I am getting my new headers coated by Swain Tech. Will it be worth the extra $$? - I'll let you. Check them out at:
http://www.swaintech.com/header.html

 

There are two sides to almost everything. Yes, Swain is the best by far! They are the only real thermal coating out there. Everybody else, be it Jet Hot, HPC, whatever, all use the same coating made by Techline right in Texas. It is just paint with some aluminum in it. It doesn't do much but make them look pretty.

Swain does make some pretty wild claims and I have had some experience with them. Yes, their coatings are good. No, they don't do as much as they claim. Now there's a surprise isn't it? A 10%-20% gain in hp over stock? Not hardly. Underhood temps lessened? Yes, they do seem to keep the temperatures down some.

Lets get real here folks. What could an aluminum paint do to temperatures when it is a few microns thick? What could a thermal coating do when it is three thousandths of an inch thick? Basically, what you are really doing is just seeing how nice you can make them look.

 

I haven't heard Kirchofer's side of the story, though I know multiple people including LPE were involved with Stainless Works and they are offering essentially duplicates of Watsons/Jeals. Brian made the biggest push to get these made, and should be commended for his efforts to make this possible. As far as I know, other than Jeal the sole source of LT5 headers now is Stainless Works. So you have your choice of these or Jeals, both related versions of the original Watsons, both unequal length and lacking the creativity the LT5 deserves.

Chris


[Modified by zrchris, 10:10 AM 3/21/2002]

 

What!, they are one and the same?

I think i'll be giving Bill a call this week.

 

I'm not sure if this is correct. I know that certain headers are being produced with a 1/4" flange and others with a 3/8" flange. This would indicate to me that they are coming out of separate facilities.

 

Hey Cam, we should each buy a set, and have a install headers DAY, and invite others to join in and help, and drink some brusky. Hopefully my garage will be done soon, and we could do it there.

 

I know Stainless Works early sets had thinner flanges, and were made thicker at SGC's request. So I wouldn't rule out the same manufacturer for both styles, made at different times.

Chris

 

Very possible.

 

I'm there. Time to break ground on that garage Sam. :cheers:

 

I will be more than happy to drink beer and supervise...

 

You are hired. :cheers:

 

Politics are interesting and unfortunate.

I do have one set of headers left for those who are interested in Alspaugh headers. 895

Email me at LT5PWR@msn.com



[Modified by LT5PWR, 10:49 PM 3/21/2002]

 

You are absolutley right. Brina did the all the legwork for his headers. Watson is actually the company that made the stock headers. Jeal headers are made by the same company that make headers for the Arrows F1 team. I make headers when I drink too much and ski too fast.

 

Jim,

Are you saying that Watson made the stock header/cats?
Also, what is the trade off between 1.75" versus 2" headers on an unmodified motor. Which one performs better?
Dan

 

1 3/4 will give better low end torque than 2s. 2s will give better top end power. With modified car 2s are definitely better.

 

I just got my set of watsons and am wondering about a bung on the passenger side tube. There is one about three inches down the first tube.
What should go here?
http://home.earthlink.net/~weimarane...es/Image26.JPG

 

ZR1,

I was not aware that Swain claimed to make 10-20% more hp than stock from their header coating. In fact, this is the only claim that I have seen from Swain Tech:

"Insulated headers also reduce radiant heat and lower underhood and cockpit temperature. By reducing air intake temperature 10°F, a horsepower increase of 1% results, a 30°F drop equates to a 3% horsepower increase. This is inexpensive horsepower."

[QUOTE FROM ZR1]Swain does make some pretty wild claims and I have had some experience with them. Yes, their coatings are good. No, they don't do as much as they claim. Now there's a surprise isn't it? A 10%-20% gain in hp over stock? Not hardly. Underhood temps lessened? Yes, they do seem to keep the temperatures down some.

