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BBK Short Tube headers

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Old Jul 14, 2011 | 07:13 AM
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Default BBK Short Tube headers

Would like to add these to my 2000 vert. Ironically the 2000 version is more expensive than those for other C5's.

I realize that long tube would be better but don't want to spend the extra bucks; have other mods to do.

Earlier this year I did add a new cat back system and a cold air induction system and then had the car dyno tuned ($400.00). According to the print out, I gained 16 rwhp and 22ft lbs or torque.


Here is my question when the short tube headers are added will I have a "code" error or problem starting the car? Hopefully I will be able to just drive off and enjoy the additional HP and torque. Don't want to spend another $400.00 (know I can do a mail order tune for less) until I add a ls6 manifold but don't want to add the manifold at this time.

Thank you; really love my C5!
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Old Jul 14, 2011 | 09:57 AM
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The BBK headers should bolt right up to the rest of your system w/o any issues. Assuming you're not deleting the air tubes, you shouldn't get any codes unless your system is currently at the outside parameters of what the computer can adjust to (with the addition of the headers, resulting in a lean bank condition).

You can expect a significant amount of weight reduction by using shorty headers over cast iron manifolds. Under hood appearance will be improved. If you elect to use a ceramic metallic coating, under hood temperatures may drop. You might notice a slight change in exhaust note, especially with your after market catback system. Horsepower/torque should be in the range of 10hp.

Last edited by hotwheels57; Jul 14, 2011 at 10:00 AM.
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Old Jul 14, 2011 | 10:37 AM
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Originally Posted by hotwheels57
The BBK headers should bolt right up to the rest of your system w/o any issues. Assuming you're not deleting the air tubes, you shouldn't get any codes unless your system is currently at the outside parameters of what the computer can adjust to (with the addition of the headers, resulting in a lean bank condition).

You can expect a significant amount of weight reduction by using shorty headers over cast iron manifolds. Under hood appearance will be improved. If you elect to use a ceramic metallic coating, under hood temperatures may drop. You might notice a slight change in exhaust note, especially with your after market catback system. Horsepower/torque should be in the range of 10hp.

Well said.....


OP, now stand by for all the shorty header haters to tell you how stupid you are for not going the longtube route...

Enjoy your headers.....
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Old Jul 14, 2011 | 10:51 AM
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Do you live in CALF? if not do Long Tube headers for better gains
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Old Jul 14, 2011 | 10:58 AM
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Originally Posted by hattitude
Well said.....


OP, now stand by for all the shorty header haters to tell you how stupid you are for not going the longtube route...

Enjoy your headers.....
Ha.. not a hater but an owner (Billy Boat's)....

Whats been said already is all true... Plus you find a bit more "Grunt" down low.. I havent dynoed them but my "SOTP" dyno tells me that for the bucks I spent on them I got my moneys worth... and their CA legal (On all C5's except Z06's)

Last edited by BitViper; Jul 14, 2011 at 05:14 PM.
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Old Jul 14, 2011 | 11:08 AM
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100% ON THE MARK!

You stated "I have other mods to do." What MODS?

The shorties are a bolt and go as stated above and will NOT/should not effect your tune significantly. Should NOT throw any DTCs! You will also not gain a lot of HP/Tq with the shorties.

Before you do any MODs, have your Long Term Fuel Trims logged. Note what they are.

I know you want the BBKs. Consider this path to complment your choice in headers:

- SHANER Ported throttle body (it a friggen work of art and works excellent!)





- Ported LS6 Intake manifold (several places can port it for a reasionable price.

The above mods will complement your header selection and give you some additional HP/Tq.

After all your new mods are done, have some one check your Long Term Fuel Trims again. If there severly positive, that indicates that you should tune. The PCM can correct up to 20% LTFT errors but the further off the LTFTs are the worse your fuel efficiency will be and WOT AFR will also be richer.

Just my 2 cents. Im a LT Header fan but I respect your choice.

