# 04 headers



## ineedabeer (Dec 15, 2008)

Well, I put in the K&N airfilter (almost always the first thing I get when I buy a car I plan on keeping, has always treated me well), and picked up a Jet programmer (had a stage 2 jet chip in my Monte Carlo and the programmer seems to have lived up to the hype that car gave me for that company). Now I'm looking for headers. I see JBA, Kooks, etc, but I've only found dyno results on the JBA shorties (wheel dyno on an LS1 camaro apparently). I'm just trying to figure out what the best bang for the buck is gonna be, i.e. which company is gonna give me the best hp/dollar ratio. 
1. If anyone already knows for sure, that would be a huge help.
2. If no one does know, I would appreciate if anyone could possibly provide me with links to dyno sheets and what was used so I can figure up the numbers I'm looking for myself.
3. This is the most important factor in what I get.... must be direct bolt on with no modifications required (other than the obvious small stuff like exhaust wrap, etc.)

On top of all this, I've seen some headers that give good power, but have shoddy welding, crappy ceramic coatings, and the like, so if anyone has heard of failures occurring on certain companies products, that would also be helpful to know.


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## cruiser787904 (Mar 9, 2007)

Ceramic coated pacesetters best bang for the buck. They have catless mids that will let you bolt them right in....They are not stainless but they do work you may not get as much longevity though...


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## REDGTO89 (Jul 19, 2008)

I went slp all the way just because all my dad had a slp setup on his TA and i thought gave it some power and some noise.


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## svede1212 (Nov 1, 2005)

Kooks are the best performance because of design of which length is a part (they are the longest), to truly get the best you should get them coated with Jet-Hot coating. wrap is a no-no. Stainless Works makes nice headers but need coating. SLP is right behind those and come already coated. the Kooks and SW are 304 stainless (better), SLPs are 409 stainless (ok but not quite as good). Pacesetters are a budget header (normal steel) and are better than shorties ibut come in at the bottom of performance and longevity. the difference in HP will depend a bit on engine HP (total air flow) but generally fairly minor in the ~10 HP range. higher modded engines will see a bigger differential from the top of the line to the bottom. if you look around you can find sales from time to time on all of them. if you're going to hang on to the car a while or drive in corrosive environments like rain, snow, salt, etc, i'd stick with the stainless models. if you want to best performance get Kooks. all require a tune to get the best performance


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## deg04gto (Feb 10, 2008)

svede1212 said:


> Kooks are the best performance because of design of which length is a part (they are the longest), to truly get the best you should get them coated with Jet-Hot coating. wrap is a no-no. Stainless Works makes nice headers but need coating. SLP is right behind those and come already coated. the Kooks and SW are 304 stainless (better), SLPs are 409 stainless (ok but not quite as good). Pacesetters are a budget header (normal steel) and are better than shorties ibut come in at the bottom of performance and longevity. the difference in HP will depend a bit on engine HP (total air flow) but generally fairly minor in the ~10 HP range. higher modded engines will see a bigger differential from the top of the line to the bottom. if you look around you can find sales from time to time on all of them. if you're going to hang on to the car a while or drive in corrosive environments like rain, snow, salt, etc, i'd stick with the stainless models. if you want to best performance get Kooks. all require a tune to get the best performance


Really good to know cause I was just comparing some of these brands along with Dynatech LTs and JBA and wasn't sure about the differences between them other than Pacesetter being the cheapest ones. Thanks for the info cause I plan on buying headers this spring


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