-pipe can't be used. You can get a good quality high flow main cat with the necessary AIR tube connector and that should satisfy emissions testing requirements.

Second, the factory GM starter is so large that once the passenger side header is installed, the starter cannot be removed from the car without removing that header. It's more of a PITA than anything so many folks install a mini (gear-reduction) starter when doing a header swap.

You will probbly need to have a bung welded into the driver's side header for the O2 sensor to install. Some headers come with bungs installed already. If the sensor is too far downstream in the header, you may need to use a heated O2 sensor. These are not expensive and all you need is an ignitione-switched 12v source to connect it.

Go with ceramic coated headers. This coating will protect the engine compartment from heat and keep the headers from rusting.

Loss of the pre-cats and the headers will raise the noise level a pretty fair amount so you may want to consider going back to mufflers.