If I go the header route, it would be with hi-flow cats. Was considering Z06 manifold takeoffs, but everyone advised going with Long Tubes. So ... OBX = popular on price, not so popular on welds and I don't see a hi-flo cat option. ARs look nice and Lingenfelter's offering ($1798) looks like AR. Don't know diff between AR and Kooks in terms of fit and quality. So, what works best on a basically stock C6 LS3?

1 and 3/4 or 1 and 7/8? Have NPP exhaust that i leave open. With decent tune (not crazy, stupid tune), what are you guys seeing in terms of HP and qtr mile times? Sound much different than NPP in the open position? Ease of installation and NO codes being thrown by the ECM??? Thanks for any and all advice based upon your experience!

 

Well, you're going to get lots of opinions on this one. Try the "Search" button and you will find two days worth of reading. I will touch briefly on your questions. The Big 3, ARH, Kooks, and LG are all of pretty much equal quality. They all make great products and are Made in America. This is my third set of ARH, and all have had perfect fit and no leaks. I personally don't like the cheap made in China stuff, but everyone has an opinion. Most will tell you for a pretty much stock C6, 1 3/4 will be fine and I would have to agree. When I bought mine, there was a thread that someone posted where they did back to back tests with ARH 1 3/4 and 1 7/8 headers. There was a slight gain across the board with 1 7/8 and no loss down low. I paid the little extra for the 1 7/8 and have no regrets. I installed the same NPP mufflers you have on your car. When closed it sounds great to me. When open, too much drone when cruising, and sounds like an Indy race car when you get on it. Headers will increase the sound quite a bit. With any headers, you will get a "Check engine" light. With headers, you should get a tune. I highly recommend Chuck CoW. Again, "Search" is your friend. With headers and a CoW tune, you won't believe the difference in your car. It is like night and day. The LS engine is an amazing piece of work and these two things really wake it up. You won't be sorry. Don't know about HP or quarter mile times. Never been on a dyno or raced, so can't help with that question, but your butt dyno will be happy. Enjoy!

 

Pm sent!!!!

 

OBX or TSP get my vote. Same great quality, same performance, half the price.

+1 on the search button though. This topic comes up at least 2 or 3 times per day.

 

give maryland speed a call. They gave me Kooks 1 3/4 and catted x for a sweet price. Much much lower than $1798.

you will throw a code. You can get it turned off, if you don't want to tune the car. Although, I don't know why you would buy headers and not tune the car.

 

When I was shopping around, I think they quoted me like $1450 shipped or something like that. It was a better than advertised price, but still expensive.

 

Any headers are going to give you the O2 sensor codes and require a tune to get rid of the CEL. All headers require relocating the O2 sensors to a new location and the required tune voids your Warranty.

Continue to use your NPP mufflers, they will bolt up to the mid pipe of any header system.

 

Thank you very much!

And Don't forget the AutroCal and CoW BOOSTER!

Chuck CoW

 

Chuck,

I'll complete this mod right before you get to St Louis!!! When u comin???

 

[ I installed the same NPP mufflers you have on your car. When closed it sounds great to me. When open, too much drone when cruising, and sounds like an Indy race car when you get on it. Headers will increase the sound quite a bit.

I'm an old man and almost always leave my NPPs open. I have 1 3/4" LG pro long tubes with hi-flo cats. The sound alone was worth the price!

 

I'm on my 3rd set of ARs too. Chuck put 1 7/8" on my car. The quality, fit and finish of the American Racing headers is top notch. Plus they're customer service is fantastic. They were the only company that took the time to talk to me about the choices I should make.

I also have the NPP exhaust with the M2W foot controller and in open mode the exhaust is robust sounding and does have a tendency to drone. But that's what makes M2W great. Loud when you want it to be and dead quiet when you don't.

You will be really happy with these headers and a Chuck CoW tune and Booster!

 

Great info from P-town! Thanks much!!

 

Kooks are the best for the price. I installed a set on my LS3 NPP car without cats... no drown when closed, and it's play time when they are open. Pure nirvana... I would have been cheap and go the OBX however, my wife got me the Kooks for Xmas, and I feel like the extra 300$ was worth it!

Fitment is SPOT on, and quality is out of this world. Anyway you go it's going to be awesome. If yuor asking me personally... KOOKS

 

If I could have found Kooks for $925 shipped, I would have jumped all over that. The best price I could find was $1300 or so for a new set. I tried to be patient and grab a set of used kooks,arh,lg, but they never came around and I wanted to get them immediately.

 

I have kooks on my car.

Tampa Tuning. Home of the $280 Street performance tune

www.TampaTuning.com

 

She got a great Xmax deal i guess. After taxes and everything it was only $1080.00ish...

 

That's a smokin deal

P.S.-how's that corn fuel treating you?

 

Thanks for asking!

I was able to successfully run E85 w. Kook 1 7/8" headers without upgrading the factory fuel system. I will be dynoing my car here in the next few weeks.

With E85 only I dyno'd 420whp. I am hoping to be close to 450whp with the E85 + headers.

I have had ZERO issues with running E85 after about 10K miles. I am loving it! including with gas prices going up

 

Pretty awesome. You should do a follow-up to your original thread.

Thanks for the update

Sorry for the mini-hijack OP

 

I will for sure - Just want to get some quarter mile times, and dyno numbers before I try to light the forums on fire