BC
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Old Jul 14, 2011 | 11:17 AM
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Bill .. is he still in business? He had teh hot set up for a few years then seemed to get a bit "flaky" (heard some comments on LS forums etc).... thats being said...they are a work of art
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Old Jul 14, 2011 | 01:06 PM
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I would like to chime in, that for the ease of installation and cost, the shorty headers are not a bad choice. I just did a long tube header upgrade on my car, and it was way more expensive than I predicted for various reasons (not worth describing here).
There is no shame in the Shorty Header IMHO. If I could roll back time, I would have shorties on my car, a week's more time driving it, and about $2000 in my pocket.
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Old Jul 14, 2011 | 02:57 PM
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I think the BBK's are NOT smog legal still. The B&B's are the only CA legal shortys that I know of for the C5. Check with BBK though - they may have gotten the EO # by now.

I have the B&B's on mine and they are certainly worth doing.
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Old Jul 14, 2011 | 04:34 PM
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I did not mean to be negative on my LongTubes.. Just that I had a shop put my car on the lift, and then jack up the install price by $300. And then I bought HPTuners to tune out the rear O2's (as well as tune the car), and so the whole thing ballooned in cost.

I say go for the shorties of your choice, being mindful of legal requirements. Have a great day everybody!
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Old Jul 14, 2011 | 05:24 PM
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Thanks to all for your through comments! The BBK shorties are CARB legal according to there website. I'll make shue the installer doesn't delete the "air tubes"; not sure what they are????????
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Old Jul 14, 2011 | 09:40 PM
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Originally Posted by bontrager
Thanks to all for your through comments! The BBK shorties are CARB legal according to there website. I'll make shue the installer doesn't delete the "air tubes"; not sure what they are????????
They're the tubes at the top of the headers (up near the valve covers) for smog requirements. As long as they come with the CARB EO#, you should be good to go.
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Old Jul 14, 2011 | 11:05 PM
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Originally Posted by mcm95403
They're the tubes at the top of the headers (up near the valve covers) for smog requirements. As long as they come with the CARB EO#, you should be good to go.
So what should come with the Carb EO#? Sorry still confused.

What is a CARB EO#?

Thank you.
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Old Jul 15, 2011 | 01:10 AM
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Originally Posted by bontrager
So what should come with the Carb EO#? Sorry still confused.

What is a CARB EO#?

Thank you.
To be SMOG compliant, after market manufacturers need to submit their non-OEM part for testing, to prove that it does not negatively affect the emissions of a particular engine. Unfortunately, that costs money. Not all aftermarket vendors bother to spend the time/money to get an exemption, even though their product could pass the tests.

Once the part passes the testing procedure, it is issued a C.A.R.B. Executive Order (tracked by EO #) that allows it to be put on a vehicle and allow the vehicle to be CARB compliant. The executive order will list what engine and/or cars the part is allowed on.

I just checked the CARB database. While BBK has a few EO's for Ford products, I did not see any EO numbers for any corvettes;

EO: D-245 View PDF
EO Date: 1/30/1992
Manufacturer Name: BBK Performance Specialists
Device: Equal-Length Shorty Header
Device Type: Exhaust System / Exhaust Modification
Part_Number: Model_Specification: Modification_Allowed: Remarks:
1985-1986 Mercury Capri, 1985-1992 Ford Mustangs and 1986-1992 Lincoln Mark VII equipped with a 5.0L engine

EO: D-245-1 View PDF
EO Date: 12/22/1992
Manufacturer Name: BBK Performance Specialists
Device: Equal-Length Shorty Header
Device Type: Exhaust System / Exhaust Modification
Part_Number: Model_Specification: Modification_Allowed: Remarks:
1985-1986 Mercury Capri, 1985-1993 Ford Mustangs and 1986-1993 Lincoln Mark VII equipped with a 5.0L engine

EO: D-245-8 View PDF
EO Date: 9/9/1997
Manufacturer Name: BBK Performance Specialists
Device: Unequal Length Shorty Header System
Device Type: Exhaust System / Exhaust Modification
Part_Number: Model_Specification: Modification_Allowed: Remarks:
1985-1995 Ford Mustang, 1985-1986 Mercury Capri, and 1986-1993 Lincoln Mark VIII vehicles w. 5.0L engine

EO: D-245-5 View PDF
EO Date: 1/31/1996
Manufacturer Name: BBK Performance, Inc.
Device: Equal-Length Shorty Header
Device Type: Exhaust System / Exhaust Modification
Part_Number: Model_Specification: Modification_Allowed: Remarks:
1985-1995 Ford Mustang 5.0L 1985-1986 Mercury Capri 5.0L 1986-1993 Lincoln Mark VII 5.0L



You can check any part/manufacturer to see if they have an CARB EO# at this site;

http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/aftermk...es/amquery.php


I ended up with B&B ceramic coated shorty headers for my Vette. When I did the research a few years ago I only found CARB certified shorties for the Corvette made by: B&B, JBA, and there was one other... BBS, I think?

