headers???

[shepherm]

I have a 1986 chevy swb with a new gm 350. I put a new edelbrock 1406 carb and a edelbrock performer intake. also put a k&n air filter. I have the factory ex. manifold and cat plus a mufler that looks like it should be on a bus or something. I need to know if putting flow tech headers, and running true dual exhaust with no cat, with 2.5 pipe to a set of flowmasters and dumping it before the rearend, will it help my horsepower and torque?

[MJN]

Those will help your power but you might not notice it. The headers will also take more heat away from the engine. It may be a pain to change your oil filter and spark plugs and it will affect the warm up time of the engine.

[Longhorn Man]

Also, technicly that would be illegal, and if your state has an inspection, you may get busted and handed a fine of up to 2500 bucks.
However, if you live in a place where they don't care, YES, you should feel the diff in the seat of your pants. That Catilitic converter is robbing you of some good power. '84 was before they started puttin good converters under them. Todays converters are hardly even noticable, hense, stupid to remove, but that honeycomb thing you have under your truck, is chokin your performance.
If you hack off the converter, or go the smog legal route, headers will also help. The more money you spend, the happier you will be. The cheap headers will make you cuss and bleed every time you swap out your plugs. I have some black jack or headman headers,(not sure, they were second hand) and I had to use a wrench on all but one plug. True pain in the @ss. They also exited at an angle aimed to the ground.
Now, on me second truck, I have a set of hooker Super Comps, and they are awsome. There is only one plug I need a wrench for, they fir sooooo much better, no leaks, and they exit paralel to the ground.
For a stock engine(internaly) like yours, I think a 2 1/2 inch true dauls would be over kill. All you really need is 2 1/4. Doing that will save you some mony, and will probably get you more power. This is one area where bigger is NOT better. If your pipes are too big, they will over scavenge your exhaust, which will have a negitave effect on performance, and can even possably burn a valve. Stay conservitive.

------------------
The hot rod;
a'69 G.M.C. Short/Fleet. 350 W/a heluva cam and nice stance. Trying to clean up the left over damage from the Dope-Smokin-Old-Man. See it at http://geocities.com/andys_69_gmc/

I've been dubbed the Longhorn Freak/Fanatic/Expert, I just hope I can live up to it. Check out my Longhorn site at http://geocities.com/MotorCity/Flats/8752/

Need to pick up the one ton Longhorn with a 350/350 here soon, thanks every one!

If you need a pic posted, e-mail me at longhornmail@yahoo.com

[87Grey]

Dont forget to get locking header bolts, I have had them on for a couple of years now without any leaks. If the super comp headers are too much money, get the regular hooker comp. thats what I did.

[Burlinator]

another good tip would be to cut the flange between the #'s 2 and 4 cylinders to reduce chance of cracking