Headers for 96 LT1
Thread Starter
Pro
Joined: May 2006
Posts: 536
Likes: 0
From: Humble Texas
Headers for 96 LT1
So Im goin to take my heads off for some work,thinking may as well
install a set of HEADERS..
need a lil help thou, to many options..im not racing this car or ever will
but i want some extra hp..ill be installing a lil cam as well..
QUESTION : what would be the best choice for street headers that
would be practical.?LONG, Short, any prefrence? THIS IS A DAILY DRIVER.. all advice welcomed...and any other way of ez hp..ALSO how big a cam can i go before affecting vacum..
Thanks
install a set of HEADERS..
need a lil help thou, to many options..im not racing this car or ever will
but i want some extra hp..ill be installing a lil cam as well..
QUESTION : what would be the best choice for street headers that
would be practical.?LONG, Short, any prefrence? THIS IS A DAILY DRIVER.. all advice welcomed...and any other way of ez hp..ALSO how big a cam can i go before affecting vacum..
Thanks
Last edited by ol school; Oct 4, 2009 at 04:27 PM.
Racer
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 497
Likes: 1
From: Casa Grande Az
I would say long tubes.
Alot of people here believe shorties are not worth the time , money or effort.
I say this and I currently have a set of hooker shorties on my car. Was there any HP gain when I installed them? Dunno, Its hard to tell because we did alot of other work at the same time.
I did buy a set of Exotic Muscle long tubes (they just got delivered this week) I will be replacing the shorties with the long tubes when the fresh motor goes in the car in a month or so.
Alot of people here believe shorties are not worth the time , money or effort.
I say this and I currently have a set of hooker shorties on my car. Was there any HP gain when I installed them? Dunno, Its hard to tell because we did alot of other work at the same time.
I did buy a set of Exotic Muscle long tubes (they just got delivered this week) I will be replacing the shorties with the long tubes when the fresh motor goes in the car in a month or so.
Thread Starter
Pro
Joined: May 2006
Posts: 536
Likes: 0
From: Humble Texas
I would say long tubes.
Alot of people here believe shorties are not worth the time , money or effort.
I say this and I currently have a set of hooker shorties on my car. Was there any HP gain when I installed them? Dunno, Its hard to tell because we did alot of other work at the same time.
I did buy a set of Exotic Muscle long tubes (they just got delivered this week) I will be replacing the shorties with the long tubes when the fresh motor goes in the car in a month or so.
Alot of people here believe shorties are not worth the time , money or effort.
I say this and I currently have a set of hooker shorties on my car. Was there any HP gain when I installed them? Dunno, Its hard to tell because we did alot of other work at the same time.
I did buy a set of Exotic Muscle long tubes (they just got delivered this week) I will be replacing the shorties with the long tubes when the fresh motor goes in the car in a month or so.
thanks for your advice on headers
Melting Slicks
Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 2,141
Likes: 2
From: Pittsburgh Pa
i had shorties and they were a waste of time.. i now have exotic muscle LT's.. i didn't notice a difference in going from mainfolds to shorties other than it went from spinning its ***** off to actually hooking. so i guess if you are looking to lose torque go for it.
Thread Starter
Pro
Joined: May 2006
Posts: 536
Likes: 0
From: Humble Texas
new gears in the near future around 3.73
Racer
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 254
Likes: 2
From: Four Hours away from Ten Road Courses! VA
I wanted one complete solution from one vendor, so I went with Melrose's new Long Tube C4 solution (with Random Cats and an Xpipe) in my LT4. The best part was the ease of installation right here in my carport. I've never dyno'd the car, but I keep up with LS6's easily now, so I'm confident (along with my other light bolt ons and PCM) that I'm in the 400hp range.
Le Mans Master
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 7,706
Likes: 485
From: Everett WA
C4 of Year Finalist (appearance mods) 2019
First off let me say that my 95 is a year round daily driver .... oh ... about 15k a year. Several years ago I had stainless works long tube headers and rt cats installed along with the lt4 hotcam kit, new lifters and the lt4 hd timing chain kit along with a tune. On a mustang dyno I gained 40 rwhp from 252 to 292rwhp.
