I asked this question on another forum but I figure that it's always worth getting others ideas.

I know I have limited resources (85 L98) and a finite amount of funds, but from what I have been able to find out is the factory ramshorn exhaust is pretty good to start with. It offers good scavaging and fairly efficient flow even for being cast iron (heavy), but there are better options out there.

I have seen stainless ramshorn exhaust on Corvettes that utilize the stock or modified Y pipes (and keep the air injection ). But where to find it??? I have found only one place that seems to offer them and they advertise it for 86 and up only use Still waiting for a reply in regards to my quest on whether it will work.

Anybody have any suggestions where to find it?

If your asking about headers. Get long tube. Thats what I would do....Ramshorn??? Is that a header brand? I think hooker headers are what is preferred....

Check out what Lingenfelter has to say on this. Rams horn is a term usualy reffering to the shape of the curved cast manifolds on older vettes. he meant to say shorty. as they are similar in shape. Aloha

If you're going to bother, I always recommend long tubes.

Quote:

I agree. I have a set of Hooker longtubes on mine.

Although Shortys have their purpose... generally, they are most sought after when space is an issue, or you are working on a custom application. Mostly, shorty headers are referred to as the "budget" headers.

My vote is for long tubes. I have Headdman Headers on my 89 and I noticed a sufficient performance increase since installing them. That says something.

Don't get caught up with all the high priced ridiculous designs that are out there. Some of the cheapest headers on the market will give you the best performance gains.

DG

Short length large tube primaries here.

Unless you run a big cam with lots of overlap to take advantage of the scavaging effect of long tube headers they won't do much for you. Most street cams don't take advantage of long tuned primaries.

Rule of thumb I use is go 110% or larger of your exhaust valve. (i.e, 1 5/8" for stock heads, 1 3/4" for 1.60 valve heads)


-- Joe

Quote:

I agree with this as well...

Instead of going on the vavle-size (as suggested above), flow is what David Vizzard recommends. And, he is an expert in the field.

The break-point between 1 5/8" and 1 3/4" headers is 160ish cfm on the exhaust port. Stay smaller if you want better low-end and choose bigger for better high-rpm performance. Once you're well past this border, you should pick the 1 3/4" size.

Long-tube header would provide a better suction on the heads than shorties. Though you won't pull air in thru the overlap (on stock/mild motors), you will pull (scavenge) the cylinders of burnt fumes better than shorties. The result could be up to 10% improvement.

As for stock "rams horn" sizing, I think the tubes are too small @ less than 1.5" (measured by a CF member). That will only support about 130cfm. Stock headers should to a little better than that. Typically, L98's benefit from exhaust manifold swaps. This is why.

Quote:

10% improvement? 10% of what?

There is obvious benefits to a long tube equal length design on the right combo. You won't find such a header for any of these street motors. Plug the numbers into the header design software yourself. Unless your building them yourself, no off-the-shelf long tube will be the proper tube size and length to benefit from most combos.

With that said, I've built lots and lots of combos over the years, and they all went plenty fast with short tube headers. I also own a few of David Vizard's books BTW.

-- Joe