[JohnnyMac]

Originally Posted by ctrlz

What you will need is an absolute guarantee that the headers are installed correctly and your wiring is protected.
Not sure anyone will offer you that 100% guarantee.
Sounds like you depend on this car.
The melting wire problem can take weeks/months to show up, but it is a big problem when it does.

That's one of my fears. I'll be pissed at myself if I had a perfectly well running strong car that I screwed up do to me needing a louder exhaust. I'll look into the guarantees though I've been recommended a few shops in my area I am yet to look into. Thanks for the help!

[JohnnyMac]

Originally Posted by Martinjlm

Benefit or lack thereof will differ for just about everybody depending on what all is done and who does the work. To reply to the question on reliability, I've had Kooks headers on my car for going on 6 years now and have had zero problems.

I had one of our club sponsors, Vector Performance, install Kooks headers, a Tony Mamo ported throttle body, and FlexFuel sensor all at one time and tune the whole thing. Exhaust from the headers back stayed stock.

My whp went from 385-ish to 430. No drivability concerns. a bit louder, especially cold starts in the garage. Once it set off the alarm on one of my other cars but still pretty civilized. Nowhere near being the loudest car in our club.

Thats definitely good to know, considering you have more mods than I would do and your car is still reliable and running well. Setting off a car alarm once and a while never hurt anybody lol. Thanks for the help!

[JohnnyMac]

Originally Posted by Joshinator99

Headers make the car quite a bit louder FYI. The factory headers are very good and on a mostly stock car there is little to be gained from aftermarket headers.

I dont neccesarily mind the car being loud while on the road its the cold starts when leaving work / home that concern me. I can't imagine npp would help with the sound that drastically when you have headers, which was def one of my concerns. Thx for the help!

[JohnnyMac]

Originally Posted by bishopts

I would leave it alone.
There have been a few cases of people on here going to headers and then melting their wire harness. Maybe just tune and high flow cats or cat delete if you're looking for the sound to change some. Just tune it beforehand if you do, you need to remove the codes related to cat inefficiency before they set , otherwise you will always have permanent codes for it in the code history.
But again. I would just leave it alone.

That is now a new concern that a few people have said. If it risks damaging something that is thousands to repair its probably not worth it to me. I would be pissed at myself if I damaged a well-functioning vehicle that was otherwise in perfect condition. Thanks for the help!

[JohnnyMac]

Originally Posted by 2SS Capt

From what I understand, the stock LT1 exhaust manifolds are quite efficient, not sure you would gain much just doing headers... If you want to change the sound, an aftermarket exhaust system (with NPP) might be money better spent than headers...

Thats good to know a few others have said this as well. I think that may be a new route that I'll take. Especially considering you can't harm your wiring harness like you can with headers. Thanks for the help!

[DaveC113]

Also, fwiw my friend just bought a ZL1 1LE with headers and no primary cats, stock cat-back and it's loud af. My stock SS runs about 85 dB when measured at autox events, his car would be at least 20 dB louder which equated to FOUR times louder subjectively and would fail to pass sound limits at any venue that limits them.

I'd just get a new muffler.

My thoughts are a substantial increase in power is going to require heads, cam and increased static compression ratio... or a supercharger.

[RobZL1]

The ultimate solution in my opinion:

Axle-back of your choosing with NPP plus this-

https://www.camaro6.com/forums/showp...20&postcount=5

[RedHotSS17]

As long as it's tuned properly it should be more reliable, the lack of cat converts is one less major point of failure and the car can breathe better, just make sure to also redo the mid pipe and axle back so match. There are Axle back exhausts that can do NPP.

[SSShark]

I remember once upon a time when I said I wasn't going to install headers, hi-flo cats, e85, tune etc.

[CamaroDreams76]

Theres also DEI heat sleeves to protect that wiring harness. The proper way is to tuck that loom behind the coolant tank. An extra measure would be concealing it in that heat shielding.

Again, I recommend just doing FBO. Intake, headers, LT2 manifold and either a ported LT1 throttle body or LT5. Bolt ons wont change the maintenance schedules and wont make the car less reliable.