Shorties vs. Long tubes

[Mighty Thor]

Are there any real advantages and disadvantages to these too?

Which one would be great for our application?

I think, I know the answer but I want to hear some input from y'all. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[1DangerousV6]

i'll add to this [img]smile.gif[/img] ..because i've been thinking of adding headers...i've done a lot of searching on rksport's for long tube..and pacesetter for short tube...it seems like rksport's look AWESOME...but they cause leaks for a lot of people and i think its the down pipe you have to get to fit right on a 98+ ...while the pacesetters dont look as cool...they fit great, dont leak, and require no modifications...i've heard although they are smaller diameter that they perform just as good as rksport's ...which is why i am thinking of going with the pacesetters myself and just powerder coating them chrome [img]smile.gif[/img]

[WickEdSix9838]

first of all, noone makes long tubes for our cars. Long tubes are without a doubt better. The shorter the primaries, the more RPM's you have to turn to make the best of the power. The longest tube the pacesetters out of the box had was around 15" if i remember correctly while the shortest was 6". The longest tube on my custom LT's is 30" and really still needs to be longer. It can be done but room becomes an issue and lots of time can be spent bending the tubes right to get them equal length and to the right length. For our cars the primaries really need to be around 34-38" long. On a stock motor 1.5" primaries are the best with a 2.25" collector, but once you get up to about 285-300 crank horsepower, 1.625" primaries can be used. If you are willing to spend the money, longtubes are worth it, but most rather just deal w/the short ones. Also, the collectors on the pacesetters are junky, not just that they dont seal, but for performance. The downside to the short pacesetters is room to work on the car. For the short time i had them on the car, the collector was in the way to change the plugs. With the long tubes I have a lot more room to work from underneath. Plus a longtube will produce a more mellow and less screachy exhaust tone, ask OneQuickV6, he's heard the difference in our exhaust tones.

and just a FYI, i would bet powdercoating would melt off of headers. They need to be ceramic coated. It cost $165 to have mine done locally.

[1DangerousV6]

ceramic coated! ..yes..thats what i meant...thats what they use on the rksport headers i think...which are called LTs on LMPerformance?? ...so...unless you want to spend all the money on a custom job (which i really dont feel like) ...would you recommend rksport's (and just making sure there are no leaks etc.) or pacesetter's? [img]smile.gif[/img]

[snatch]

It says all the headers for our cars are longtube, when in reality they are not. Its a misprint. I think both the headers are mid lenght designs.
Shane

[WickEdSix9838]

Originally posted by 1DangerousV6:
ceramic coated! ..yes..thats what i meant...thats what they use on the rksport headers i think...which are called LTs on LMPerformance?? ...so...unless you want to spend all the money on a custom job (which i really dont feel like) ...would you recommend rksport's (and just making sure there are no leaks etc.) or pacesetter's? [img]smile.gif[/img]

the RKSports and Pacesetters are basically the same thing. Both are shorties just pacesetters are quite a bit cheaper. Pacesetters are also ceramic coated even though they call it something different. For the price and what you get, pacesetters are the better choice.

[1DangerousV6]

cool..thanks for all the great info! (im gonna see how i run doing some other things first) [img]smile.gif[/img]

[snatch]

Here are a few links I found in my hours of searching for longtube designs on company time.
http://www.headerdesign.com/extras/design.asp
http://www.thedirtforum.com/headercalc.htm
Shane

[snatch]

Are you sure ours are a shorty? What determines it? I always thought it was the positioning of the collector. If you look at http://www.tbyrnemotorsports.com/GTO/gtoexhaust.html
they list all 3 different types and ours more closely resemble the mid lenght design.
RKsports:
http://www.lmperformance.com/images/parts/01096501.jpg
Shane

[Mighty Thor]

Shane that's a good point and I never thought about in that way. Though I notice that Pacesetter is slightly longer than RKSport.

I gues CIA headers would be considered a shorty, right:

http://www.clearimageautomotive.com/.../V6Headers.htm