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Headers:holley Vs Tpis

87L98Z52

Active member
Joined
Mar 21, 2004
Messages
39
Location
long island,ny
Corvette
1987 red,z52,4+3 coupe
i have been looking into headers for my 87 l98.i have it narrowed to what i think are the two best ones and want to know you guys opinion.
I am thinking of hookers or tpis long tubes.i want to know which ones are better taking into consideration
1)performance
2)which are easier to install
I also dont know which ones to get as far as emissions goes.i live in ny so i do have the smog test but i do not care about that because i do have connections to get a sticker no prob.my concern is with having to remove the emission stuff.how complicated is it and what exactly do i have to take off.
Am i better off just buying the ones with the emission stuf on it.
to my understanding,both of them come with it and will bolt up to my cat or a 3" pipe if i decide to eliminate the center cat.

My car has the front y pipe that eliminates the precats and the rear y pipe to flowmaster mufflers now.it also has the open airbox lid,k&n filter,smooth air duct,modified mass airflow,ported plenum,air temp relocate kit,short shift kit,tb bypass coolant hose,and a 160 stat.I pass the smog test now no prob!

in the future i am doing the zz9 cam,mini ram,port heads,chip so i dont know if i have to get rid of the egr,air pump anyway and should just do it now or if i can keep that stuff with the mini ram in which case i would just keep the emission stuff.sorry for being so long but i am just trying to look ahead because i can not do everything at once.
 
Performance is equal for the various longtubes. If you have emissions, you can get the Hooker 2149, which comes with the AIR tubing in place if you want to hook that up. It also comes with the O2 bung, but you will need an EGR pipe from 88-91 for the Hooker headers if you decide to leave that functional.
 
How about installing the hookers?Any prob with starter,alt bracket,etc?i heard that the tpis headers were pretty easy but not sure about the hookers,they are $100 less.
Do i have to get rid of this emission stuff later when i get the miniram anyway?
 
The emissions stuff can stay and probably should. You will quite likely have a big problem with not having it if you ever sell the car. My 406 runs great with all of it and I have no worries about the legal stuff. The EPA fine for not having it is huge and we all know how much differently, and therefore how easily detected, the not-CAT cars smell.

My TPIS long tubes went on nicely, but my straight plug heads causes a problem with burning the #7 plug wire boot, which I would expect with any headers. Their solution? dent the tube! I found the supposed, 'short' plugs from Accel to be the same length as the regular ones, as far as header clearance goes. Also, the underhood heat will increase from headers. I ran a different set with my somewhat non-stock L-83 w/o big issues, however, for many years.

Either way, I would, absolutely, ensure they are hot coated, for corrosion control and better flow.
 
I might be of some use as I installed my headers yesterday. First of all, anyone who tells you that putting in headers in a vette is hard is wrong.

This is how I reason the best way to do it is (I did it this way in the end)

Get the car on ramps or jackstands. I only had the front up which made taking off the exaughst a little harder than it had to be.

the emissions things dont all have to come off incase you decide to back out. Really the only things that have to come out of the engine bay are the rubber tubes that connect to the factory manifolds. Those have little clamps,unscrew, pull off. Also the rubber hose that goes on the air tube has to come off.

You can then remove the two bolts that hold the center cat/resonator to the rear y pipe. This might be hard, on my car I couldnt fit a nice size ratchet, I used a whole lot of things, but in the end my smallest craftsman with a breakbar took it down. Then remove the two bolts that hold this heatshield/clamp thing to the center cat.

Unbolt the the factory manifolds from the rest of the exhaust. This is really easy. I just laid there on my back with like 3 extensions on the ratchet and went at it. Pretty straight forward.

Remove the exaughst. You have to push apart the manifold from the exaughst, so you might have to bang it a few times till the studs are no longer in the lower part. I couldnt get the air tube to come down, so I cut it (used bolt cutters and some twisting action).Once this happens, give the rest of the exaughts a few bangs, crawl under the car and push up and torward the front of the car. The exaughts should drop.

Remove the stock manifolds. These can be pulled out from the top.
Remove spark plugs.

Now its time to put the headers in. This is where a friend is pretty usefull.

The drivers side:

This side goes in from the top. It is better if you have a second person under the car to guide the header also. In my case my clutch line was in the way, so I had to unbolt the slave, lower the header a bit, then bolt the slave back. This while my friend secured the header to the head. Generally you put in the first and last bolt, then slide on the gasket, then put the rest. Put spark plugs back in.

Passanger side:

I made so many mistakes with this side before I got something that worked. Although it my look impossible at first... these fit with NO PROBLEM from the bottom. You have to get the car high. I had my jack maxed out. But this was only around two inches higher than my ramps. It isnt that high. Have a friend once again help. Someone has to put the bolts in at the top and pull up on a corner here and there to get the headers in.

then whatever y pipe or true dual etc thing you want goes in.

Very Important. VERY important and the reason why my car is still on the ramps. I forgot to unplug the battery.... when the passanger side header was being tried from the top, it touched something near the starter and a fuel line... The spark put a hole in the fuel line and started a fire... I was really scared and now im trying to patch up that small hole.

Im no expert, this is what I learned the past few days. When I was asking for help, the above would have saved me so much time.

This might matter. I installed headman full length headers. I have an 86 not an 87. And I could care less about the emissions things.

I missed little things, like unplugging the O2 sensor, and some other sensor on the side of the heads etc.

Goodluck, headers in a vette... so much easier than the other cars ive seen tried (3rd gen GTA and 4th gen Firebird).

Later,
-Chris
 
Hey,thanks alot for the info man!doesnt seem to bad.
I wanted to keep the emission stuff so i am pretty sure im going to go with the holly or tpis coated headers.they both look pretty nice.
i just wasnt sure if one was more easily installed as the other.
i am leaning towards the holley because of the price.
 

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