How much horsies am I going to lose going with shortys over longtubes? Is there going to be any advantage or just loss if I go with them? Im never going to be racing or getting on my vette all that much. Its just my daily driver so im thinking I might go with the shorties. Is the install alot easier?

My car- 96 LT4

 

Shorties Install will be much easier and cheaper. Especially if you are wanting to stay emissions legal. You will need new bullet cats to stay emissions legal with the longtubes, shorties, you can use your stock stuff.

Now the hp gains from shorties to longtube on these cars are significant. I 'm not sure if there is any gain at all with shorties (yes, I've had some on my car) but I can gaurentee longtubes are a definite 15rwhp due to my experience and the dyno results here.

Shorties are much prettier than the stock manifold tho.

 

The shorties not making a difference doesnt really make sense to me. Any better flowing exhaust is going to show a difference. On top of that im looking at Grand Sport Registry with the LT4 dynos and there is a good 15 hp jump with shorties alone.

Oh and are Pace Setters any good?

 

if u are not racing please stay away from long tubes, my first hand exp with long tubes in street driving loose torque at low speed, long tubes makes power only when u step on but u never step on in street driving.

Docspeed our CF member lives in commerce GA and he has the shorty's i like revving his car its a quick response, than my long tubes in my car, he infact has Hotcam/ported heads/gears....

But i love the exhaust note from long tube motors though.

 

Im thinking shorties are the way Im going to go..now the question is which brand? Is one better than the other?

 

Just to re-hash what others have said. The stock headers (according to Mr. Mojo - this was a while back) flow great. Aside from that anything I have read about shorties reports minimal performance gains and that a header switch is not worth the money unless you go with long tubes. Then the choice seems like what primary size you want (1 5/8 or 1 3/4 - the former seems to be the choice for a street car/DD). As for installation ease... again, I've merely read that these C4s are some of the easiest cars to do a header switch on (including long tubes). This will probably be my next mod... and I also thought I might have wanted shorties (being closer to a direct replacement), but I've been convinced those are a waste of time/money.

 

Shorties give very litle gain and are not much if at all better than stock.

 

I suppose I don't read any posts regarding L98s, but I thought 1 5/8" primary long tubes helps the low/midrange... I can imagine you might lose some low end torque with the 1 3/4". just curious as to what you installed and on what car. Thanks

 

:

Installed a set of LG Pro LT's on my C5 and gained nearly 25 lb-ft across the board. Yes they were expensive ($1800 with cats), but they are the best headers available.

I know it's not an LT1, but you cannot generalize that "LT loose (sic) torque at low speed". It's simply not true. A properly designed long-tube header will flow better across the entire RPM band. I'd be interested to see somebody do a header comparison on a stock car- Hooker LT's, TPIS LT's, shorty's, and stock and see the difference (cats included). I suspect the performance gains will be directly proportional to the price:

Stock
Shorty's
Hooker
TPIS

 

Oh... I guess I'm not the only one that thought

 

Shortys give about half the power gains that longtubes will.

I would expect to gain no low-rpm torque with them, but I wouldnt expect to notice any loss in low-end feel either, though theoretically it could show on a dyno I doubt it will. If you have changed gears and are changing cams then you need to go ahead and put the longtubes on, because then you'll definitely notice the power gain.

 

look at the original thread, the guy wants to use as a DD its useless to use 1 3/4 LT headers in street driving its just a overkill going with stock cam/head along with 1 3/4 headers unless the achilious have plans to go cam/head mods in future, no .

I know LG in dallas, Tx they make quality headers but those are good for C5 vettes its totally different world when it comes to LT1 cars.
anyway how is ur new 95 LT1 car.

 

No one has said anything about putting 1 3/4" on a DD. I however did mention that if he were to go with headers.. It would be more benificial to go with long tubes and that 1 5/8" are what street car/DDs seem to be using.

 

While a DD/street car does not usually require the same $/hp gains that a race car offers, there are plenty of people who bolt on twin-turbos to their street car (which could be used as a DD if they wantrd, thoguh most have enough cash to use this as their fair-weather car only). TT for a street car is overkill, but that's not to say that people don't want/need more power for their daily commute.

Will a 1 3/4" header be fully utilized on an otherwise stock street car? Probably not. But I usually subscribe to the "If I'm gonna do it, I might as well do it right.." theory because I might change my mind later and bolt a friggin' supercharger and ported heads on there. It'd suck to have to take my now restrictive shorty's off, sell them at a loss, and have done twice as much work.
I know they're more expensive, they're a bit more of a hassle, and the perfomance gain might not be large in a stock car, but the potential is there if you further modify your car.

How's my new 95? I simply love driving it. Once I get the engine balance/vibration issue addressed, I'll be heading to the track and see how it handles. I'm actually quite suprised at the suspension performance- even the FE1 suspension feeels extremely capable. The shocks need a little fine-tuning, but otherwise it seems almost as capable as my Z06 and koni-equipped C5. Which is a good thing.

 

The cam is going to get swapped along with the headers despite the daily driver status. I still want some umph in my car. I mean stock LT4 is still great and all and I love it but I want some more. I already have corsa exhaust and open air filter. I just figured shorties would give me something. I guess now I have to rethink everything and look into the long tubes more.

 

I would definately look at long tubes. They're not exactly cheap, but the performance and sound improvement is considerable.

I can literally scare women and children away with my C5, and it's completely smog legal.

 

I have a pair of Hooker Ceramic coated shorties in great condition I coulsd sell you. I switched over to long tubes because of all the mods Ive recently done. The shorties must move exhaust better since the ports are smoother and less radius of bends as compared to manifold and they make engine compartment look great. Obviously long tubes will increase HP more.

 

I believe that with your 96 you will see a significant gain in low range - mid range torq.....the trick however (IMHO) is to go with 1 5/8" primaries. They, along with the stock mufflers are good (non restrictive) up to about 400RWHP.

I just had SW Lt's installed on my otherwise stock 95 DD and man what a sotp difference . With no change to my 3.07 gear there is a noticable difference from 1500 to 4000 rpm. I am really glad that I did it. My next step will be port/polish and a mild street cam but that will have to wait a while til I can save up some more $$

I think that the impact of LTs on an LTx engine is if anything more pronounced than on the older C4. I'll bet however that Sammi is running headers with 1 3/4 primaries.

 

However......

"Doing it right" may mean sticking with the shortys for your stock motor....then going to 1 3/4" LTs when you do a heads/SC on the engine.
If you do the heads/SC, "doing it right" would be installing LT during those mods, not weeks/month/years before.
Optimum engines, in whatever state of tune, are a package, with all the components chosen to work together....not chosen to work with a different combo that you may do sometime in the future. Do you see where that's coming from?

Larry
code5coupe

 

I disagree. Wasting money on shorty's which will only gain you a few HP and cost you a lot of cash in Install and eventual removal is silly. Not to mention the beating you're going to take trying to sell shorty used headers. 1 3/4" will not siginificantly effect low-end TQ on a stock motor (if at all! Has anyone done a back-to-back test to prove this?). Better to install something that's overkill for now, pay for the R&R ONCE, and be done with it. Better yet, get the 1 5/8" if you're so worried and accept that if you go FI or stroker, you won't achieve 100% of the capability.