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Headers on this car serve no purpose. Pretty much no gains when added with any other NA mod. Which most have at least an exhaust. You would have to give them to me for before I would install them and that’s only cause they look better.
IMO there’s only three great things for this car.
1. An exhaust for most of your freed up NA power and weight savings.
2. Head work. Costly, good NA gains, and reliable.
3. Going FI. Also costly but guaranteed a fast car and lots of joy. Seems to be reliable as well. A lot of people beating up on them and holding up well.
Hi all - I am thinking about buying the ARH 1-7/8” racing headers for my C8.
has anyone had experience with them?
1. they don’t have heat shielding like the stock headers - anyone notice heat issues or changes?
2. How much louder does it make the car? I already have S-Type Borla.
4. is it worth the price and install? Feel any power gains or no? I know the advertised gains - but is it worth spending $2500? (Cost plus install)
5. any drivability difference?
thanks!
tom
I went with a competing brand of headers (aFe Twisted Steel) but can speak to a few of your general questions.
My aFe headers & Corsa cats are coated with Cerakote Titanium ceramic coating and my engine bay temps are no higher than when stock.
Minimal change when I did the headers prior to installing the cats. The biggest difference was being able to hear the AFM V8/V4 changeover more audibly.
you have no #3
I DIY installed them myself in the garage and it is not that bad of a job, even working alone. I did not lift my car nor did I remove the wheels. My header install write-up thread includes all basic hand tools required. The car definitely has a fatter mid-range and feels great. I let my wife drive the car and even she noticed the car feeling more responsive and stronger.
To elaborate a bit on #1, aFe and Lingenfelter both offer headers ceramic coated for heat control. I had my Corsa cats coated to match. I've heard of people having their ARH headers coated as well, but not sure if that's something they offer direct or not.
I put American Racing Headers and Cat Back system and an Attack Blue air cleaner on my 2021 HTC. I did a before and after Dyno.
Stock #'s were max power 427 and torque was 418.
After #'s were Max power 440 and torque was 433.
I would do it again and the Best part was that I got rid of those BUTT UGLY tips
I have the AHR headers. I had them ceramic coated by a local shop. I don't really hear it being much louder. GM made a great header. You're not going to see much in gains at all. Sorry.
have the ARH headers. when I come off the track the rear camera is glitchy, sometime it doesn't work. I wrapped the headers and it got better but it still acts up mat times. once everything cools off the camera is fine. no issues on the street 10k miles this way. I put headers on when I had 1500 miles.
I put the ARH headers on my car a while back. Very nice product, beautifully made, and great fit.
I have not noticed any heat issues.
It made the car slightly louder, and a bit more raspy to my ears. They car is still too quiet, but I've haven't been able to talk myself into paying the asking price for a cat back.
I did not dyno, but noticed no improvement in acceleration. I made no performance measurements before and after.
The car drives exactly as before, no issues.
For the money, probably was not worth it for me, but down the road, I'll consider other mods the headers might support, if any prove worthwhile.
I’m also planning on buying the ARH soon. I will send them over to Jet-Hot to have them coated. I already have borla Atak, soul cats, attack blue filter, ported intake manifold from GPI, ported 95mm throttle body and throttle controller from soler. This will be my last mod to help get more of that exhaust out.
I’m also planning on buying the ARH soon. I will send them over to Jet-Hot to have them coated. I already have borla Atak, soul cats, attack blue filter, ported intake manifold from GPI, ported 95mm throttle body and throttle controller from soler. This will be my last mod to help get more of that exhaust out.
Just wondering which particular mod created the most horsepower..... I am going with the
ported intake manifold as I have seen an actual swap in action at the drag strip without headers. Also on the same car the headers really just increased slightly through the quarter mile. Didn't seem like it was worth it. However, soon there will be more C8's out on the drag strip to prove a point regarding headers with the complementing mods.
I installed the ARH headers myself. Easy install, a bit time consuming. Nice product, no complaints. Would I do it again? NO. Zero benefit, other than they look cool. Not louder, no butt dyno difference at all. That being said, I'm about to install the MBRP muffler delete, Halltech hornet and Soler perf TB and port my own intake. I didn't say I make any sense, but there ya go!
Agreed on the fairly easy yet time consuming header install. Interesting that nobody is feeling any improvement on the butt dyno with ARH headers considering both my wife & I felt it on my car after the aFe Twisted Steel headers. I suspect it has to do with the runner design (4-1 vs. Tri-Y) and area of the powerband where gains are being found (ARH claims top-end while aFe is finding their gains with a fat midrange).
Butt dyno wise, the headers and intake made more of an improvement than the cats did, but cats added the most noise of the three.
Agreed on the fairly easy yet time consuming header install. Interesting that nobody is feeling any improvement on the butt dyno with ARH headers considering both my wife & I felt it on my car after the aFe Twisted Steel headers. I suspect it has to do with the runner design (4-1 vs. Tri-Y) and area of the powerband where gains are being found (ARH claims top-end while aFe is finding their gains with a fat midrange).
Butt dyno wise, the headers and intake made more of an improvement than the cats did, but cats added the most noise of the three.
I think I feel a little more power in the butt, but it's not really noticeable. I think it's in my head. My dyno graph is nice and smooth compared to what AHR shows on theirs. And the same with the Halltech dyno graph.
Ok sounds good - so what i am hearing from most people is that - sure, they are nice looking and sure go ahead and do them if you don't mind spending the cash. But - you aren't really going to make any appreciable gains and you aren't going to really feel a difference. I think i'll pass. I won't be racing my C8 - just spirited driving and such. I am installing an S-Type Borla cat-back, which is supposed to gain like 10 or 12 hp. I think thats good enough for me (mainly installed it for the sound anyway).
Thanks everyone!
Gwatney Performance Ported Intake Manifold
Soler Performance 91mm Ported Throttle Body
Halltech Hornet Intake System on HTC
Paragon Performance Headers (Coated with Cerakote by Instagram @WestbrookBranding)
Paragon Performance Touring Exhaust
Stock Cats
Heat temps are actually averaging lower than stock headers and even after installing the Clear HTC lid
Baseline on graph below was with Halltech Intake and Paragon Exhaust so stock would've been somewhere in the 425whp range, so with that data on tons of stock C8's baselines I have seen there:
29.41rwhp/24rwtq
I've got several Dyno pull vids on instagram if you wanna hear it (sounds mean!) - @MillerTimeISU
GM made a damn good car! Iowa winter storage will have me itching to integrate some of twin-turbo options since I don't believe any of the FI options work on a HTC.
American Racing Headers - Need Advice