Good luck with your headers...

Last edited by hattitude; Jul 15, 2011 at 01:24 AM.
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Old Jul 15, 2011 | 07:48 AM
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Originally Posted by hattitude
To be SMOG compliant, after market manufacturers need to submit their non-OEM part for testing, to prove that it does not negatively affect the emissions of a particular engine. Unfortunately, that costs money. Not all aftermarket vendors bother to spend the time/money to get an exemption, even though their product could pass the tests.

Once the part passes the testing procedure, it is issued a C.A.R.B. Executive Order (tracked by EO #) that allows it to be put on a vehicle and allow the vehicle to be CARB compliant. The executive order will list what engine and/or cars the part is allowed on.

I just checked the CARB database. While BBK has a few EO's for Ford products, I did not see any EO numbers for any corvettes;

EO: D-245 View PDF
EO Date: 1/30/1992
Manufacturer Name: BBK Performance Specialists
Device: Equal-Length Shorty Header
Device Type: Exhaust System / Exhaust Modification
Part_Number: Model_Specification: Modification_Allowed: Remarks:
1985-1986 Mercury Capri, 1985-1992 Ford Mustangs and 1986-1992 Lincoln Mark VII equipped with a 5.0L engine

EO: D-245-1 View PDF
EO Date: 12/22/1992
Manufacturer Name: BBK Performance Specialists
Device: Equal-Length Shorty Header
Device Type: Exhaust System / Exhaust Modification
Part_Number: Model_Specification: Modification_Allowed: Remarks:
1985-1986 Mercury Capri, 1985-1993 Ford Mustangs and 1986-1993 Lincoln Mark VII equipped with a 5.0L engine

EO: D-245-8 View PDF
EO Date: 9/9/1997
Manufacturer Name: BBK Performance Specialists
Device: Unequal Length Shorty Header System
Device Type: Exhaust System / Exhaust Modification
Part_Number: Model_Specification: Modification_Allowed: Remarks:
1985-1995 Ford Mustang, 1985-1986 Mercury Capri, and 1986-1993 Lincoln Mark VIII vehicles w. 5.0L engine

EO: D-245-5 View PDF
EO Date: 1/31/1996
Manufacturer Name: BBK Performance, Inc.
Device: Equal-Length Shorty Header
Device Type: Exhaust System / Exhaust Modification
Part_Number: Model_Specification: Modification_Allowed: Remarks:
1985-1995 Ford Mustang 5.0L 1985-1986 Mercury Capri 5.0L 1986-1993 Lincoln Mark VII 5.0L



You can check any part/manufacturer to see if they have an CARB EO# at this site;

http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/aftermk...es/amquery.php


I ended up with B&B ceramic coated shorty headers for my Vette. When I did the research a few years ago I only found CARB certified shorties for the Corvette made by: B&B, JBA, and there was one other... BBS, I think?

Good luck with your headers...
Thank you for the through explanation. It's JBA not BBK that I am interested in; my mistake.

Here is the link from CorvetteGuys:

http://www.corvetteguys.com/jba-shor...ders-2000.html

According to this link the JBA shortie headers have CARB EO#D-216-28

Last edited by bontrager; Jul 15, 2011 at 07:52 AM.
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Old Jul 15, 2011 | 10:33 AM
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Originally Posted by bontrager
It's JBA not BBK that I am interested in; my mistake.
JBA has good shorty headers.

I almost bought them instead of the B&B shorty headers, but I was told JBA had "unequal length runners". I think that is bad info (seems so according to the pic).

They should bolt right up in place of your OEM manifolds.

Good luck...
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