Header selection
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Instructor
Joined: Oct 2006
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From: North Tonawanda New York
Header selection
I have a 1986 Corvette with the L98 TPI, I am currently trying to figure out what headers I should get for my car there are two different styles. One has all the emissions piping on the header and the other dosent will it effect the car if I go with the pair without the smog piping?
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From: Good health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die
St. Jude Donor '04-'05-'06-'07
I have a 1986 Corvette with the L98 TPI, I am currently trying to figure out what headers I should get for my car there are two different styles. One has all the emissions piping on the header and the other dosent will it effect the car if I go with the pair without the smog piping?
Drifting
Joined: Oct 2006
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From: Citrus Heights California
I'm looking for headers that will pass a California smog. Where are the headers with the smog crap on them? Do they have a Carb number? Is it possible to make your stock headers flow better by porting?
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From: Good health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die
St. Jude Donor '04-'05-'06-'07
Kool88, unfortunately there are no long tubes with a carb number. And so they will not satisfy CA smog regulations. There are CA legal shorties for all C4s though.
Last edited by Corvette Kid; Feb 18, 2007 at 07:29 PM.
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Joined: Jan 2005
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From: Southgate Mi.
If you have the iron heads, and aren't plannig to upgrade anytime soon you can use Hedman plain painted, or the ceramic coated Elites. But if you have any thing more the port inlets are too small. ASK ME HOW i KNOW. The good thing is, if you go with these, you just chop off the front cats to plumb them in. I believe that they can be ordered w/or without emission hookups.
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My opinion the OPs question is on my site, basically you have to decide whether you want to keep anything with emissions, as well as install tips.
Drifting
Joined: Oct 2006
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From: Citrus Heights California
No. I'm sure some members who are more well-versed on the L98 will chime in and give you the details. I believe you have an EGR tube that will have to be dealt with too. But none of this, done correctly, will cause any driveability problems.
Kool88, unfortunately there are no long tubes with a carb number. And so they will not satisfy CA smog regulations. There are CA legal shorties for all C4s though.
Kool88, unfortunately there are no long tubes with a carb number. And so they will not satisfy CA smog regulations. There are CA legal shorties for all C4s though.
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From: Good health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die
St. Jude Donor '04-'05-'06-'07
This won't help those with factory shorties but for those whose C4s have manifolds, you might consider porting them. This was a very common practice when I was oval track racing, in the classes where headers weren't allowed. The hot set-up was the early Corvette center-dump manifolds which could be hogged out to a 3" outlet easily. You could even buy them from a specialty company that would actually split them in two, to do the most advantageous porting job possible, and then weld them back together! But anyhow, a good porting job was worth a nice increase in the mid and upper RPM ranges on a modified engine. I would think that the LT1 manifolds would be quite comparable to the old Corvette manifolds as a starting point, as they are known to flow pretty well already as manifolds go. This is something that most of you who cannot enjoy longtubes could do yourselves. And it would be a great alternative to the (mostly) over-priced shorties available.