What kind of gains with headers?

[Jackpine]

Originally Posted by smokinsrt

I have a Banks cat back exhaust and intake and a Gryphon tuner now I've been thinking of stepping up and getting some headers and a Y pipe. My question is what kind of gains will I see with this and will it be worth the trouble? Any suggestions on where to look and what to get? What about getting cats or not and if not what about my o2 sensors?

Long tube headers, coupled with an X pipe or an H pipe, should improve the way your engine performs. The goal is to even out the exhaust pulses so that one does not interfere with another. A Y pipe (what you really have now) will not do that and long tube headers are needed to "time" the exhaust pulses properly.

Anything behind the CATs is mostly for show or sound.

If you change the headers to long tube, you will need new tunes, as will a conversion to a true, dual exhaust.

I don't have any opinions on CAT deletes or O2 sensor mods.

What do you gain? Probably not much actually. You'll probably be able to feel it, but what is that worth? There's also the sense of having the most "finely tuned" system. Really, only you can decide.

Don't hear me putting you down. I'm not. We ALL need to spend money on our "toys". I recently installed a Kenwood 7160 GPS NAV head unit and a new backup camera on my truck (over $1000), but it was a lot of fun doing it. And, I'm now thinking of building a computer. Payback? ZERO! Fun? You bet!

- Jack