Headers on Creampuff

[martyb]

Is there any real HP gain in switching from the factory headers on my 01 GTS to aftermarket? I realized a good gain on my old S/C Gen 1, but the 01 factory headers look to be less restrictive than the Gen 1 that I had.

The car already has no cats, bellanger 3" exhaust with T&D's. I am almost thinking aftermarket headers are not worth the trouble. The car will stay NA, heads and cam at some point in the future.

 

[99 R/T 10]

Maybe 10 HP. Due to the better flowing exhaust and the puffier cam profile, not a bunch of power is realized over the stock manifolds.

 

[martyb]

Thanks Mike, kind of what I thought. I can save my money and spend on cam and heads! I cannot stand how smooth it idles.

 

[Bill Pemberton Woodhouse]

Sorry, but politely disagree, as I got very close to 50hp with Belanger headers, high flow cats and a Corsa on my 2000. The Belangers work alot better than the factory headers , and yes, the factory headers are alot better than the Gen 1s, but Lou and his gang did wonders on the Gen II system.

 

[99 R/T 10]

Hi Bill,
I am going off what I have read here, so my ignorance will show once in a while. Marty, I would go with Bill's experience more than mine in any case

 

[Detlef]

My setup went from stock 400rwhp to 447 rwhp with Belanger headers, HF cats, and catback. I also have the 1.7RR.

 

[Dom426h]

marty, with questions like this it might be more benificial to just call someone like ROE Racing or DC Performance. They have Both dyno'd hundreds of vipers and would probably be able to pull up actual dyno comparisons to give you the Facts.

most people (like the past 2 comments) just do it all at once then dyno.
I am Also about 50-60hp over stock with headers And a full exhuast...

 

[dun4791]

Sorry, but politely disagree, as I got very close to 50hp with Belanger headers, high flow cats and a Corsa on my 2000. The Belangers work alot better than the factory headers , and yes, the factory headers are alot better than the Gen 1s, but Lou and his gang did wonders on the Gen II system.

Thats fine, but he is asking about JUST headers. Probably worth 10 hp like stated above. No way it's worth the power to money ratio. Especially on the 99 up cars without the cast logs.
Put your money in the heads. I was making 900 rwhp with my stock 2000 headers.

 

[martyb]

I am guessing that the exhaust had as much or more to do with the gains as the headers themselves.

Dom426, is your car a creampuff or forged?

 

[Boxer12]

If you are going to eventually go the full blown na motor, aren't you going to want headers anyway? They aren't that much trouble to put on the GTS, and the sound is worth the money and trouble. You will enjoy your car a lot more (if sound matters to you) and the headers are a lot cheaper than cam and heads. You might not want to spend the money on the cam and heads in the end. jmo

 

[plumcrazy]

like dun4791 said, he has the rest of the exhaust already. the headers wont give THAT much HP

 

[anaconda666]

So then it is unamimous: you won't gain - you might gain - you will gain. Gotta love forums

 

[Joseph Dell]

If you do the exhaust + headers, you may see that kind of gain. But if you keep the restrictive exhaust system, i've seen a 10hp loss below ~4000rpm along w/a 10hp gain over ~4000rpm.

Let's not forget that more air OUT of the engine changes the ability to get air IN the engine. So the overall A/F ratio changes. Ponder this: is the power gain from an improved or leaner A/F ratio? Or is it all the magic headers?

Do the entire exhaust and make sure to do a dyno before and after... might see 50. Headers only, though, keeping the restrictive exhaust... that I wouldn't bother with. But that is just me.

 

[VENOMIS]

02 stock 395 r.w.h.p. K&N,Belangers,High flow Cats,3" Cat back, 708 cam, And tune 461 r.w.h.p. on close to a 100 deg. day in shop.

 

[plumcrazy]

im guessing thats tuned pretty close to the edge to gain that kinda rwhp on those mods.

 

[Vic]

Headers are analogous to a chemical catalyst, by themselves they dont do that much, but in conjunction with other "accelerants", they promote a reaction.

When I just had the Striker heads+Striker cam, Jesel rr, and Corsa exhaust, I was making about 535rwhp. (With the casual stock compression)

Then we put Edelbrock headers on, removed the 2.5" restrictions around the cats, (I'm three inch all the way, right out the back now), put new stock cats on, fresh gas and correct plugs, rolleyes: my bad), and ended up with 578 rwhp, about a 42 rwhp increase. If this car hadnt had the other mods as contributing factors, I dont think the headers would have made that much difference. 'Speshully not if the heads were stock. And there were too many tight areas (2.5") in the exhaust for the headers to help improve air flow. But with the Strikers, big cam, and removal of other restrictions, the headers improved the bottom line.

Conclusion-
If no other mods are done, headers wont help appreciably.
If your car has other air flow mods done, headers will increase the effect.

 

[Russ M]

The problem with mild mods on any viper is the lack to tuning available in the past. Now with SCT tunes, Vec, AEM, etc, you should be able to pick up considerable power with headers and a tune. Remember peak hp isnt where the real gains are its the rest of the power band that you need to be looking at. On my car when it was NA we picked up nearly 60lb's torque under the curve for nearly 2000 rpm from putting an AEM unit on it and tuning it.

 

[SoCal Rebell]

On the same dyno at DC a day apart I gained 25 rwhp and 40 rwtq by adding Belanger headers, catbacks and Randomtech highflow cats to a stock 2000.

 

[FE 065]

H pipe on my catless 2001 ACR dropped ET average from low 12 teens to 11.91.

That's over 20hp for a few hundred

 

[Dom426h]

Over 20hp from an H-pipe? im calling BS, If there was any gain in power it was from removing the rear muffler to put the h-pipe in.

Also, Your better ET's could have been from getting better at driving the car.

 

[Dom426h]

On my car when it was NA we picked up nearly 60lb's torque under the curve for nearly 2000 rpm from putting an AEM unit on it and tuning it.

60ftlbs?
I would love to see some data to back this up
Untill then, i call BS

With the SCT on my GTS w/headers&exhaust i had a similar 5-10 increase in torque like frog:
http://forums.viperclub.org/rt-10-gts-discussions/626607-sct-tune-dyno-results-my-1998-gts.html

 

[KNG SNKE]

I can't drop numbers but I can tell you I installed the VEC before the supercharger and put Roe's tune on there and there was a huge noticeable difference in acceleration.