something don't sound right. i thought i would check out headers for my 97 bone stock (for now) c5. i know most of the well known headers are usually 8 to 1200 bucks. so i googled c5 headers and see 237.00,384.00,556.00,229.00 for stainless long tubes with x-pipe. what gives? i'm from the "get what you pay for school" and too good to be true school.has anybody on this forum bought and installed these too good to be true headers?? i have a borla x-pipe under the christmas tree now and i know for a fact the wife paid 253.00 for it. you mean for the same amount she could have bought a set of long tube stainless with x-pipe for the same amount? something don't sound right. your thoughts?? thanks.Denny

 

The cheaper headers, mainly from ebay, sometimes have fitment issues, cheap clamps, not the best stainless or welds, etc......But, many folks get these to work with little issue. Its the luck of the draw with the cheaper sets......Good luck

 

got a little ahead of myself on this post. searched on this forum and found my answers. thanks

 

thanks for reply. i have some exhaust experience on my past hot rods but not sure i want to do it again on this c5. i'm getting lazy

 

kooks headers are pretty pricey. for that price they should fit perfect. thanks for the reply.

 

like you said in your original post, you get what you pay for. If you want American made headers that fit, you pay more, the Chinese knockoffs are cheap

 

i have decided to give this a try. have spent about 4 hours reading pros and cons on this subject and watching u-tube installs. i remember back in the early 90's i had a pair of well known slip fit headers for my bb 70 chevelle that were very expensive back then. i had to re route a tube that ran right against my starter. had my friend weld it back up in a different location so i could save my starters. i gotta stop whining about projects in my old age (i'm 74). this is whats in the garage for spring and summer 2021. comments welcome. ls6 manifold, polished stock throttlebody, open air air filter (kf1010), fresh air to the air filter (fog light area opened up) borla x-pipe with ti axle back mufflers,already installed trans. fluid cooler,will go either 160 or 180 thermostat, have installed sac city remote fan controller,have installed b&m 3 position shift improver. this is a pleasure car only and driven on sunny days and weekends (97 auto 48k). this is the only car that the wife enjoys very much out of all my muscle cars that i have owned over the past 45 years. there will not be any internal engine mods and that includes head removal or cam changes. when i bought this car (august of 2020) i told myself that there would not be any mods done of any kind. i call these efficiency mods, i can't help myself. also is there much of a difference between the stock convertors and the free flow ones for what i'm doing? btw as an old hot rodder i had to be convinced by my life long career mechanics that these engines run hotter than the old school engines. those were very warm conversations. done with the rant so thanks. Denny

 

X2!! Have had mine 16 years, no problems ever.....

 

I hear ya on the older age thing. I'll be 67 in a few months. C5s can be a challenge to work on, especially the passenger footwell fusebox! DOHHHH!!! Anyway, you may find, as I did, that the C5 runs better the hotter it gets. Before I get killed, let me elaborate. By hotter, I mean coolant and trans temps only, NOT intake air temp. I also installed an LS6 intake. These LS composite intakes don't "heat sink like old school aluminum intakes did. As for your exhaust system, when mine was totally stock, I kept the stock manifolds, gutted the converters for strip use, and put on a set of Flowmaster mufflers. When my A4 2000 Vert engine was totally stock internally, on the dragstrip, mph improved on every run I made in succession, one after another. The strip is in a rural area of Michigan, Ubly Dragway, in our "Thumb". Only track, besides Milan, that I didn't get black flagged for no roll bar running high 12 second ETs. Must have a roll bar in any convertible running under 14 second ETs. Anyway, I went with a 160° thermostat, mainly because I went with a 25% underdrive pulley. So once thoroughly warmed up, it still ran around 190°-200° with the stock radiator. At Ubly, I could make run after run when arriving at their opening time of Noon, on a Test & Tune day. It never failed, the less time between runs, the more mph on the trap speed, up to a certain point, of course. Best of luck to you......

 

thank you very much for the reply. nobody is more anti-chinese than me. especially with the climate out there now. to save up 12-14-hundred bucks for a set of headers will never happen to me. the chinese have probably already got their money for this and i hope i'm helping the USA people selling this product. thats just a guess but i hope it's true. btw wisconsin big ten badger country, i love it. Denny