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no headers, true duals?

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87blackroxi

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I am ordering true duals to put on the 87 vette and removing the cats. I am hoping for better performance/ increased hp. But would this increase performance if I kept the stock exhaust manifold on? or would it not make a significant difference?
thanks,
shane
 
87blackroxi said:
I am ordering true duals to put on the 87 vette and removing the cats. I am hoping for better performance/ increased hp. But would this increase performance if I kept the stock exhaust manifold on? or would it not make a significant difference?
thanks,
shane

I've been told by a "performance" shop that headers on a stock L98 motor will make absolutely no difference. (The guy also told me that retrofitting a LT1 intake to a TPI motor is impossible) :eyerole

Take a look at Mad-Mic's car domain page.. He put headers on a stock '87
 
I've seem on these forums that exhaust mods really wake up a L98 motor, more so than with an LT1. The LT1 comes with a pretty good exhuast system whereas the stock L98 system is pretty restrictive. True duals with no cats and free flowing mufflers should give you enough for a "seat of the pants" improvement. I'd estimate 10-12 HP. Of course, headers would pick up the HP even more. You might be like me in that I'm doing mods as the monet comes along. First, I'm putting on duals, then the headers will be purchased after I have more money freed up to spend.
 
fast.asleep said:
I've been told by a "performance" shop that headers on a stock L98 motor will make absolutely no difference. (The guy also told me that retrofitting a LT1 intake to a TPI motor is impossible) :eyerole

Tell the owner of this shop to put the crack pipe down and back away....

L98s do benefit from exhaust mods, especially either removing the stock cat setup and replacing it with high-flow cats inline with new pipes fabbed up. Of course if you're building an "off-road" vehicle ;) then leave them off altogether.
Headers are good for minimum gain of 15hp, more with free-flowing exhaust. Now as to whether of not you can FEEL 10 or 15 hp by using the "butt dyno"? Well, that's another story....:D
 
zumzum,

I'm right there with you man. I am moding as i get the cash. the true duals is all i'm going to be able to afford after my ac gets finished. Then hopefully later i'll get the headers.
 
fast.asleep said:
I've been told by a "performance" shop that headers on a stock L98 motor will make absolutely no difference. (The guy also told me that retrofitting a LT1 intake to a TPI motor is impossible) :eyerole

Take a look at Mad-Mic's car domain page.. He put headers on a stock '87

i was gonna say.......lol

but anyway with a few mods

K&N open air box, MAF descreened, TB Bypassed, 160* T-Stat, Accel Super Coil, 12* degree advance timing, TPiS Long Tube Headers, airfoil, !EGR, and dumps off the rear Y pipe. Hayden Tranny cooler. Stock 1600 rpm stall, 2.59 rear gear on 275/40/17" BF Goodrich Drag Radials.

the car made 40 more hp and 58 lbs of torque at the fly wheel if you go by a 17% loss but i believe with the 4 additional u-joints its more like 20% which would be 47 HP and 69 toque at the flywheel. this was on only 1 pull due to a blown EGR connection on #8 cylinder and over 220 degrees water temp. with these problems the car still pulled the 235 rwhp and 345 lbs of torque. i'm sure the car could of pulled atleast 20-25+ more hp and torque if the car was cooled down and the egr connection didn't blow and lose all back pressure on #8 cylinder. i think thats a conservative guess due to loosing .2 at the track between cool 140-160 water temp and anything above the 180 range thats what i lose when i've hot lapped the car numerous times.

with these same mods with out the headers and with a catless front Y pipe, the car ran a best of 13.26 @ 103 mph with a 1.83 60' time. best 60' with out the headers was a 1.81 on street tires. this setup was maxed out as far as i'm concerned so there is potential to run some pretty good numbers with just some basic mods with out sinking money into headers. with true duels you might see another tenth or 2 with out headers. the primaries on the stock manifolds is 1 1/8". on my TPiS it's 1 3/4". Big difference when it comes to making HP.

haven't had alot of track time to back up the header install and a few more additional mods like DR's, crank pulley, air elim pulley, and cut back plugs but with just the headers alone i picked up close to 3 mph at 1000' more DA. this would equate to another mph if i was at the same DA i ran the 13.26 with out the headers if every 1000' of DA is .1 and 1 mph which = 10 rwhp on 12.0 and slower cars.

will be dynoing the car again soon to get some better #'s but as you can see a good free flow exhaust can pick up a good bit. 3 mph is = to 30 rwhp from the headers only. i seen many dyno runs from LS1 cars and headers alone average 22 rwhp so this is pretty consistant from what i hear about L98's
 
Mic:

I have similar mods as your car but without the Accel Super Coil. Is it worth the money?
 
fast.asleep said:
Mic:

I have similar mods as your car but without the Accel Super Coil. Is it worth the money?

i thought it was. then again i added timing when i did the accel.
 
