hot86z-28

Hey guys and gals, well about 3 weeks ago i sold my 89 Iroc. and ever since i have been lonely when i come home to no camaro in the garage, i have had 2 in the last 3 years, only a year and a half of which have i been driving. so today i bought a 92 RS Heritage Edition with an l03, i can tell the difference between that and the 350 no doubt, but it is a very beautiful metallic blue color. now to the point, to make up the difference is my goal, sooner or later. But i already have headers and an exhaust in the works, the headers are pacesetter, i dont know much about them but from the looks they aren't to bad and for the price i cant beat it and the exhaust i am still up in the air about, i am debating weather i want flowmasters again, they sounded great on the 350. how much difference will i notice with this? also would an open element be of that much help to me? i really dont know a whole lot about these cars but i love the looks and the handling of this one so i had to have it. thanks for all the help in advance.

Frik92RS

Getting a flowmaster cat-back on my car made the single biggest performance gain of anything I've done. The stock exhaust is extremely restrictive, it's a great place to start!

BronYrAur

iTrader: (1)

I wouldn't go with pacesetter headers. You're just selling yourself short with headers like those and will regret it later on. Check out some better headers that you'll want to keep throughout the car's life even if you upgrade to a 350. Look into the Hooker 2055's, they're supposedly, pretty much, the best.

cali92RS

Bron:
The hooker 2055's are 1 5/8".
For a 350, shouldnt you go with 1 3/4"?
Just wondering.

Ken

25THRSS

contrary to belief, cubic inches really has nothing to do with it. Go by the amount of power you think you will be maing. generally 300-350 hp and below should have 1 5/8 and if you plan on making more than that the engine will benefit more from 1 3/4, some guys who have tons of power will even go 1 7/8 or even 2 inch, but i doubt you will ever see those kinds of #'s. No engine that ever came in a third gen shoud need 1 3/4 headers.

hot86z-28

well i can get the pacesetters for 100 bucks and they are coated that's why i was leaning towards those. are you recommending against them because of the small primaries? I am also considering the Dynomax 289-85098 shortys. i am on a really tight budget because i'm only 17 and still in HS, and only have a seasonal job, and with the headers an exhaust system will be installed. i dont plan on putting to much more money into this car, maybe at most and intake manifold and open element is also planned. Thanks for all the reply's

Abel Kane

Why not Hedman?

JPrevost

In my world there are only 4 kinds of headers for thirdgens with v8's. Those include the SLP 4-1 and tri-y's, Edelbrocks TES, and Hooker supercomps. Everything else should be avoided if you want to keep your car running without exhaust leaks for at least a year.
As far as exhaust primary diameters are concerned, it's a tuning tool. There are many beliefs and I can tell you from dyno testing of our little 4 cylinder that there are some strong conclutions to take into consideration. First is that of the tuning peak and anti tuning peak. Basically one is helping pull the exhaust out of the engine, other is out of phase and is pushing it back. No we're not talking about backpressure but again, NO amount of backpressure is good, always bad. Back to the primary diameter. It is used along with the primary length to give you a powerband. It's just like an intake, only exhaust pulse tuning happens at a much faster rate (temperature difference). If you want a good street engine use the intake for your high end and the headers for you low end. A good example is a short runner intake with long tube headers. Now if you're all out drag, short intake and shorter exhaust (still long). Again, the lengths are influenced by SO much that it isn't a universal truth.
The diameter of the primary tubes should be based on overall engine parameters like exhaust, engine, head, and cam. Most 350's making under 400hp will do very well with 1 5/8" while 1 3/4" will give them a couple hp at the peak. The reason for large tube primaries and stepped headers is for a reversion wall. You want the exhaust pulses to leave but have a difficule time coming back to hurt you in the anit tune rpm range. You can do this easily by getting bigger dia headers or small exhaust ports OR stepped headers.
In our Honda F4i we run 1.25" even though the exhaust port is larger. We want 1 3/8" but it's hard to find a bender in the region that'll do it for free. Most only carry 1.25 and 1.5 .
So now that I've explained headers a little bit, let me say that if you have the money, go with SLPs. Especially if you're looking at going to a larger engine.
For the L03, get the exhaust done ASAP. It's as bad as the Lg4's. Then do an open element air cleaner. The rest is up to you but I would save up for a 350 or larger with some better heads. Something to be worthy of a large cam. If you've got time and not a lot of money, lt1 cam swap and a cheap performer carb intake with an adaptor plate works well for getting into the 14's in the 1/4 mile.

Abel Kane

Soooo...why wouldn't you recommend Hedman? They're cheap, they can most likely fit "hammer free", and you've saved enough money to have them coated afterwards.

I'm not trying to make points AGAINST you, rather just trying to determine which headers to get for my own vehicles. I value any advice and I'm only trying to give some myself.

del91_305

I bought a set of heddman and i like them just fine. then fit great and perform well.

JPrevost

I bought a set 4 years ago and returned them right away after looking at the build quality. The welds were terrible and I have reason to believe they are the thinnest guage steel out of the other headers I listed. If you get them coated then it's probably okay, I just don't like them and would rather spend a little more for stainless.
The other good thing about stainless headers is there thermal expansion properties. Open up a good material science book and you'll see what I'm talking about. With cheap headers and steel flanges you'll have exhaust leaks without "locks." Stainless headers require little to no maintinence. Just one heat cycle and retorque the bolts, should be fine for life.
Again, this is only my opinion.

Abel Kane

Good point. I believe what you say, but I'll have to go for the cheapest, easiest fit first. I'll just have to see what happens.

As you would imagine, my muscle car has a little more unusual fit than...y'alls...