TA

rrt898

He's looking for a exactly what you said!!! He wants to hear what he wants to hear!!!! If he loves the C4 the way it is why change it???? He will find the "yes" comment eventually.

"GOOD LUCK"

rrt898

"rude"

Mike Holmen

My guess I've picked up 20-30rwhp with my existing set-up. I'm going to be installing CNC LS3 heads, LS3 intake and a lumpy cam down the road. Might even run a boost adder, so who knows how much you gain. Best thing is I have tons of torque down low and instant throttle response, all which I never had prior.

FYI- I run the LS sparky plug metal covers on my spark plug ends. You may have to put some dimples into the tubes for spark plug clearance. Easily done, just get a large socket and hammer,

You can very easily install those shorty headers and just add a 90 degree elbow and go into your existing exhaust. The biggest power gain would be from removing the cat, which is more than likely plugged up any ways.

My headers went on easy, with no hassles. I made my own home made 3in exhaust which was very cheap upgrade. The car is pretty quiet at idle, but when you go wot she has a bark.

aklim

Well, he is handicapped or so he keeps reminding us, over and over again.

Mike Holmen

Hopefully soon you will get a chance to drive your car. I did my headers/exhaust on jack stands in my own garage. Must have crawled under the car a thousand times building my exhaust. I think the shorty headers are a pretty easy install, if you can change spark plugs you should be able to install the headers. If you lived closer I would volunteer my help/services on getting it done the way to you visioned it.

Best of luck John, I'm glad that your enjoying the C4. Make it your car. Cheers.

aklim

That is impressive How did you determine that? TPIS advertising is 20hp and 20 ft/lbs improvement on mild engines so if a shorty ALONE can do it on a stock motor it is impressive. How did you measure that and what did you have done?

Mike Holmen

Chassis dyno. My car has a good tune in it. I was impressed as well. My car picked up 100 rwhp over stock just with pro tune, headers, injectors and intake.

aklim

Fair enough. I never checked headers alone to see what it does so I have to go off the estimate that TPIS provided and subtract something believing they probably "fluffed" up the numbers a little Headers, intake and tune on a stock 350 is credible though. I think the F-body L98 is said to have more room for improvement with the right header and intake and tune. I think someone said the C4 with the L98 didn't have much more unless you put intakes and headers.

Mike Holmen

I'm running a LS 6.0 LQ9 engine not sure what a 350 SBC would do.

aklim

I did think of running an LS after my motor went but decided to just get a car WITH an LS and maybe run a bigger LS engine in it. I hear they have a lot of room for improvement with a little work.

I would be curious what the L98 will do since I would conservatively estimate the TPIS headers to make 15 HP and 15 ft/lbs more seeing as how TPIS said it is 20 and 20 on a mild motor. Kinda why I don't place much faith in shorty headers as being worth it for really much. My understanding is that if you are in a smog **** state like CA, it might be all you can do but if not, I'd either stick with stock for go for LT headers WITHOUT the AIR tubes.

ctmccloskey

I see that you are a fan of the C4 design and it's great engineering. I too like what the guys at GM did with this car!

There are people here on the Forum who have engine compartments that look "better than new". Before I would install the shorty headers just to make the engine pretty, I would focus on making your engine look like it did when it came from GM. I have a C3 and a C4 and have spent hundreds of hours on each cars engines. I like my engines to look nice and it is nice for people to be able to see a clean engine. Cleaning is probably the BEST thing you can do for your engine. After thirty years of grime and road dust working against you it might take some time.

I have 5 ruptured Discs in my lower back, I am "disabled", "handicapped" or whatever you want to call it. I take Morphine every day just to be able to walk, life sucks when you hurt all the time. I REALLY understand that part. That is my "personal burden" and I try to manage like anybody else.

Having installed the headers on my C3 where they were replacing the factory cast iron Big Block exhaust manifolds (which flow really well to start with). The job was fairly easy until I had to make a pipe to connect from the outlet of the header to the exhaust system....A major PIA. I have toyed with installing headers on my C4 as well, they would be a lot harder to do on that small block than on my 1968 427 engine. Do not assume that anything will be "easy" or can be done "cheaply" when working on a C4.

