Well, i am going to just make a thread about these junk Ebay pieces, they were 79$ new plush shipping and with the stock manifolds being an option from a F car, i had the extra cash for a set of Ebay pieces since i was thinking, F them junk *** small collector sizes, so, i also ordered some 3 inch flanges, 4 actually, 1 for each header once i cut the junk pieces off and 2 for the 3 inch exhaust that will be bolting up.

Give me any input you guys should have, i will update what they look like in person and take progress of me screwing up a brand new set of junk headers. Will be chopping and welding the EGR openings closed.

They always say shorties, especially a set of stock replacement size pieces yields a unnoticeable gain, but i be with a 3 inch collector and being a different exhaust setup, this will have been worth it.

I am going to squeeze the snot out of this 5.3 and it is just till the turbo is installed, so the headers are temporary and will go on another third gen later if i dont sell the setup here or locally.

So, i wont be out much cash if all was to go wrong, but i am sure this will help out, i just cannot spend the cash on a set of Hawks again just to know they will be removed later.

Here they are from the Ebay pics, we will see, should look like hell once i remove the coating in the area i intend to weld:




Might paint them high temp black just so they arent that ugly, LOL.

 

Gonna be sweet if they actually work.

 

looks like no room for plug changes....good luck. I would have just made a set of shorties for your car for about the same price. Those have crap collectors on them and I doubt they'd outflow a stock manifold by much if at all.

 

I cant wait to hear how thesework out for you

 

We will see what happens, i know they wouldnt do much on stock manifolds, but with a 3 inch collector it might be half *** decent.

Dont have te time and a welder than can make a set of headers either.

Collectors showed up yesterday, now i am waiting on the headers.

 

How are you swapping collectors without a welder?

 

I need a good welder for making headers, i can only tack weld the thinner exhaust without blowing through on my flux core machine, i will tack them in, then go to my buddies exhaust shop and finish the job. then i can go back and install, but i just saved a ton of money by switching to Geico, so i might buy a MIG machine ASAP

 

Here we go, got them in today, they are actually not bad pieces for the price, i must admit, i am happy with the design and i am sure they are worth it over manifolds if you have to pay 50$ or so for them, the 80$ i pays was worth it to save weight and the ability to chop and weld on different collectors.

And yes, the plugs will not be an issue to install/remove:













So, i was wondering if i was going to A) remove the collector and install the 3 inch pieces or B) remove the collectors and install my 3 inch mandrel bends and then install the collector for a more convenient lower install and better removable Y pipe that will be built.

 

i've running a set for about a year on my 5.3 with out a single problem

 

Good to hear, any fitment issues with the passenger side? Looks close even though i will be modding them anyway.

 

no fitment problems with the right side, but I used 2.50" collector pipes. had to use 90deg. sparkplug wire on back plug, for the straight wire all over collector

 

Did you modify yours? I wanna see pics.

 

Would like to see any pics, looks in my pics there will be no plug wire issues, so i am wondering exactly why you did, is it because you did some modification to it?

 

It's hard to tell from the pics but what size tube are the primaries on that header? I am thinking about either going with shorties or mids, LT are out of the question. So these might suffice, especially for the price, and if you add on a 3" collector, I doubt you'll see any difference with mids.

 

They are about a 1 5/8, just over actually but not 1 3/4. They will work for me, i wouldnt think they will be holding back enough power to worry about for me since i am not keeping the engine NA for too long.

 

do not have pics, i didn't modify anything. header looked great on mockup but after in car i couldn't use a striaght plug wire on on back plug (oem wires was on haeder)

 

if you look close to the photo above of the rightside header you can see the clearence issue with the back plug

 

Ok, i will find out when it goes together, thanks man.

 

Well, it seems i will be opening one side up to the 3 inched it can actually go as the 2.5 is a choke point and can e bigger, the other side will be altered with a flange, but here is some pics:





They did go in like they were made for the car, i dont have any pics of the EGR parts chopped and welded up, didnt think it was needed, but here you can see how far you can go on the driver side to open it to a 3 inch inlet with a grinder:

 

Here is the pass header ground out with the carbide bit:



Then swapped the flange on the driver side:








Should flow allot better i think.

