This is all great info! Exactly what I was hoping to get started.
Update- the headers shipped and it looks like they're going to be here Thursday. I was surprised as the payment processing was kind of sketchy... merchant account wouldn't take any of my cards and vendor reply to my emails was not very quick for a retail vendor. Phone wasn't answered and it took about 24 hours for response.
TO NOTE- the website I ordered from is also on EBAY. I saved 90.00 by searching high and low. One company on Google shopping had the matched price but when going to their website it was jacked up to Ebay price. When contacted they would not change their price. Really bugs me when companies do this. I reported them to Google shopping, and OBX, and today they're not showing up under search results. GOOD! They were E something or another. Started with capital E....
Another thing to note. The website I bought them from is now out of stock, but they're EBAY page is still showing one left for sale. Thought I'd point this out in case anyone of the members here who has been talking about headers decides to jump on the purchase. Might want to double check...
Now that all of that is out of the way (did you even read it all??
LOL) Let's get to discussing.
One thing that's really sticking in my mind is something MUD mentioned. No ceramic coating... OK... makes sense, it was a long shot I was going to spend the time to do it anyways. However wrapping the pipes really got my attention. Should I wrap them for heat purposes? It would also protect them..
It's funny, because I can feel even the littlest mod simply because the H2 is such a dog to begin with. Not expecting much from just the LT headers...
RE: the gaskets- wouldn't it be a good idea to put a bead of high temp red sealant on the header? I did this on all my jet ski exhausts and it worked perfect.
RE: the tune (thanks for the links- good info for the thread!) I'll have to look into the options a bit more. I like the idea of the hand held programmer and paying a bit for the program to throw on the ECU via the programmer, but I haven't priced out the programmers so that comment could be way off! I will surely be looking for a tune. Dyno tune is out.. this is a very mild mod hummer. I did dyno tunes with my past S/C and turbo cars- thousands in mods. One thing that comes to mind with the tune is when I get board in the future I think the fan mod would be something I could do improve horsepower and MPG. In reading recently there's some ECU programming that could need to be done. A side from that I can't imaging what else I'd need to adjust a program for. But that's just the thing... always expect the unexpected... right? With my personality there's a damn good chance I'll end up with a blower, and a head/cam/intake etc....
I'm really hoping the cat back (OEM) bolts right up. If not I think the shop I'll be using has a guy that's skilled enough to cut and mend the OEM setup for minor adjustments. That's the plan as of now... OEM muffler. Pipes shouldn't matter and I have no desire, as mentioned above, to get fancy tips. HELLZ, you mentioned dual tips/mufflers. Aren't there several cat back systems that are single mufflers anyways? I don't think going from one outlet to two outlets on a muffler would make any difference at all. Now.. having two mufflers, one per side, I can see helping flow. But in this case too much flow would mean less low end torque anyways. At the MOST I'll get a high flow muffler that bolts right up to the OEM cat back and is QUIET QUIET. I had a mustang and got rid of the cats all together. It freakin' screamed, but that sh*t got old on any distance of a trip. Plus that was 10 years ago. My drone/noise threshold has gone way down since then.
This is great discussion... keep opinions and advice coming.
Bolts... is going through the hassle of getting the updated GM bolts going to help with backing out issue? I guess if I'm not going to use the kits gaskets I could pick up bolts too. But what about the red gasket sealer? I hate paying for something just to buy what it lacks.
I will take pics from start to finish. My buddy whose helping me has helped me on some pretty big projects and I've always taken pics. I just keep the beers cold and flowing and it's all good.