I retained the stock lt1 exhaust because its fairly nonrestrictive at my hp rating and I wanted to invest the $$ in the headers & cam rather in a corsa exhaust.
I am VERY happy with not only the performance but also the sound. The LTs give it a much deeper richer sound with absolutley no resonance whatsoever
I retained the stock lt1 exhaust because its fairly nonrestrictive at my hp rating and I wanted to invest the $$ in the headers & cam rather in a corsa exhaust.
I am VERY happy with not only the performance but also the sound. The LTs give it a much deeper richer sound with absolutley no resonance whatsoever
Melting Slicks
Joined: Mar 2008
Posts: 3,022
Likes: 3
From: Chandler Arizona
First off let me say that my 95 is a year round daily driver .... oh ... about 15k a year. Several years ago I had stainless works long tube headers and rt cats installed along with the lt4 hotcam kit, new lifters and the lt4 hd timing chain kit along with a tune. On a mustang dyno I gained 40 rwhp from 252 to 292rwhp.
I retained the stock lt1 exhaust because its fairly nonrestrictive at my hp rating and I wanted to invest the $$ in the headers & cam rather in a corsa exhaust.
I am VERY happy with not only the performance but also the sound. The LTs give it a much deeper richer sound with absolutley no resonance whatsoever
I retained the stock lt1 exhaust because its fairly nonrestrictive at my hp rating and I wanted to invest the $$ in the headers & cam rather in a corsa exhaust.
I am VERY happy with not only the performance but also the sound. The LTs give it a much deeper richer sound with absolutley no resonance whatsoever
-back on topic-
the Long tube headers are definitely the direction to go, however, it looks like ZR1WANNABE might be getting rid of his shorties for fairly cheap. If you're not certain which one you want to go with, why not buy the shorties off of him and try them out?
or course in my opinion it's best to do it right the first time (long tubes).
I believe it will me MUCH more critical to focus on primary sizes at this point rather than cosidering shorties.
I.e. 1 5/8", 1 3/4", 1 7/8", the larger tubing will hurt bottom-end, so I'd say stick with whatever complements the head work and cam.
Hooker seems to be a relatively affordable set of headers to go with
TPIs
EM
Melrose
Stainless Steel Headers
etc.
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Safety Car
Joined: Dec 2007
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From: Sandhills of North Carolina
Racer
Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 288
Likes: 2
From: acworth ga
traction/ torque
for what its worth; I had an x pipe put on a stock 92 with 2.59 gears recently. before it would bog off the line if i floored it, now it spins quite a bit, almost breaks loose, so the off the line traction dyno shows an improvement in low end torque...also gained 1.6 mpg average....a good mod in my opinion.
Team Owner
Joined: Jan 2000
Posts: 57,132
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From: Kennesaw, GA www.96LT4.com
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I wanted one complete solution from one vendor, so I went with Melrose's new Long Tube C4 solution (with Random Cats and an Xpipe) in my LT4. The best part was the ease of installation right here in my carport. I've never dyno'd the car, but I keep up with LS6's easily now, so I'm confident (along with my other light bolt ons and PCM) that I'm in the 400hp range.
Racer
Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 288
Likes: 2
From: acworth ga
traction/ torque
for what its worth; I had an x pipe put on a stock 92 with 2.59 gears recently. before it would bog off the line if i floored it, now it spins quite a bit, almost breaks loose, so the off the line traction dyno shows an improvement in low end torque...also gained 1.6 mpg average....a good mod in my opinion.
Advanced
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 95
Likes: 0
From: Rochester NY
I wanted one complete solution from one vendor, so I went with Melrose's new Long Tube C4 solution (with Random Cats and an Xpipe) in my LT4. The best part was the ease of installation right here in my carport. I've never dyno'd the car, but I keep up with LS6's easily now, so I'm confident (along with my other light bolt ons and PCM) that I'm in the 400hp range.
