Long tube headers or high flow catted y pipe?

[Elevated 2013]

Hey all! I was talking with a well known Charger/challenger/ Ram tuner yesterday about finding some more low end power. Eventually I’m going to supercharge my truck and I wanted to know what other parts will help it work better without losing power now. He said long tube headers and either a cat less or high flow catted y pipe. From what I have read, when you take the cats out there’s a fuel/exhaust smell in the cab and I don’t want that. I also don’t want an obnoxiously loud truck either. I have a Magnaflow 18” muffler on the truck now and I like the tone of it now. A little louder is fine but I’ll save super loud exhaust for my next project muscle car with a huge cam.

So, my question is whether to do long tube headers or a Magnaflow high flow catted y pipe and is there any real improvement for low end power with either 1? I tow a 3000 lb boat off and on, otherwise the truck is my daily driver but I don’t race it as it’s got a lift kit and 35x12.5r17 tires and 3.92 LSDs. All opinions are welcome. Thanks in advance!

 

[RedSRT4Me]

Long tube headers in the 1 3/4 primary range will give you excellent gains both NA and supercharger. You will need the Y-pipe or have one made with the long tubes but the top companies include the y-pipe in their cost.

LT's provide torque down low for that boat. If sound is an issue replace your 18" muffler with a slightly larger one. Keep the resonators. Your ears will thank you

 

[Elevated 2013]

Thanks Red! I actually heard the Long tubes are better for top end and you lose a little low end torque from the tuner i was talking about and several other performance guys. I’m not calling you wrong!! I knew I would need a y pipe either way but obviously they’re different shapes.

 

[Pull Ya]

You need to decide how long it is going to be before you install your supercharger--it will make a difference in the size of the header tubes. Headers will make your exhaust system louder---very noticeably louder. I have the high flow cats, so I didn't notice any smell in the truck. There is definitely a noticeably difference in performance.
Jay

 

[Elevated 2013]

It will be at least mid to end of next year before I can afford the supercharger and the setup for it. I’m looking at a Whipple supercharger and the smooth boost controller so I don’t blow the bottom end of my engine with too much boost. I’m going to have it professionally installed and dyno tuned by the guy that holds the worlds record for fastest Hellcat. He knows Hemi engines inside and out.

 

[Pull Ya]

If you go to the larger tube headers now without the boost, you may well lose a little at the bottom end. You might go ahead and bite the bullet and install the 1 3/4 long tubes. I'm sure you will be happy with the performance and they may do fine after you install the boost. If you want to go larger later, the market for used headers is pretty good so you could sell them pretty easily. I really like my ARH long tubes. The quality and fitment is outstanding although they ain't cheap. They also come with the 3" crossover, O2 extentions, bolts and gaskets.
Jay

 

[Elevated 2013]

Which, the crossover would work with my Magnaflow muffler as it’s 3” in and dual 2 1-4” out.

 

[Hemi395]

Not sure where you're located but check your local emissions laws about cats. Here in the ********* state of MA you have to have either OEM cats or a CARB certified cats. Which means no LTs here[emoji35]

 

[Elevated 2013]

I’m outside of Chicago and my city and the surrounding cities are emissions exempt. But I’m pretty up on emissions laws as well. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[Wild one]

Hey all! I was talking with a well known Charger/challenger/ Ram tuner yesterday about finding some more low end power. Eventually I’m going to supercharge my truck and I wanted to know what other parts will help it work better without losing power now. He said long tube headers and either a cat less or high flow catted y pipe. From what I have read, when you take the cats out there’s a fuel/exhaust smell in the cab and I don’t want that. I also don’t want an obnoxiously loud truck either. I have a Magnaflow 18” muffler on the truck now and I like the tone of it now. A little louder is fine but I’ll save super loud exhaust for my next project muscle car with a huge cam.

So, my question is whether to do long tube headers or a Magnaflow high flow catted y pipe and is there any real improvement for low end power with either 1? I tow a 3000 lb boat off and on, otherwise the truck is my daily driver but I don’t race it as it’s got a lift kit and 35x12.5r17 tires and 3.92 LSDs. All opinions are welcome. Thanks in advance!

If you're going to put a blower on it,do 1 7/8's ,you'll take a **** kicking when you go to sell the 1 3/4's and why waste money.Shouldn't be any smell inside the truck with-out cats,unless you have a massive exhaust leak under the truck,there'll be a smell behind the truck with-out cats,but shouldn't be anything inside.I daily drive my nitrous toy with 1 7/8's/catless true dual 3" dual pipes and even on my soft nitrous tune,it's still got decent bottem end torque with a 1.5HL Greene cam. Sounds like you're on a bit of a budget,so don't buy anything that you'll end up having to sell when you add boost to it,as you'll never come close to recouping your money on the parts you bought in the interm.

 

[Pull Ya]

^ I thought you were a better salesman than that Rick---LOL I thought you sold stuff for more than you paid for it???????????
Jay

 

[Wild one]

^ I thought you were a better salesman than that Rick---LOL I thought you sold stuff for more than you paid for it???????????
Jay

My wife wishes that were true Jay,lol.

