Thinking of installing shorty Headers on my 87. Will I pick up some HP or I'm I wasting my time.

[SamNardi]

Hello everyone,

was thinking of installing shorty headers in my 87. As the 87's have better heads then the previous C4 years, will short headers make any difference in performance? I hear people say they can pick up 5-10 hp. Any truth to that?
Also If I do choose to go in that direction, do I need to make any other modification in regards to clearance i.e smog pump delete?

Thanks

 

[Music]

What type of tires are you running this winter?

 

[dannyboy]

What type of tires are you running this winter?

What possible correlation does your question have to do with Sam's post?

 

[Darrellg1]

bot

 

[JS4FN]

Hello everyone,

was thinking of installing shorty headers in my 87. As the 87's have better heads then the previous C4 years, will short headers make any difference in performance? I hear people say they can pick up 5-10 hp. Any truth to that?
Also If I do choose to go in that direction, do I need to make any other modification in regards to clearance i.e smog pump delete?

Thanks

The stock C4 manifolds are shorty headers. You won’t gain any performance or change exhaust sound in any way. (My opinion).

 

[JS4FN]

Hello everyone,

was thinking of installing shorty headers in my 87. As the 87's have better heads then the previous C4 years, will short headers make any difference in performance? I hear people say they can pick up 5-10 hp. Any truth to that?
Also If I do choose to go in that direction, do I need to make any other modification in regards to clearance i.e smog pump delete?

Thanks

The stock manifolds on the c4’s essentially shorty headers from the factory, unless you go with full headers and exhaust your waisting your time and money. One of the jobs of the smog pump is to send air to the catalytic converter to help it burn bad exhaust gases and keep it cool enough so it doesn’t burn itself up.
(My opinion)

 

[JS4FN]

The stock manifolds on the c4’s essentially shorty headers from the factory, unless you go with full headers and exhaust your waisting your time and money. One of the jobs of the smog pump is to send air to the catalytic converter to help it burn bad exhaust gases and keep it cool enough so it doesn’t burn itself up.
(My opinion)

Sorry for the double reply, didn’t think the first one posted.

 

[SamNardi]

The stock manifolds on the c4’s essentially shorty headers from the factory, unless you go with full headers and exhaust your waisting your time and money. One of the jobs of the smog pump is to send air to the catalytic converter to help it burn bad exhaust gases and keep it cool enough so it doesn’t burn itself up.
(My opinion)

Thanks for your input. I think I will put that money somewhere else. What are your thoughts on a performance chip/ Tune i.e Chip and 24LBS injectors?

 

[Darrellg1]

ive installed the hypertech chip and seen negligible improvements

 

[JS4FN]

Thanks for your input. I think I will put that money somewhere else. What are your thoughts on a performance chip/ Tune i.e Chip and 24LBS injectors?

Performance chip is good, they bump up your timing and fuel at wide open throttle so premium fuel is needed. 24 lb injectors are not needed. TPI only makes power to 5000 rpm, if you change your intake to a miniram or similar with a cam the rpm jumps significantly that’s when you would need larger injectors. Rpm is horsepower that’s why Tuned port injection specialists advertise there miniram intake to gain as much as 100 hp over the stock tpi. I’ve used them a lot. They work.
If you can find large tube runners grab them they help but the miniram is king for tpi.

 

[vintageracer]

Performance chip is good, they bump up your timing and fuel at wide open throttle so premium fuel is needed. 24 lb injectors are not needed. TPI only makes power to 5000 rpm, if you change your intake to a miniram or similar with a cam the rpm jumps significantly that’s when you would need larger injectors. Rpm is horsepower that’s why Tuned port injection specialists advertise there miniram intake to gain as much as 100 hp over the stock tpi. I’ve used them a lot. They work.
If you can find large tube runners grab them they help but the miniram is king for tpi.

Premium fuel is specified for C4s already...
I have edited this to say that I am apparently mistaken. You might choose to use premium to avoid ethanol though.

 

[JS4FN]

Premium fuel is specified for C4s already.

Why would you need premium fuel for a 9.5-1 compression motor with aluminum heads??