Thread Starter
Pro
Joined: May 2006
Posts: 536
Likes: 0
From: Humble Texas
I agree, A LOT of owners run into sound issues (likes/dislikes, too loud/not loud enough) when they start messing with the stock exhaust system. I had flowmasters when I purchased the car, so the sound was relatively loud. I switched to the full 3" catback kit from magnaflow and I am much happier with that result.
-back on topic-
the Long tube headers are definitely the direction to go, however, it looks like ZR1WANNABE might be getting rid of his shorties for fairly cheap. If you're not certain which one you want to go with, why not buy the shorties off of him and try them out?
or course in my opinion it's best to do it right the first time (long tubes).
I believe it will me MUCH more critical to focus on primary sizes at this point rather than cosidering shorties.
I.e. 1 5/8", 1 3/4", 1 7/8", the larger tubing will hurt bottom-end, so I'd say stick with whatever complements the head work and cam.
Hooker seems to be a relatively affordable set of headers to go with
TPIs
EM
Melrose
Stainless Steel Headers
etc.
-back on topic-
the Long tube headers are definitely the direction to go, however, it looks like ZR1WANNABE might be getting rid of his shorties for fairly cheap. If you're not certain which one you want to go with, why not buy the shorties off of him and try them out?
or course in my opinion it's best to do it right the first time (long tubes).
I believe it will me MUCH more critical to focus on primary sizes at this point rather than cosidering shorties.
I.e. 1 5/8", 1 3/4", 1 7/8", the larger tubing will hurt bottom-end, so I'd say stick with whatever complements the head work and cam.
Hooker seems to be a relatively affordable set of headers to go with
TPIs
EM
Melrose
Stainless Steel Headers
etc.
It appears that long tubes are the way to go...im not racing it, I just want to know that i have some extra ump when i step on it..
Safety Car
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 3,616
Likes: 5
From: Sandhills of North Carolina
I have Stainless Works 1 5/8 headers on my car at the moment. I'm planning on doing heads this spring to help this cam out. I will probably go to larger headers at that point. I think I'm going to go with Melrose this time. They just look like a quality product. Very few complaints about them.
The cam I used is a LE 226/230 .565/.565 111 lsa. I'm very pleased with it so far. Plenty of vacuum for the brakes. Haven't tried the AC yet.
The cam I used is a LE 226/230 .565/.565 111 lsa. I'm very pleased with it so far. Plenty of vacuum for the brakes. Haven't tried the AC yet.
Pro
Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 505
Likes: 1
From: Guntersville Alabama
How much?
Thanks,
93 cruiser
Safety Car
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 3,588
Likes: 10
From: North New Jersey
Is it difficult to put headers on an LT1? Is it just bolt on or do you need to remove stuff from the engine to put the headers on? Can you run the stock starter? Im interested in getting headers and an exhaust for my 96 but want a simple bolt on, no fab application...
Thanks
Thanks
Safety Car
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 3,616
Likes: 5
From: Sandhills of North Carolina
Is it difficult to put headers on an LT1? Is it just bolt on or do you need to remove stuff from the engine to put the headers on? Can you run the stock starter? Im interested in getting headers and an exhaust for my 96 but want a simple bolt on, no fab application...
Thanks
Thanks
You have to take off the exhaust manifolds, naturally. On the drivers side you'll have to remove the alternator to do that. Plus swing the ASR out of the way. Most likely remove the spark plugs. The bolts on the exhaust flanges can be difficult if they have been removed in a while. The starter may have to be removed but it will fit back usually with no problem. There is just about always some exhaust pipe work needed to mate up with the rest of the system. You may have O2 bungs to deal with. The '96 has 4 O2 sensors and most headers for them only have 3 so a bung will have to be welded in or the PCM retuned to tune the rear ones out. There is of coarse the cats to deal with. Usually a couple of bullet cats work really well.
As you can see it's not just a simple bolt on. If you don't have a decent set of tools and basic mechanical knowledge it might be kind of rough.
There are a ton of header threads on here. It would be worth your while to read up on several.
Good luck and have fun if you decide to get them. It is worth it though!