Lets get real here folks. What could an aluminum paint do to temperatures when it is a few microns thick? What could a thermal coating do when it is three thousandths of an inch thick? Basically, what you are really doing is just seeing how nice you can make them look.
[/QUOTE]

They do look purdy though :D

 

on the 95 ZR1, what is the best way to deal with the linear EGR system. it hooks up to a bung on the factory header. is it important to keep this for the car to run right??? I can add a bung to the header I guess but capping off the egr appeals to me. I think the egr can be disabled in the chip to compensate.

tia for any advice. :confused:

 

Headers give ONLY 20-25hp WITH good exchaust.. and no cats.. ????

Well.. I cant remove cats.. law says that.

and headers + exchaust will be really expensive 20hp.. :eek:

It will cost about 3500$ :(

 

I don't normally reply to newsgroup posts, but after reading the posts about Stainless Works and ZR1 headers, I felt it appropriate. Being new to this group, i wanted to shed some light on our zr1 headers.

I have worked for Stainless Works for a little over a year. When I started here we had the zr1 header fixture finished and a prototype set made which Bill Kirchhofer had asked us to do. We contacted Bill several times about building these headers and had a few issues: Bill wanted a solid stainless ball adapter to connect to the factory exhaust and he also wanted to look at assembling the headers himself. We did not have contact with Bill for over a year-we tried contacting him to revive the program with no luck. In no way did we ever tell Bill to "**** up a rope" (at least to my knowledge-why would anyone do that to a paying customer???). The last invoice we issued to Bill was for a prototype set of headers and is dated 3-99. In reality, Bill stopped by our booth at the Performance Racing Industry show this past December 2001 inquiring about the zr1 headers. I did not have the opportunity to meet Bill or speak with him, but did send him a quote on pricing per his request on December 11th-just a few days after the show. We have not had any contact since the PRI show with Bill.

Rewind back to February 2001. We had been contacted by Brian Alspaugh to build ZR1 headers. We had already had an interest in building these, so we scheduled a car from a local owner to come in for fitment. The set of headers we had for our jig (the ones we prorotyped for Bill) would not fit in the car. We had to rework the entire header and fixture in order to make the headers fit correctly. We also had to develop the adapters to connect to the factory exhaust hookups. Again the reality is that we spent the time and money to get a car in, fit them and rework an entire fixture and scrap several header pieces to make these fit correctly. IT WOULD HAVE BEEN EASIER IF WE HAD STARTED FROM SCRATCH. Once we corrected the problems we then began to sell these through several distributors, such as Brian Alspaugh, Lingenfelter and South Georgia Corvette. We have not issued an exclusive on these headers to Bill or anyone else nor do we intend to (exclusives usually drive the price up since the market is held captive by one distributor-not good for the consumer). We are trying to supply a good quality product at a reasonable price.

We also realize that the internet and word of mouth are very powerful tools. People we have never met or done business with are saying you should not buy parts from us. We pride ourselves on providing good service to our customers-as an example, I have persoanlly driven to a customers house in Cincinnati (about a 4 hour drive) and resolved a problem he had with a 66 corvette side exhaust. I also drove to Brian Alspaughs to meet him personally and show him a prorotype early last year (it was a few hours out of my way when I was on another trip). We go out of our way to provide service and it bother me that people post heresay and rumors on the internet. The only reason I found this post is because I searched for headers since we are finishing our all 304 stainless C5 header and was looking for feedback on headers that are out there, and ran across this.

Sorry to be so long winded. if you do want to buy a set of ZR1 headers, our retail pricing is $999 for headers with the 1/4" thick head flange and $1099 for headers with the 3/8 flange. We would prefer that you support our distributiors and buy them through Brian Alspaugh, LPE or South Georgia Corvette-they deal with the ZR1's on a daily basis and can answer technical questions, provide dyno info, etc.

If anyone has any questions, they can email me directly at alstainlessworks@aol.com or call us at 800-878-3635. Unfortunately with our work load I can't monitor the message boards all day. Thanks for your time.