The L98 is just a truck motor with 245 or so hp.

To depend on only one or two mods to make a differance it's not going to happen.

It's the combination of the different mods and how the driver can apply his or her driving skills to make it all work.

I think the guy you talked to ment that you might lose alot of torque.
Any time you change exaust to a larger pipe you lose torque and pick up mph.
The L98 has the worst exaust system of all the corvettes.3 cats 1 3/4 to 2 inch pipes and alot of exaust leaks EGR to top the list.
Install a shift kit (trans go) 3.54 or 3.33 gears and a 3000 stall and good exaust and the car will be pretty much at it's max hp.
Unless the alum heads are on your car.
 
fast.asleep said:
I've been told by a "performance" shop that headers on a stock L98 motor will make absolutely no difference. (The guy also told me that retrofitting a LT1 intake to a TPI motor is impossible) :eyerole

Take a look at Mad-Mic's car domain page.. He put headers on a stock '87

Ask Vetteboy86, he put this mod on a few years ago and there is a definte increase in HP, not as much as headers, but pretty deacent for the price of the pipes. For me im just saving up and buying TPIS Headers.
 
If they have the chart right then chevy is wrong putting 3" exaust on the Lt1 corvette.:SLAP
The old spray paint crinkel job.
I think last mths hot rod mag put that idea to rest:L
 
The motor needs to breathe

87blackroxi said:
I am ordering true duals to put on the 87 vette and removing the cats. I am hoping for better performance/ increased hp. But would this increase performance if I kept the stock exhaust manifold on? or would it not make a significant difference?
thanks,
shane

The motor needs to breathe. I picked up over a full second by hogging out the lt-4 heads/intake and opening up the exhaust to hooker 3 1/2"collectors, 3"dual from there. LET YOUR MOTOR BREATHE!

12.25@112 and that's slow for my vette, cause i haven't put in the 3:75 gears, yet... oh, and that's without the 200 shot of nitrous ;-) I'm expecting to get into the 10s
 
you need headers. open exhaust won't do much without good headers.
 
redc4corvette said:
The L98 is just a truck motor with 245 or so hp.

Yeah, well my L98 didn't go into any Roadmasters, I bet they only use it in trucks since it is such a monster of a motor. LONG LIVE THE L98 :_rock

Oh yeah I forgot to mention the Caprice too.
 
The L98 is just a truck motor with 245 or so hp.

I see you own an 86, so I dont know whether to take offense to that statement or not. However I would bet on my truck motor getting to 60 before most Lt-1's.

Craig
 
vetteboy86 said:
I see you own an 86, so I dont know whether to take offense to that statement or not. However I would bet on my truck motor getting to 60 before most Lt-1's.

Craig


Yup, stock ones it should, I have even heard of L98's pulling LS1's off the line. I have not ran into a bone stock C5 so I don't know.
 
I guess anything is better than stock. I am hoping it will at least "breathe" a little better w/o the cats, true duals, and magnaflows. next month will be the headers. The almighty dollar reigns as well as the almighty women. thanks for all the posts
 
87blackroxi said:
I guess anything is better than stock. I am hoping it will at least "breathe" a little better w/o the cats, true duals, and magnaflows. next month will be the headers. The almighty dollar reigns as well as the almighty women. thanks for all the posts


If you order the headers From TPIS you can get a front Y pipe that will plug into your main cat, and then you can use your stock rear Y pipe, back out to mufflers or eliminators. I am not sure why you would get trual duals, and then headers??
 
Depending where you go, you would have to modify those duals once you get headers. They will be made to attach to your stock manifold. I didn't really plan on getting headers so I just went ahead and put the duals on. However I am going to in the future have a complete system put on with headers, and duals straight back.
 

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