I replaced my C4 exhaust with a "Chambered" cat-back system from Allen's Stainless Exhaust Systems to improve the sound and see if it would help much. While doing it I removed the original catalytic converter and replaced it with a Summit High Flow Catalytic converter. When done I used a GTECH PRO and verified that I had gained like 14 hp total and that was after replacing the catalytic and the exhaust. Keep your catalytic, just replace it with a high flow unit, it is important that we keep the emissions systems working properly. It is also the responsible thing to do.

Be weary of very inexpensive parts like those shorty headers on Amazon for less than $100, they are probably junk as there is no way you can know just how long they would last. The add mentions "Stainless Steel" and then says "Polished Chrome", which is it? Have you seen Chrome headers before? They get rusty REAL fast and Chrome discolors when it gets hot. For $100 bucks it is probably not quality Stainless Steel. Why do they throw that in? If you installed the Shorty headers on your car just assume that they are for "looks only" because they will not make your car faster or more powerful. The long tube headers I have on my C3 were $700 in the shiny silver finish. I did not have the GTECH when I installed the headers on the C3 or I would have known exactly what they added. I would still consider headers on my C4 but I would have to say that the people pushing the long tube headers are correct about the difference in performance. Those shorty headers are simply "eye candy" and will be a PIA to keep polished. There has been lots of testing of headers and the long tube design is better and makes more power, but they cost a bunch more than shorties do. On my old cast iron manifolds I used Calyx to keep them pretty, it worked great and it makes a real mess on your skin.

I hear what you are saying about the reasons for the shorty headers, they would look cool on an engine. Are they worth the money to install? It will cost you more to install them than to just buy them. Take your money and get that engine all spiffed up. You will appreciate it the next time you have to work on it. Take the money from the headers and buy new down pipes without the pre-catalytic converters on them and a high flow catalytic converter.

Whatever you do is fine by me but just understand that they are not power enhancers, I could barely feel any difference with my C3 using Long Tube headers after I finished the installation. My C3 headers look like poop because the of the dreaded spot disease the shiny silver coatings develop after time. When I put the headers on my C3 the local Corvette shop told me that headers are responsible for many Corvette Fires every year, the tighter it is the worse it gets. By the way, on my 427 I can change all eight plugs from on top and in less than 15 minutes, the headers make the plugs on the odd side (1,3,5,7) harder to change than before and I have to use plug wire protectors if I want to keep my spark plug wires from melting.

I hope that you make a decision that makes everything better for you! Make a list of all the things that you can do to improve the engine's appearance and do them at a pace that you can manage. People do look at you funny when you park in a Handicapped spot in a 50 year Convertible Corvette. It works for me!

Mike Holmen

I guess your gonna have to try and see what it takes. I want to get a L92 take out and put my LQ9 and parts into a different project. The L92 is a better starting point. With the right tweaks easy 450-500rwhp without breaking open the bank.

Entitledtoast

The only person who is negative is you my man.
I literally just spent 15 minutes opening an account on this site just to reply to your Idiocracy.
I just did my necromancing spell and revive this thread from the dead just to let you know how stupid you are you claim to be physically handicapped but I think you're definitely mentally handicapped more. and I'd like to sit on the record that you did say and I quote

"Any comments, advice, criticisms, etc... will be very welcome and greatly appreciated."

Seeing how you did not stay where your goals were exactly I think a lot of people gave you a lot of really good advice you got one or two silly things but that's what the internet is you have to sift through the BS and enjoy the silly stuff for what it is instead of getting butt hurt.

Also you claim to be physically disabled yet you think it's a good spending of your time and resources and you're limited physical body which I bet hurts cuz I'm physically disabled as well and it is very painful to work on my car. but you think it's more important to have shiny headers on each side of your engine that nobody will ever see is more important than making actual power by investing in lontube headers. So you're willing to have your car down for possibly 5 weeks cuz you said it takes you a long time to do things just to have a shiny metal inside your engine bay.
you have been dropped on your head as baby my friend