2001Z06 said:Long tubes will produce at least double the horsepower that "shorties". Personally I wouldn't go with shorties, but everyone has their own purposes and restrictions. You can typically see about 20 to 30 rwhp gain. I like a step header because they tend to make more low end torque along with broader horse power curve.
You do not need to go with an x-pipe but it does help with balancing and scavaging. Some types can use the existing cats, some also offer cats and some folks eliminate cats all together. You don't gain much, maybe 5 rwhp, in terms of horsepower by replacing or removing cats.
After doing your CAI and long tubes, I would suggest you have a good tune to optimize the performance.
On my 01, I gained 63 rwhp and 67 rwt from my mods: rammer CAI, BPP long tube headers, x-pipe, borla stingers and BPP custom tune.
Don
You can also save money. The headers are the important part, x-pipe and cats don't gain you as much hp. You can find coated long-tubes for around $580-$680, as opposed to $1,400 + for complete systems. You should still gain well over 20 hp from just headers. plan on spending $580 for coated headers and another $150 or so for an exhaust shop to fabricate an x-pipe and weld it on.2001Z06 said:You do not need to go with an x-pipe but it does help with balancing and scavaging. Some types can use the existing cats, some also offer cats and some folks eliminate cats all together. You don't gain much, maybe 5 rwhp, in terms of horsepower by replacing or removing cats.
How do you like the QTP Tri-Y's? Any problems with them? Was the install difficult? They seem interesting but not many people have them so getting additional info is at times a challenge. :cheers:vettenuts said:Not so sure "LG's and Kooks are best" as there is no basis for this conclusion. Most populare maybe.
I went with a Tri-Y design, as opposed to the 4 to 1 design. The Tri-Y should provide better low end torque. There are three Tri-Y designs available for the C5 that I am aware of: Bassani, Bellanger and QTP. Of the three, only QTP is stainless. In general, the Tri-Y's will be more money due to the complexity of the design and additional work to fabricate them.