 

im curious too as to how well this will help in power and sound! i have no problems running my manifolds for now but god are they ugly lmao

 

So they fit the car good before you chopped them up? Are they 1 5/8"? In the pics are you showing how much you can open the flanges up without changing them out?

 

Sound would hardly be effected as well as the butt-o-meter would not be able to feel the difference, but the dyno would tell, i am sure these are a improvement over manifolds any day, ESPECIALLY with a 3 inch collector. For 80$, they are surely worth it, they are not bad quality what so ever, it was worth it to me to mod the collectors to get the most out of them, but not needed if someone didnt want to of course.


They fit perfect before i modded the driver side, now they still fit the same, i opened the pass side up, thats all, yea, you can get the extra 1/2 inch out of the flanges no problem, just time consuming and shavings get everywhere, LOL.

They are slightly bigger than 1 5/8, but not 1 3/4.

The drive side flange is so retarded and goofy looking and i didnt have a flange to work with it, so i added my own and didnt have to grind on that one and saved some time.

Wait to go GM for making a flange that is universal one one side and a flange that is a POS one off on the other.

 

I may just pick a set of these up if you say they fit in the car with no mods. They have got to be better than manifolds and my *** won't hurt as bad as buying hawks headers. I can use the hand plasma to open that flange up.

 

They will surely work, but Hawks make more powers and damn sure look better, but these do look kind of tight with the plugs but not as bad as my SBC headers were. They are a direct fit though.

 

very interesting.....I may have to try this down the road if my broke *** can't afford some long tubes haha

Keep us posted!

 

It is possible that the small primaries restrict flow more than the collector did. Only way to know would be to install unmodified, dyno, then modify and dyno again. Can't say I'd be willing to go through that hassle, though.

 

Well, from the stand point of 2.5 collectors and 2.5 exhaust into 3 inch I pipe VS 3 inc collector, 3 inch piping into 3 inch I pipe, pretty sure lie usual it is losing some TQ in exchange for HP, that is what happens pretty much every time i have seen the difference in exhaust size.

 

These really get the W for a budget, you dont want manifolds but arent looking for peak power? Yea, these are good for that. Sure they will leave power on the table, but a stock to mild setup, these will surely get you into the swap with no issues i think.

 

I dunno how much you'd really gain on a 5.3 going from a 2.5" collector to a 3"? As long as its fairly streamlined inside (where the tubes meet the collector, and collector to the flange) then 2.5" outlets should be more than adequate for a little 5.3L.

 

Every bit counts if you are loking for it, but the cheap headers go to what you can see in the photo about 3 inches, slightly larger, then slam into a flat flange with a 2.5 hole. So there is power to be gained and i wanted 3 inch not 2.5, so for me it was cool to experiment and share it here for those with larger exhaust needs/wants. For a 5.3 they would work with the 2.5s for sure, but i have a cam and was looking to help the top end out as much as possible without spending much.

 

Well, installed the plugs and wires and i did not have to use a 90* boot anywhere, i will say the rear pass side plug was a bit of a booger, but FWIW i bet most of you guys dont have gorilla hands, so being bigger is not better for working on cars, i might get a trans in and out easier laying on my back but average and below DIYers can surely whoop me in the tight area department.

So, i am still claiming these to be a damn good set of headers for the price, i still wish someone made these with a optional collector setup so no modding would have to be done, but that is the way it is, they look decent after me fondling them with my greasy hands after install and removal and trial fitting ect, still have not tried to clean them off with anything, but they are in and the car is nearing completion:

 

Looks good dude, Any below the car pics and closer to the header pics? BTW.... LMFAO at that 30 Foot radiator hose.

 

Well done, I may have to get a set of these. By the time I ship a set of these out it would probably be cheaper than manifolds anyway because they are lighter.

