I have been looking all over and can not find aftermarket headers for my w150 5.2, also what is the difference (advantage/disadvantage) of long tube vs. short tube? most likely i will be running open headers (also which will sound better open?) with the possibility of putting a flowmaster on and dumping that in the middle under the truck. thanks a lot for all the input

 

found you headers:
http://store.summitracing.com/egnsea...alse&N=700+115

In my opinion, exhuast is voodoo. Some people just "get it". I have an idea based on what guys in the muffler shop tell me. So with regards to your question on long or short, long should give more low end power. That is because each time a piston fires it creates a puff of exuast fumes - a "pulse". Each pulse flies out the exuast untill it hits something - like a cat, muffler, bend, flat spot, watever. When the pulse hits those spots it bounces back, creating "back pressure", which is bad for exuast flow. A longer tube means that the pulse travels further away from the manifold before creating backpressure, which means that the back pressure has to travel further upstream to reach the manifold, thereby loosing all its restrictive energy (which is good). Also, as the exuast pulse travels down the tube it is creating a vacuum like effect. This sucks the next pulse along, evacuating the manifold faster and emptying the cylinder faster and more completey for the next combustion cycle (basically, what they call "scavenging").

So longer is probably better. how much is the question. Plus if youve got a cat youll have to do some extra work since it might not all line up with longer than stock pipes.

so theres more to selecting it than power. plus ouve got to tihnk about H and X as well as cats.

hopefully ive made sense

 

summit brand is comparable to such as hooker,flowtech,hedman?

 

i just looked at summit, is there any advantage to the different brands, there were 3 that i was looking at in the $150 range (hedman, hooker, flowtech)? thanks

 

Jegs has there name headers at a good price as well.

 

I put the Summit headers on my truck. They seem to be of good quality. Just follow the instruction when you install them. And be sure to remove the starter before you get a header stuck on it.

 

alrighty just compared the jegs and summit and the only difference it that the jegs are 16guage and summits are 18guage, so im leaning towards the jegs since they are a little thicker steel tubing- but correct me if im wrong (in the sence that the thicker tubing would some how not work as good as the thinner)? thanks

 

The thicker tubes are less prone to crack. I just was ordering everything else from Summit, so it was simpler.

 

yea if the price is the same take the thicker ones for durability. for the record I dont think polished stainless performs any better than the painted ones, just look better

 

The paint on mine got really scratched up trying to install them. So if you can get something that won`t scratch up as easily, it probably will last longer.