 

[Pull Ya]

Mine mentions that same thing quite regularly. LOL
Jay

 

[RedSRT4Me]

If you're going to put a blower on it,do 1 7/8's ,you'll take a **** kicking when you go to sell the 1 3/4's and why waste money.Shouldn't be any smell inside the truck with-out cats,unless you have a massive exhaust leak under the truck,there'll be a smell behind the truck with-out cats,but shouldn't be anything inside.I daily drive my nitrous toy with 1 7/8's/catless true dual 3" dual pipes and even on my soft nitrous tune,it's still got decent bottem end torque with a 1.5HL Greene cam. Sounds like you're on a bit of a budget,so don't buy anything that you'll end up having to sell when you add boost to it,as you'll never come close to recouping your money on the parts you bought in the interm.

I was on the fence about the recommendation for 1 7/8's primaries.

The simple reason will be 1 3/4" primaries will make more torque down low which he mentioned he tows the boat NA.

After he installs the supercharger I can't really see him upgrading the headers again for top end gains. A whipple is going to make power from start to finish no doubt there. Other areas of the truck will need attention before the headers do.

 

[Nick@GotExhaust]

Ok so I will try to keep this short and simple since you can really go on for days talking about this and all the different ways to look at it.

1st off with the loss of low end. LT headers will make more power across the entire RPM range. The slight loss of torque will not be an issue.

1 - 7/8" is the way to go for a blower normally BUT if you are worried about towing and really want to make sure you have the most low end tq possible go with the 1-3/4". That will help keep more tq in the lower RPM's and will wont loose all that much hp up top.

Quality high flow cats flow very well. So power wise you wont see much more power from no cats vs high flow cats. If you are worried about the smell then I would get the y pipe with cats.

We highly recommend American Racing Headers, which we are running a sale on this month!! Other brands to consider are Kooks, Stainless Works, and AFE. ARH is the best fitting tho and we recommend more than any others.

Feel free to message me for a quote and more info

 

[James OBrien]

So, from personal experience here's some feedback.

I have the 1 7/8" ARH Long tubes, catless. They are MUCH louder than stock, you do lose a touch of low end, but you really make up for it on the upper end. I also went with true duals and an x-pipe, with the x-pipe it felt like I got back whatever I lost on the low end. You will smell the aroma of exhaust once in a while that's much stronger without the cats, but it's not bad, and normally only when you stop at a stop light or the wind is blowing just right. I'm also running a short bed, standard cab, so the exhaust outlet is pretty close. While the exhaust is louder, you can get bigger mufflers, I'm running 18's and like it a bit loud. I also just put on a supercharger (centrifugal), and the exhaust noise and my startups actually decreased a touch which was surprising.

 

[Elevated 2013]

The whole reason I’m not wanting to lose low end power is because this truck is more setup for off roading and towing my boat and a daily driver. I’m not even going to bother racing it because the wheels and tires are too big and heavy and it’s a crew cab Sport edition. I can’t even come close to my buddy when we goof off in his 2017 Silverado High Country. I’ll save the racing for my next project car. The supercharger is going to be more for my low end to help me get more low end power for mudding and towing. So, trying to gain more at the higher end is going to be useless to me because I never really see more than 2500 rpm because I don’t really take off or hit it off the line unless I’m pulling the boat or going up a steeper hill slowly.

 

[Wild one]

The whole reason I’m not wanting to lose low end power is because this truck is more setup for off roading and towing my boat and a daily driver. I’m not even going to bother racing it because the wheels and tires are too big and heavy and it’s a crew cab Sport edition. I can’t even come close to my buddy when we goof off in his 2017 Silverado High Country. I’ll save the racing for my next project car. The supercharger is going to be more for my low end to help me get more low end power for mudding and towing. So, trying to gain more at the higher end is going to be useless to me because I never really see more than 2500 rpm because I don’t really take off or hit it off the line unless I’m pulling the boat or going up a steeper hill slowly.

If you plan on mudding and towing with it,it's wise to put forged pistons in it when you add a blower.If you want serious grunt out of it,the Whipple blower will be the one you want.Even if you keep it at 6 or 7 lb's,i'd still look at forged pistons,as your cylinder temps will be high when you're using it for towing and especially mudding.You're basically lugging the motor if your at 2500 rpm or lower and you'll want good pistons to handle the cylinder pressures and heat.Have you gave any thought to upgrading it to a 6.4 BGE/Truck engine instead.You can probably do a 6.4 truck engine for less then a Whipple,and still have it totally reliable,there's a lot of boosted guys who've blown up their 5.7's under boost.A 6.4 truck engine with a cam upgrade is going to be way more reliable then a boosted 5.7,and not far off it in torque

 

[Ram1958]

My take on headers is(also the only ones I will use) Short Tube Equal Length. The only diff between long tube and OEM manifold is length before collector. Equal length headers help stop collusion before collection.

 

[Wild one]

My take on headers is(also the only ones I will use) Short Tube Equal Length. The only diff between long tube and OEM manifold is length before collector. Equal length headers help stop collusion before collection.

Next time you're in Airdrie hunt me up,and i'll show what the stock log manifolds look like,odds are you'll change your thinking about long tubes.Can you say Peanut Ports,that's what the stock manifolds basically use,and are very restrictive,with a very tight exit path to the collector,lol.If it's still nice out,i might even take you for a ride in my truck,my toy runs basically 12 flats at Castrol,lol.
Rick