Thanks

 

The stainless material and the 1-5/8" primaries made the choice
to purchase from StainlessWorks simple for me. I believe I was one
of the early purchasers and my pipes were installed in l-Sept/05,
IIRC.

At the time, Melrose did not offer a system and the Exotic Muscle
pipes had larger primaries than are appropriate for my package.

I have no regrets. The pipes installed easily and the 2-1/2"
collectors coexist happily with an R-D Cross Brace. The early
flanges didn't have reliefs to permit the OEM wire looms to stay
and did not have spacers required for the OEM alt support to attach
at the header bolt. Trivial compared to the issues with other brands
reported in the past. I believe both matters have since been addressed.

I'll be interested to compare appearance of my SW pipes with that of
the coated steel headers five years in the future. There are posts
from owners who report that in time, problems begin to appear.

.

 

Where did you order your SW headers? Would you recomend coated or uncoated for a new purchaser? Did you get the adapter pipe? What did you do about cats?

R/Noland

 

Take a look at what the c5/6 guys have as options and you will see how bad our options really are. i wish LG would just make a 1 3/4 header with a proper merge section and even tapering it down to 2.5 or 2.75 inches and ending in a 3 inch for best scavenging. All c4 headers suck imo.

 

Thanks for the input. It looks like SWs for me.

 

Oh my... Let me clean up.

 

I to am trying to decide which headers to run. Those Melrose pipes are a thing of beauty but I don't see a price any where on their web site...soooo, how much are they??????? any one know? ZBRA?

 

I paid just under $1200 shipped. I ordered them without AIR fitting and without cats. Cats cost more, but Melrose uses Random cats which are supposed to be the best.

My only complaint about the system is the rear most pipes. The system is 3" through the X-pipe. Just past the the X-pipe, it steps down to 2.5" pipes. The 2.5" pipes won't mate up to the stock LT1 2.75" system or to my Magnaflow 2.75" mufflers. I'm going to have to do some fabrications.

 

That Melrose exhaust looks really nice. I think I may have finally decided what to put on. I have been trying to make a decision about headers for about 4 months.

Now on to the muffler choice. Ha!

 

Do the Melrose headers come with spacers for the header bolts/studs
so that the OEM brackets (that extend forward to the sepentine
belt accys) can be retained?

If not, consider fabricating something suitable. There are reports
here that the accy castings crack eventually if left unsupported.
Finding replacements for these castings could be challenging.

The Melrose system does look nice and includes more of the exhaust
components than the SW (which was only available with optional
collector-to-cat extensions when I purchased.) Their flanges are
relieved on the top between the primaries and appear to permit the
retention of the OEM plug wire looms.

.

 

Yes!! the Melrose came with spacers. You will need some good header bolts we went with stage8 withthe locks alittle PTA but have not had to retourqe. The ARP bolts look very nice also. wro87

 

 

The clips on the stage 8 don't fit without some modification. I managed to get them to work well after a little grinding on the sander.

 

I haven't checked yet. They came with a box full of hardware and good quality clamps.

 

http://www.stainlessworks.net/cart/index.php
Here is an old GP thread that has some good reading.
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show...hlight=headers
I went with them uncoated. I did put some exhaust wrap around the exhaust right under the rear end and just in front of the resonater to keep peace of mind. The underhood temps seem cooler than stock. I got the headers, RT cats and extensions. They had the kit sitting on the shelf ready to go. No matter which system you go with I would recommend doing some heat shielding on some components especiallythe plastic brake booster, they have a way of melting under spirited driving. I also put some on the floorboards around the cats and extensions. It is a good time to get new plugs and wires during this job as well.

 

I'm sitting here after talking to SW, EM and Melrose and I swear to GOD I have no idea which way I'm going to go. Everyone has a Pros and Cons, this is what I have so far, so please chime in if you know something that I don't about these.

SW has a very nice setup that includes the front Y-pipe for the L-98, but not sure about the Cat selection for them and some fab is required. (~ $1000.00 Free shipping) 4 weeks delivery time

EM has a nice proven setup, but what they offer is a set of LT-X headers that will work on an L-98, and what they offer aft of the header is for the LT-X cars not the L-98. So that leaves the issue of the front Y-Pipe and Cat. (~ $670.00 Headers only) 4 to 6 weeks delievery time

Melrose has a beautiful system that's 95% complete, it's the last 5% that's in question. Not sure where to go to finish off this system, but I have yet to see anyone selling just the mufflers from the big guys (Corsa, Borla, Ect...). IF they can come up with a reasonable (Price IS a Variable) solution to the Mufflers to finish them off this could and would be a great way to go. (~ $1500.00 Full system). Unsure about wait time, nor spending almost $2000.00 on an Exhaust system.

These have all been compared with the EGR and AIR fittings for an L-98. I did not recieve a quote Delta's from EM, but Merle stated that they could be installed on the headers if I wanted them. Lending itself to these being fabricated on a case by case basis.

SW also mentioned Fab time as well.

OK, So now what?

R/Noland

P.S. Thanks C4DC, that helped out alot!

 

And all headers are NOT the same, power-wise.

 

Magnaflow has a muffler system available



Part number is 15623. Thunder Racing sells it for $399.99

http://www.thunderracing.com/catalog...vid=11&pcid=53

 

ZBRA,
I have this Cat Back system on my 91 and I'm about to make ANOTHER phone call to have this system shipped back. I love the system but the weak link are in the mounting tabs for the muffler cans. They are welded directly on top of the Mufflers with a L-Bracket that keeps lifting on me. They have supposedly fixed this problem with a much stronger tab but my last set (3rd) has broken a tab after less than a month and a half of normal use. So I'm kinda shying away from Magnaflow. But thanks

R/Noland