long tube vs shorty

[qnzcolombnthug]

which is better, long tube or shorty headers, whats the difference and the pros and cons of each. there goin on a 99 v6 so whatever info yall got would b appreciated

[SkylineUSA]

Longs are the way to go, but the reason why longs are not always installed is because of how much room there is to work with.

[qnzcolombnthug]

but yea whats the differenc between them?

[SMOKEY818]

With short tubes you get better low end, and with long tubes you get better top end power

[PowerJunkie]

While that is true what Smokey said, the Longtubes have much more potential of proving more power down the line. As you continue to mod your car to bring in more air, the long tubes will benefit from it more than the shorties will.

Long tubes are always the better way to go! Although I believe shorties have a better chance of passing smog than LTs do.

[BigDanTheMan]

i don't know anything about smog, but i can tell you that lts will provide much more power and fuel efficiency. lts are much more responcive to other bolt-ons as well and will less likely be a power bottleneck down the line as you develope your engine. The draw backs aren't too terrible, but something to consider. lts are more expensive and are often followed by more exensive exaust parts. they are also much harder to fit in the engine bay, i've heard of guys not even having to pull their engines to swap shorties, but extensive work is done to get lts in place. When i upgraded to lts i had the shop take care of it, also they selected an appropriate h-pipe. the converters are highflow - but are said to better handle emissions and when i last had my car smogged it passed with flying colors.

i might go so far to say that there are no good reasons to favor shorties to lts.

[BlackGT2000]

Also if your engine is fairly stock it is likely that there are other less intrusive mods that will yield bigger gains than the headers. I am sure that since its a V6 you don't want to go overboard on serious mods or else you will negate the price difference of the V8. If you want an edge I would recomend some gears if you don't already have them. Just my point of view.

[TheStang00]

Originally Posted by BlackGT2000

Also if your engine is fairly stock it is likely that there are other less intrusive mods that will yield bigger gains than the headers. I am sure that since its a V6 you don't want to go overboard on serious mods or else you will negate the price difference of the V8. If you want an edge I would recomend some gears if you don't already have them. Just my point of view.

if you negate the price difference you can make a v6 faster than the v8, no question about it. hell you can turbo it and put a new rear end in and run around 300hp on stock internals.

[TheStang00]

but just so no one takes that the wrong way... im not trying to say a v6 is a better buy, it isnt.

[benchtest]

Long tube headers are designed to capture the resonance in the exhaust flow. They can be designed for torque or horsepower, which varies the tube diameter and length. They typically are around 32 to 34 inches of primary length. That's the length needed (and it changes by engine design and purpose) to resonate correctly. Shorty headers are too short to catch the stronger pulses, but may have a minor effect at certain rpms. (I've never tried to calculate tubes that short.) They do however flow much better than the old cast iron logs and weigh less. Free-flowing versions without the factory pinches and kinks are probably worth having, but may not be the best bang-for-the-buck until you add more airflow. Shorties are a packaging device more than a performance device.

[boosted331]

There have been dyno comparisons in the last several MM&FF's between shorties and long tubes. FRPP Shorties were worth around 7 HP over stockers. That all came at 4000+ and lost power to the stockers at low RPM's. The long tubes kicked the crap out of the stockers at all RPM's, putting on 10-15 ft-lbs all over the entire powerband. If you don't have to worry about emissions you have no reason not to go long tubes. I don't know why people think they cost you low end power, because they don't.