Now that my brakes, rear, and shocks are done I want to see what Im going to need to get a nice hp boost and sound out of my LT1. So if anyone can give me some pointers it would be much appreciated. About all I know for sure is that I already have 3" pipe and Iwant an electric cutout (is the QTP - QTEC a good choice?)

 

Well, I personally don't know the answer to your cut-out question, but I can say that you should in the least ditch the stock Y pipe, it's a complete choke point. Whether you want to go with full LT headers or shorties, that's up to you(if you do headers I'd deffinatley suggest LT, if you have to pull the whole system anyway, may as well go full out). Whatever you do, make sure you get a good mandrel bent Y pipe to replace the stock one.

 

I'll be completly honest that I don't know thing about a majority of this stuff on this forum... its a lot to try and soak up with all the differant options, sizes and you name it. Thats why I try and get specific,like this thread,when I go to the shop to talk options I want to at least come off looking as if I know a little bit and not walk in there looking like a nub and being taken advantage of.

So now that you know that I am a complete nub could you (or anyone else) explain to me in a little more detail about some of these options? Like why is the stockY pipe considered a chock point? Its seems to be such a simplistic part it makes me wonder what could be the differance from one to another. And what is the differance with the LT's vs shorties?

My mechanic seemed a little impressed with the current system, he kept pointing out how large the piping was when it was on the lift... even to the point he grabbed some tool and measured it and was like "yea thats a nice 3" ya got there". On the mods list I was given to from the originalowner he mentions "SLP Cat Back Dual/Dual" so what is this exactly?

 

Alright, here's some details for you.

First, headers: You probably konw they take the place of the stock manifolds. They are tubular, steel(sometimes stainless), mandrel bent and have larger primaries than the stock manifolds, and therefore flow better(the better flow is directly proportional to their ability to cool better, but that's needless physics stuff that you really don't need to know). Anyway, the difference between Long Tubes and shorties is exactly what it sounds like. Shorties are a tublular exhaust design that are short enough to bolt up to the stock Y pipe location, benefits from them, they're usually easier to install and you don't have to replace the Y pipe. Long tubes you have to replace the stock Y pipe with one specific to your headers. The benefits of long tubes are more low end torque. With the longer tube, they resonate at a lower frequency, and therefore scavenge more exhaust at lower RPM's, allowing the car to make more torque(think of it this way, if you have a short tube vs a long tube on an organ, the short one has a higher note. This higher note means it has to resonate at a higher frequency. For cars, when the tube resonates it can pull more exhaust away from the port, sine wave stuff with lower pressure nodes etc. so the longer the tube, the more it can pull out, and therefore the more torque).

The Y pipe: The reason the stock Y pipe is so restrictive is because of the way it's bent. From the passenger side, it's simple, straight off the manifold flange and into the cat. From the drivers side it's rediculous, the pipe comes off the flange, curves down in front of the oil pan and then goes into the cat(that's for the single cat design, it's set up in a similar fashion for the '96+ dual cat cars). In all this beding that it does, GM didn't mandrel bent the pieces(costs too much and takes too much time), so the pipe has a lot of little kinks in it. Good analogy for this, how good does a hose that has kinks in it flow compared to one that's smooth? Right now you have an exhaust system from the cat back, so that's good to keep, a lot of people love the SLP systems. If you were to get long tube headers, you'd probably end up having to chop some of that off because the new Y pipe would come back farther than the stock Y pipe. If you were to go with shorty headers and a mandrel bent Y pipe, you'd be able to keep everything as is.

 

95slvr ya for sure learnt me a few things. Appreciate the time ya took to give such an in depth reply [sm=icon_cheers.gif]

 

hey if i were u i would hope on ebay an search for parts i just bought the slp loud mouth exhaust for 377.95 shipped to my door and headers on there are pretty cheap as well so go take a look the ebay stores have some kick *** prices for everything u would want!

 

Well ThumbTack, if there's anything I know and have researched a lot, it's exhaust. Any other questions?

 

Hey guys,

95slvrZ28 - You appear to know your Camaros and good exhausts for them. Think you can give me a quick eval just by looking at a pic?



These are 321 Stainless... I'm not sure about the rules in here so I won't post the price or source. I'e been doing development work with the company on another car and they've asked me to promote thier Camaro kit.

Thanx...

Tim
99 Coupe



[IMG]local://upfiles/7226/65D812724D6F40EA8B91F3B182074B03.jpg[/IMG]

 

ttt

 

Sorry, I've been gone for a few days, just at a glance, I can tell you that the headers are not the quality of my kooks, but they probably don't come at the price premium either. Flanges look a bit thin, welds look alright but not superb. The Y pipe looks much to restrictive where it bumps down to clear the frame. I'm assuming it's for an LS1 camaro, due to the round ports, but the big thing about headers is how they fit. The collectors look a bit small too, are they only 2.5"?