Help me make this decision from people that have these.... I have a basically stock 99' FRC and I just ordered the Borla Stinger and Magnaflow x-pipe. They are suppose to be here on Monday.... I don't want to install the x-pipe and have it be "used" if I get longtubes here shortly.... Which is the best mod?! How does the lg longtubes sound with no cats through the stinger?! My last C5 had the loudmouth, but I have had several ls1 Z28's and Trans AMs that have had Heads/cam/ longtubes with off road y-pipe and free flowing catback.... I know the exhaust is completely different on a vette, but I don't want the raspy sound that I had before with the previous off road setups.... Which will provide the most gains?! Which would provide the biggest grin?! :lol: I am not doing heads/cam to this car... had too many problems in the past with issues after the swap..... The most I will do is throw on a procharger from A&A here eventually, but other than that.... it will only be a bolt on car. Thanks for the advice and help!!! :cheers:

 

You will feel a bigger difference with the gears.

 

You will feel the biggest difference with the gears but if this is your daily driver I would go with the headers. You will enjoy the sound of them on the C5 exhaust setup. The stingers might be loud from the outside but I think knowing you have these setups before you will enjoy the added sound.

 

I'd go w/the gears. I have 3.73s and they made a difference. Also, a buddy of mine (QUIKAG here on the forum) has a C5 with 4.10s, which in daily driving it's just fine and with your foot in it you definitely tell the difference.

Also, if you're planning on adding more power later, now is the time to throw in a hardened output shaft, as the labor cost to install it now should be very little since the rear end will already be apart (and it'll be considerably higher later).

 

Thanks for the advice!!!! Do C5's rasp with no cats?!

 

gears... 4:10 are the biggest bang for the buck on a N/A car.

 

The 4.10's wont necessarily add more hp. It will feel like it though. If you're set on the gears, go with the hardened output shaft for an extra $250-300. As said before it's a heck of a lot cheaper to do now. On the other hand, your topend might suffer a little and the noise of 4.10's might be somewhat irritataing.

Personally, the gears will make the car feel faster, but the LG Longtubes in combination with the catback and tunning make for an extraordinary benefit.

Just my $.02

Matt

 

The 4:10's will give you better performance than the longtubes.

If you were putting a heads/cam setup on then the long tubes would be the way to go.

If it was me I would definately choose the gearing over the longtubes.

No rasp with just the headers.

 

:iagree: :thumbs:

 

I concur with my buddy, Steve. Get the 4.10 gears. I did the long tubes first and it was a nice gain, but were I do it over again, I would DEFINITELY do the 4.10 gears first and then long-tubes second.

I wouldn't gut the cats or go to off-road pipe either. The gain is neglible on near stock cars and it's not worth the hassle down the road or potential fine.

 

Thanks everyone for the advice!!!!! I am pretty sure I will go with the 4.10's for now. I wasn't sure though if I buy the offroad header setup from LG if I would have rasp with it though (still using stinger exhaust), for future reference?! Thanks! :cheers:

 

If you get LG's longtubes with no cats and Borla Stingers your car is going to be LOUD. I don't exactly what sort of rasp sound you're talking about, but it's going to be a loud beast.

Once you start going to custom exhausts and whatnot, the sound between LS1 F-bodies and C5 vehicles is going to be very similar.

 

Tyler,

As another member has already stated, the 4.10 gears will deliver the most grins. The 4.10 gears deliver 19.8% more torque at the rear wheels in every gear than the stock 3.42 gear set, 30% more than the 3.15 gear set, and 50% more than the 2.73 gear set.

Long tube headers cannot match that gain in torque.


Good luck with you decision.




[Modified by Pumba, 6:22 PM 1/8/2004]

 

Headers sound cool. 8-) :cool:

 

I made a spreadsheet to understand exactly what HP and Gears do:
http://www.vetteguru.com/apps

gforce.xls

 

try them both :D

 

Just my .02.
I would take the horsepower.

Gears do not add horsepower. They multiply torque, but the same torque.
A car with 410s in second gear has less torque multiplication than an equal car with 342 gears in first. The overall ratio with 342 gears in first is 9.10:1 whereas the same car with 410s in second gear is only 7.29:1
So the 342 car in first gear rolling in against a 410 car at 39 mph would put more torque down to the ground even without headers.

But when you add our LG headers to a normal C5 the torque pick up with the off road pipes at 4000 rpms is over 30 ft lbs. (Usually over 350 rwtq) Real horsepower and real torque is hard to beat.

If you are going to do just standing start/drag racing and always start off in 1st gear, then the 410s will give you a better ET, but lower mph than a car with headers and no gears.

If you are not drag racing then the gears are a waste as soon as you get out of 1st gear.

In road racing, we would race with a 323 rear end ratio. The choice was this: Use a 323 ratio and be able to use 1st gear in the slow corners, or use a 410 and never be slow enough to use first except to leave the pits. The 410 gears would help out leaving the pits, but if the slowest corner was 45 to 50 mph you could not use first gear with the 410 gears.

Lets say that you are driving around in 3rd gear at 50 mph with a 410 in 3rd gear at 3600rpms. The same car with a 342 would be in second gear at 3700 rpms but it would have over 30 ft pounds of real torque to use if the headers were added.

I will take the horsepower any day.

Just my .02

Thanks
Lou G

 

I did headers and cats first and really thought it was great.** Then I did 4.10s a year later and if I could do it all over again, I would have done gears first. Its a mod you can feel all the time and IMO, a better value for SOTP and the grin factor.

I've only been to the track once- and don't plan to visit there often, so my opinion of best mods may be different than yours.

 

Lou, looking at the numbers and plugging all the numbers in my spread sheet (link above), in using your dyno sheet from your site, shows a greater increase with the 4.10 gears than using your headers. Not taking away anything from your headers. they are awesome. You can see more resolution in the spreadsheet, but here are the averages to see the overall picture.

Here are the numbers:


<BLOCKQUOTE>code:<HR><PRE>LG Dyno Before Headers + Stock Gears
Average G-FORCE
1st 0.733
2nd 0.490
3rd 0.358
4th 0.275
5th 0.204
6th 0.138
Total 0.366

LG Dyno After Headers + Stock Gears
Average G-FORCE
1st 0.786
2nd 0.526
3rd 0.384
4th 0.295
5th 0.219
6th 0.148
Total 0.393

LG Dyno Before Headers + 4.10 Gears
Average G-FORCE
1st 0.878
2nd 0.588
3rd 0.429
4th 0.330
5th 0.244
6th 0.165
Total 0.439</PRE>[/QUOTE]


[Modified by kewlbrz, 2:36 PM 1/10/2004]

 

"If you are not drag racing then the gears are a waste as soon as you get out of 1st gear."

This is why Im still undecided on the 4.10s. A car w/ 4.10s traps lower and is slower from a roll. Unless its at a small window of mph. A 3.42 geared car will be in a lower gear (2nd vs 3rd) and will therefore be faster than the 4.10 car.