TPS RPM 1-7/8" longtube headers?
 

I'm trying to convince my wife to let me divert some $ away from her pool & outdoor kitchen fund to add a set of longtubes. I've been researching and these appear to be a great option for the price ($1300 is a lot easier to convince her on than $2000). I've seen some members have placed orders but I haven't seen too many reviews thus far. Considering I have had issues with nearly every vendor & product I have purchased for my GS so far, I am getting more and more skeptical regarding my purchases.

Will be going with cats, so the 1-7/8" longtubes with cats are $1299.99 from TPS then there is the option of coating for an additional $300 & the tunnel plate w/thermal shield for an additional $220. With those options I'm back up to $1820. I installed longtubes way back on two of my f-bodies, one was ceramic coated the other wasn't & I don't recall any noticeable difference. Is it necessary on the C6? I've already fully insulated my interior, floorboard & tunnel with 80mil butyl insulation material so is the tunnel plate with thermal shield necessary?

Would love real-world opinions/feedback from those who have purchased and installed these headers. Thanks very much.

Headers
 

Jeff. Kooks for me. They tuck up tight to the body so no scraping unless you get too wild. Mike.

Have you checked out Hinson Headers? They come with a catted H-pipe though.

Vendor wise I placed a order with Juiced motorsport recently for a billy boat fusion exhaust system and they were on point and I will receive it next week as billy boat had to build the exhaust. Which had the cheapest price for the system. Most places may not have them in stock and ready to ship so it maybe a wait. If I were you I would keep an eye in the for sale section. It's almost that time of year for black friday sale and stuff. Vendor CCA is good and I ordered my ARH from Speed inc and it was a tad under $1700 to my door.

ARH headers went into mine & fitment is excellent, makes more "feeleable" power... $$ is always on the mind, & personally would stay away from the cheaper headers. First thing I added after getting the car was Vararam CAI & power wedge (got a great deal on the bundle). Had it custom tuned, another seat of the pants improvement (RWHP went up 25 after the tune alone). Got the headers slightly used (saving $800 over new), tuned again, and my base LS2 will keep up with any V8 car without a supercharger... I really WOULD love a Borla or Corsa or BB axle back exhaust, but >$2k just for that is a hard sell for me right now... gotta redo the bathroom at our beach house!

But best bang/buck is definitely headers... stay with the better brands, LG, Kooks, ARH, Stainless Works. As a rule they're engineered & built better with much better fitment... if you ever had an old GM F-car or Mustang with Hooker headers (showing our age), then you remember how the collectors kept getting smashed because of how low they hung to clear the tranny... every drive you cringed when you heard that damn scraping!

I bought mine over 1.5 years ago. At the time I got LG Pros 1 3/4" which I think are plenty big enough unless going FI later. But at the time I found one of the vendors having a special where buying the headers got you a free tunnel plate. I would have to find the receipt to remember the vendor. But catless LG's and a tunnel plate with these headers were ~$1500 after taxes if I remember correctly.

On my C5, I had a lift and did the install myself with no issues, but didn't install these as I didn't have the tools.....and I've heard that they are a lot easier to do on the C6.

My installer who works on nothing but corvettes said that out of all the brand's he has put on... LG, Kooks, and ARH are the only brands he would recommend because of how well those brands install and fit once on as far as clearance issues.

No coating...but no extra heat that I can tell.

Now when I finally had them put on, I also did a FAST 102 intake ported by Colorado Speed.

Conservative tune and the car (LS2) put down 402/411 rwhp/rwtq and feels like a completely different animal.

Thanks for the replies. I'm familiar with the big names, ARH, Kooks, LG but $2k+ is stretching it. If I can get the same performance and similar quality for several hundred cheaper that just makes more sense. LG is right up the road from me & earlier this year they ran a special for the longtubes, installation and tune for somewhere around $2500 if I remember correctly - that I would jump on. However, for anything else, I'd rather install myself to save on that cost to put toward the tune. A supercharger is in the plans down the road (after my wife gets her pool & outdoor kitchen, and probably after I build an additional detached 2.5 car garage/workshop as well). I rarely drive the car as it is, but I'm just getting the itch for a little boost in performance (& sound).

I can understand. With my C5......I pretty much replaced everything. Cartek heads, custom cam, FAST intake, RPM stage 3 transmission, RPM rear diff with 4:10 gears, trans-differential brace, clutch......when I ran out of stuff to do....I actually got to where I drove the car less and less. Aftermarket clutch had a lot to do with it as it was a bear in stop and go traffic.

With the longtubes and ported FAST on my C6, it's like driving a stock car the way it should have come.....and I don't have to worry about the extra wear and noise by going into the valvetrain.

Last FI car I had was a 2004 Terminator. First mods were an upper pulley swap, then a lower pulley, then a Ported Eaton, and eventually a Kenne Bell.

All I've ever had have been roots style blowers. I would mind trying out a centri style for once as the others made too much torque down low to get any kind of traction!

You might get more mileage out of letting your wife get the outdoor stuff she wants first...lol

I got TPS headers on my LS3 base model. Coated and catless. With custom tune, Billy Boat Fusions, and K&N filter, I'm at 458 RWHP.

How was the install - did you do it yourself? Quality & fitment? Thanks!

Didn't do it myself, no. Install was a little troublesome according to my shop guy. I'm not convinced that was due to the headers though. There's been various work done to my exhaust area so that may have caused some troubles due to previous custom adjustments. In any case, they had to make a slight change in the mid pipe via welding to get it to line up correctly on the passenger side, but nothing dramatic. Driver's side was perfect fit all the way back. Headers fitment is perfect and the coating makes it look super nice. Quality looks top notch and it sounds great. They don't hang low, which I love because my car is lowered on stock bolts and I really don't want to scrape these bad boys and ruin them.

All in all, this is an american made product for a fantastic price that resulted in great sound and great power gains for me. I would definitely buy them again without hesitation.

We've had very good luck with our headers and they are made in the USA with a lifetime warranty.. fitment is excellent.

Our TPS Headers actually have an excellent fit and they actually do not sacrifice any ground clearance check out one or our customers install. and for the price of $999 for a full stainless system that is American made you are getting a product that is guaranteed for life.
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Thanks for the nice review and compliments.. you should have no install issues as they fitment is very good. As far as ground clearance I believe ours has some of the best available.. you will lose hardly any with our headers. The ONLY fitment issue we have seen is when shops install the X or extensions backwards or flipped. We have taken steps to make sure this doesn't happen any more by marking what side and what is the right side :)

Thanks everyone - now the choice or going catted or not? Anyone know what the requirements are in TX?

Headers
 

That is not true it all comes down to the tuner , if the tune is right you should not have any issues. I currently run off road x on two of my vehicles no gas issues.

Headers
 

May be true in your case but not all cases. FYI.