I bought a 2002 true blue lightning a month ago. It seemed fast at the time but now I am used to it and looking for reliable mods. I am looking at a set of basssani shorty headers. My dealer asuures me he will not hassle me about any warranty claims if I leave the stock cat-convertors alone and don't run larger than a 3lb pulley (which I intend on doing later but I want to do the expensive and difficult stuff first.) I get many answers from many people who have no experience with them but cant seem to find anyone with hands on product experience to ask Any input would be great.

 

I don't know how much power increase you'll see with just the Bassani headers. I have 'em on my truck, along with their hi-flow cats, and mufflers. I think all told from them, I might've gotten 10-15 horsepower increase. Given the amount of trouble vs. the amount of power, go with that pulley and a chip. Actually, get an interchangeable pulley setup, that way you can put on the 4# pulley for fun, and put on a stock or 2# pulley for the dealer when you take it back in.

 

Let the truck in break in more and you will notice more power.

As for shorty headers, noone ever got any real gains to justify the price. Do a search between here and NLOC and you find some dyno postings on shorty headers along with not to much praise for them.

 

Why go with the Basanni headers when either PSP'Kook's or JL's long tube headers are easier to install, slightly cheaper(?), and most guys have gotten measureable power increases ?

Dan

 

I already have 3k miles on it. Isn't it broken in yet?

 

Hey,

I have the Kook's LT's on my truck. They are nice and I like them. But I think JL's LT's(Non-Stepped) are the best ones available for more power. The JL LT's seem to give the most bang for the Buck.

Ask Totaled. They work very, very well on his truck. He got some excellent ET gains at the track with them.

They may hang down a little bit more than the Kook's , but not much more. They are not any harder than the Kook's headers to install.

Shorty Headers, don't waste your money.

 

LOL - DL You kill me....

Doug

 

Do the long tube headers give a performance gain by themselves? How about with only 3lbs extra boost? Has anyone tried extrude-hone on the stock exhaust manifolds? This truck is like crack- very addictive but now I seem to need more to get me off (the line that is).

 

Some people say the LT won't do much for a stock L. Don't know about that ask Dan (thepawn).

I've got a 2lb pulley/chip/cool air intake and the LT made a noticable difference. If you read around people say that are great with 4lb and 6lb pulleys.

 

I gained a bit from them on my stock truck. Keep in mind, this is a -complete- exhaust, not just the headers. I had long tube headers, high-flow cats, an x-pipe, and two single chamber mufflers installed in one shot.



Daniel

 

gained a little? That looks like 30hp and 30lbs/ft gained at the wheels. pretty significant for a single mod if you ask me. how tough was the install? was it a complete kit or did you have to fabricate? anything important i need to know?

 

I'm told the install isn't too tough if you have the right tools, Pete can answer.

I paid to have minei nstalled.

Daniel

 

Maybe it is just me, but why would you pay $500 to extrude hone the factory manifolds? The headers are not much more than that.

following is from extrude hone website
EXHAUST MANIFOLDS
4 Cylinder Exhaust - Iron 385.00
5 or 6 Cylinder Exhaust - Iron 500.00
V6 Cylinder Exhaust - Iron 500.00
8 Cylinder Exhaust - Iron 500.00
10 Cylinder Exhaust - Iron 600.00
12 Cylinder Exhaust - Iron 700.00

 

The install is mostly straightforward, but not that hard. Mine took many hours to install even with the help of my friend. Reason it took so long is I'm still building up my tool collection, so some bolts took about 30min of 1/32 turns to get tightened fully, that quickly adds up to some time on the install.

follow the link in my sig to my webpage, on there I have a whole writeup about installing the LT's.

 

to be honest,

i don't think the headers are worth the money on a power note.

i picked up 5 hp and 10 ft/lbs,

that was with the headers and mid pipes

i think the people that notice better results than others are more than likely because the headers are leaning the fuel out which is where the power is coming from.

i haven't seen many people who dynoed and checked a/f before and after, which i did,

my autologic chip was working great and kept the a/f exactly where it was supposed to be even after the header install.

with the a/f being the same, there wasn't much power gains.

being as I am running a 6lb pulley and was pushing close to 400 rwhp already, i would think if there were gains to be had, i would have them.

some trucks will get leaner, some fatter, but, if you didn't do a/f before and after, then IMO your result data really is worthless, you can say you got 20 to 30 hp, but if your a/f got 1 point leaner, thats where most of the power is at