 

Those look exactly like the ones that I just installed on mine, I didnt modify the collectors tho. I will hve it on the dyno next week, I will video it and post all of the results, then swap to the hawks long tubes and thier full system and dyno it agian and post those results. The shorties were very easy to install and the exhust shop had the passenger side flange on the shelf, we cut the flange off of the drivers side manifold and reused it. I paid a little more for my shorties, 150$ I was told they were JBA brand headers but after seeing pics of yours I'm prretty sure that they are the same thing....
Also if you look at my thread on my swap I relocated the alternator to the passenger side with a simple bracket and then was able to make a short and tidy upper water hose, just my 2 cents.

 

I will take some pics from the underside today for you. The hose is what it is till i get he odler water pump, the one in the pic has a outlet angle i cannot change like the older one my 89 has.

Im sure there is more power to be had with these anyway.

Thats great man, a before and after dyno would be good to know, what size engine and cam specs?

I was going for rock bottom budget with this on the little things, like accessories, the water pump is a 08 model, my 89 has the older one from 2001 that the water neck can be tapped out and spun to the driver side so the stock upper can be used, also we did custom brackets for te stock alternator:




This is the setup in the 86, you can see how the outlet is:

 

Too bad you dont have a set of manifolds to try first and see what, if any, power is to be had from the shorties

 

Undercar pics AND VIDEO:






vIDEO:

 

Damn thing is stupid loud:



The rest of the exhaust to come soon.

 

sounds good! what are you doing for the rest of the exhaust an what cam are you running?

 

Cam is apatriot grind, 225/229 @ .050, .582/.589 lift on a 114 LSA.

Exhaust will be 3 inch Y to a single 3 inc I pipe and a 3 inch bullet dumped at the axle.

Glad you like it.

 

I'm curious to see how you build the y pipe I'm about to do mine for my swap and after seeing this thread I want to buy a set of these headers but I had the egr stff cut off and welded up on my stock manifolds but a full 3in y pipe would be nice. I may just make mine a 3in y and then later mabey for a winter project next year throw a set of these on lol kinda curious what the sound diffrence would be on a cammed motor with manifolds vs these shortys.

 

Honestly, the sound would not be hardly noticeable with the same Y pipe, but a 2.5 to 3 VS a 3 inch to 3, it might be a slight difference. But the same setup running throught the same muffler will all be in the same neighborhood.

I will post pics when i get the Y and exhaust on as well as a sound clip, but i am out of cash now so i dont know when the hell i will be able to put it in the exhaust shop. I have a 3 inch U bend mandrel that will be used to make it flow better than the exhaust chops bender can do.

 

Yeah I've got pipes from a 3in american thunder blowmaster exhaust kit I'm going to use with my 14in si/so 3in magnaflow in the stock location with one tail I just need to fabricate a y pipe and I'm thinking of runing it in the stock chanel for the cat and get a flowmaster merge and put there and buy some manderal bends and do the rest myself since no shop around here will touch it since it will not have a cat. I may throw in a cutout somewhere in the mix but chop up my over the axle pipe and run a second tail for the cutout sorta like the borla systems.

 

HAS ANYBODY tryed getting long tubes from a 3d gen and changing the flange on top or does the angle not work because 1300 for long tubes is not going to happen seeing that my project cost 750

 

Are you talking about SBC long tubes? If so completely different flange pattern, and it would require a high amount of modification.

 

Third gen big block would be the closest to the LSx flange. Hooker 2226HKR are $520. That's 5/8ths of the way to Hawks, which are stainless. Ceramic coated are another $245. That's almost all the way to Hawks.

If you're talking about the 2" primary version, I can't imagine needing them on a $750 LSx.

 

Yea, my 800$ headers look and perform well on my 700$ engine, 1200$....not happening any time soon, LOL.

 

You meant $80 headers, right?

 

I ordered the same set as you thanks to this thread lol, I had to have some anyways.