header question
 

Hi guys,

So down the road I plan to add a supercharger.... but not for about 2 years.I just bought a 2010 GS 6 spd conv. I have been thinking of a minor upgrade that would add a little power and sound now and would be something that more than likley I would need/want later with the supercharger add anyway. I never plan to race the car at a drag strip or track the car. I just will street drive the car. In my previous C5 i had 530 rwhp supercharged so I will want for this car to be ballpark 600 rwhp. that all being said.... will i want headers (i would assume yes) If yes which brand and what size? I would like coated as the look nice and clean and stay that way. I plan to use cats..... what do you recommend? headers now for the fun of the extra power and sound or just wait until I do the Super charger?

Also what will I all need the have a safe and reliable SC set up without doing more than I need..... What is the ideal money conscious but yet not money foolish approach? what this should I look for used and what should I make sure to buy new? and is there better times of the year to buy that others?

Thank you very much ahead of your responses for your input. I am trying to plan.

Thanks,

Tom

Kooks 17/8 and a good tune will really wake the car up.

Thanks
 

Thanks I think I will buy a set from custom corvette accessories they are running a good sale on kooks jet hot coated

I have a 2013 M6 Grandsport. I installed kooks 1 7/8 headers and kooks catless mid pipe. I have the npp exhaust and left that on the car. My car dynoed 386whp before and 419whp after. I did that last year. I just had an a&a supercharger installed with meth injection. My car dynoed 638whp after the install. I would guess without meth you would be right around the 600whp mark.

Z06/ZR1 manifolds to tips isn't a bad option either IMO. I'm still running them even with a supercharger at 13-14psi of boost and the cats have held up for years... they won't get as much gains as long tubes, but they are quieter and I don't have any fuel smells to deal with either.

I decided to go with a set of 1 7/8 kooks with Jet Hot and high flow cats and x-pipe, from Chip at Custom Corvette Accessories. Great guy! Great price! Great service! :thumbs:

Those headers are made from quality 304 stainless. No real need for coatings put on them.

Save a few bucks by not having them coated .... but it's your money, not mine.

The coating was part of the special. This way they will not discolor and will always look good. I like that

Yep, he sure is. And kooks are by far the easiest headers to install. I did my 2” kooks in one afternoon, all by myself. Didn’t have to lift the engine, remove the starter, or any of that. And they came with s/s State 8 locking bolts too, which was a nice touch.

The ceramic coating is more for thermal insulation than appearance/protection. Makes a big difference with underhood temps. Wish I had it on mine...

agree
 

Seems like jet hot has a lot more benefits than negatives so I am glad I got headers with the jet hot coating. The only down fall would be the added cost and the possiblity of blowing out my high flow cats..... but not sure if that truly happens because of the jet hot coating?

high flow cats
 

Question about High Flow cats with supercharger. my car is not currently supercharger but someday I plan to. Did I make a mistake to order Kooks 1 7/8 with Jet Hot coating headers with the high flow catted X-Pipe?

Nothing wrong having cats with a supercharged engine

The support guy at Kooks claimed that the High flow cats would blow out and end up in my mufflers when I add a supercharger to them? he recommended "green cats" or catless off road pipe.

I already recieved my jet hot coated 1 7/8 Kooks headers and my high flow catted x-pipe. Just want to make sure there is no regrets with what I bought. Once they are installed there is not turning back. :crazy:

Any idea if there is a down side to the jet hot kooks vs the plain stainless kooks? I never plan to go over 600 rwhp with my car

It's hit or miss, depends on tune and how much power you end up making. Some will hold up, some won't. I was doing 165mph in the 1/2 mile with cats on mine and it was fine, but some people lose them a lot earlier than that. Their green cats are supposed to hold up to higher hp applications better. I don't know what's different about them.

Just run them. No sense in changing them now. I have cats on my car and it's been supercharged for a few years now with no issues

No. With a proper tune that isn't dumping excess fuel into the engine and therefore the cats, they should hold up fine.

I have the 599 Hp Edelbrock E-force on my 2011 GS and I just installed Kooks 1 7/8's headers with catted X-pipe. I will be getting tune this weekend at Norris Motorsports in Indianapolis. I have no concerns. And if the cats do fail, it is an easy thing to just change them out or upgrade the X-pipe to the Green cats.

I decided not to get any sort of coating on the headers. I just covered any exposed wires, mainly around the starter with some DEI thermal insulation. I may take the headers off in the next couple of weeks and wrap them with a high temp titanium thermal wrap.

Cool, thanks for the vote of confidence..... question though...... why did you decide on no jet hot coating? any particular reason? I have had it before on my other cars never had an issue but have been reading lots of mixed reviews on coated and uncoated. To be honest I mostly wanted the coating for the appearance aspect and thought that it would be a good thing as well performance wise too. Congrats on your set up!! how do you like the E-force? I have heard good things and have been waffling that style vs the centif style which I have had before and worked great for me.

want are the down falls
 

What are the down falls of jet hot coating? I don't understand why so many people are either pro coating or don't like it.

My car will be only be a street driven car not at all a daily driver only for nice days.....

The only real functional benefit from coating headers is reducing underhood heat but even then, I don't feel that the benefit of that justifies the cost. Definitely, will make a difference in the appearance. But I really only care about functionality and appearance is a minor concern.

I like the E-force a lot. It is a nice kit and pretty easy to install. I can't say that the power blew me away but it just overall makes the car feel much more solid and fun because of the increase of low end to mid range torque. It does have its limits on power and does heat soak faster than the centri units. The centrifugal superchargers also have more power potential but I am more concerned with fun street driving and don't need max top-end power. Knowing what I know now about it, I would have preferred the Magnuson Heartbeat kit over the Edelbrock. Both kits once installed are excellent. But the install instructions of the Heartbeat are much more thorough and easy to follow than the Edelbrock. The Heartbeat also has a little bit better cooling system.