I have several questions for the personal experience with long tube street Kooks Headers.
I have a 02 Z06
1. How easy was the install?
2. Do they bolt right up, or require any welding?
3. Advantage- with or without cats? Im in Alabama (not required)
4. Regular driving and performance driving opinions.

Thanks for any and all input.
I had a buddy tell me I would like the Kooks header better than the LG streets, he did not say why.
Mark

 

1. Install isn't the most difficult thing in the world. You will have to wrestle with getting the headers in from the bottom. The starter and motor mounts will likely have to come loose in order to get them in.

2. They bolt right up and shouldn't require any welding.

3. I don't think you'd lose any appreciable power by running the high flow cats. Without the cats, even with an otherwise stock car, you're like to get some fuel smell at idle.

4. They're a hoot. I say go for it!

 

Not hard with the right tools. When I did my kooks, I had to jack up the car about 20" or so, remove the valve covers, starter, remove the motor mount bolts and jack the motor up with a cherry picker a couple of inches to get the both sides in. On the drivers side, I had to use a big prybar to pry the motor over to the passenger side because the drivers side was a tighter fit. I also removed the water temp sensor and alternator to ease with the drivers side. The passenger side was a breeze.

No welding required I'm running no cats but couldn't tell you the advantages of that unless I had a Dyno and could compare with and without cats. One thing I can tell you, without cats, you do get a little bit of fume smell inside the car, especially on stops (ie; lights or stop signs).

As far as performance, I didn't notice any performance gains at all until I had the car tuned. As far as the sound? I love it , I'm still on stock TI, but under acceleration, it's sounds amazing (nasty roar at WOT)

All in all, it only took about 2 hrs for a complete header/xpipe install with the said tools and mentioned procedure.

 

I just ordered the Kooks headers and will have them installed next week when I get down to CO.

FWIW I went without cats. The reason I did this is because its a lot cheaper and there is more power to be made, even if it is only a few WHP.

A car can actually pass an emissions test without cats, contrary to what all the tree huggers on here will tell you. And if you don't drive the car 100,000 miles a year, it will also have an insignificant impact on the environment.

So yeah my vote is Kooks w/o cats.

 

I have the LG Pro LT's not Kooks so I can't comment on those but as far as cats go my car came from Texas and had none when I got it. Like others had mentioned, you get the stank smell in certain situations, just where you would think, startup, idling all that, occasionally some visible haze. I brought the car back to California where not having cats and having the cops catch you is a car impounding offense, and they do look now, so I ordered up a set of LG Met Cats. I was told 3-5hp difference on a stock (tune, CAI) car. I honestly couldn't feel any difference at all, giving credence to the old 'takes at least 10-15hp change to be noticeable seat of the pants'.

Also and I really cannot stress this enough as someone with B&B Bullets, but the biggest difference was going from about loudness 10 to about 7. Having the deafening exhaust was fun for a while but it got old really fast. Not because the noise wasn't beautiful, but because you couldn't get on it at all without causing drivers around you to react, 99% of the time unfavorably, and attracting the attention of the police.

After I put the cats on I could actually drive the car with more enthusiasm on the street since it wasn't so GD loud all the time. Setting off car alarms and getting the little letters in the mail from the CHP saying someone complained about your car is only fun if your still a teenager, as an adult it just got old. So considering they have no noticeable performance downside I would get cats, unless you want to run a more restrictive, heavier muffler setup that would be quieter than the Bullets thereby negating the sound issue. But really a modern state of the art cat doesn't affect your car unless you are going for 1000hp or something. The smell of no cats gave me a headache after a lot of stop and go driving too. I just had to put them in.

 

I have to agree on running cats. I also have LG headers/exhaust w/cats. Considering all the negatives of no cats and an insignificant hp increase, I can't understand the reasoning of not running cats. The smell alone is enough of a reason for me. Plus in NJ, inspection hooks your car to the OBD port and it's not worth possibly failing. I don't think the hp difference would even make a difference in E.T.'s at the strip.

 

sorry to hijack the thread, but do you have to use a engine hoist to put them in or does it just make it a lot easier