 

[Darrellg1]

You want to keep the knocking and pinging to a very minimum. This will destroy pistons in a hurry. Even with knock sensors, you can only pull so much timing out, but cant always account for poor octane. Besides, why burn more fuel to go the same distance? They also have that fuel in mind when they burn the tune into the chip parameters for the vehicle at the factory and its expecting that octane. Pre-detonation is deadly to an engine, hurts them pretty heads too.

 

[SamNardi]

Performance chip is good, they bump up your timing and fuel at wide open throttle so premium fuel is needed. 24 lb injectors are not needed. TPI only makes power to 5000 rpm, if you change your intake to a miniram or similar with a cam the rpm jumps significantly that’s when you would need larger injectors. Rpm is horsepower that’s why Tuned port injection specialists advertise there miniram intake to gain as much as 100 hp over the stock tpi. I’ve used them a lot. They work.
If you can find large tube runners grab them they help but the miniram is king for tpi.

Thanks again. I watched on youtube people porting out the intake and plenum. Is that a worth while mod? Also, which mini ram did you use as i see that here are quite a few to chose from?

 

[JS4FN]

Thanks again. I watched on youtube people porting out the intake and plenum. Is that a worth while mod? Also, which mini ram did you use as i see that here are quite a few to chose from?

Porting out the intake and plenum will absolutely make a difference especially with a set of large tube runners added to the mix. The miniram number 1204 is geared to the stock head because of port size, the 1205 has larger ports geared towards an aftermarket head. Always a good idea to match port intake to heads for best results.

 

[VikingTrad3r]

Premium fuel is specified for C4s already.

no its not.

if you are going to make a blanket statement like that, qualify!! some poor guy with a TPI, ack even an ironhead 85/86e TPI or an 84 cfi, may waste a significant % of money to get zilch for gain.

im not sure about an LT1/LT4

LT5 @ 11:1 compression, sure. i run it in mine. i run 94 at the track.

but blanket statements like that are misleading and not helpful (costly even) to many of the youngsters who are buying up these badda$$ cars are breathing new life into them.

to anyone who reads that mans post, a tpi anyway, in stock format, 91 or 94 is not “spcified” for your tpi. nor the 84 crossfire!! lol.

i would highly recommend that you use a gas app and find local providers of non ethanol gas though

 

[VikingTrad3r]

Hello everyone,

was thinking of installing shorty headers in my 87. As the 87's have better heads then the previous C4 years, will short headers make any difference in performance? I hear people say they can pick up 5-10 hp. Any truth to that?
Also If I do choose to go in that direction, do I need to make any other modification in regards to clearance i.e smog pump delete?

Thanks

Full free flowing exhaust *will* yield hp yes.

the L98 shorties are terribly tiny and while they are technically are shorties they are very restrictive. i suspect that a set of open freeflowing shorties would actually yield some hp but were not talking crazy amounts.

as another poster has mentioned the “tuned” part (length ofvthe runners basically) of the Tune Port Injection makes it very hard for the engine to draw more air in itself over 4700 ish rpm

my recommendation is a good open free flowing exhaust. id spend the money on corsa mufflers, due to thier proprietary anto drone frequency cancellation. id love to recommend flowmasters or magnaflow but the drone will drive you nutz on long drives.

there are a few great posts on CF about how to get more hp from a tpi. focus on adding more torque, use the fact that the tpi is higher torque (not by much but slightly) down low. free up exhaust flow, your 113 heads perfectly fine *even as a racecar* you simply syay in the powerband where you have all your torque.

i prefer the superram over the miniram.

here is a video of an amateur racer isi g the tpi. 100% factory. no porting. open free exhaust and ofcourse plenty of weight reduction in the car. but the TPI does just fine and in fact whoops almost every competitor.

no need for a fancy chip, but if you go in knowing and understanding that what you are getting is a bit of extra timing and a fan that comes on earlier....go for it.

if you are in a racing environment its different. you would work with. a tuner looking for maximum everything. street car, meh.

 

[vintageracer]

no its not.

if you are going to make a blanket statement like that, qualify!! some poor guy with a TPI, ack even an ironhead 85/86e TPI or an 84 cfi, may waste a significant % of money to get zilch for gain.

im not sure about an LT1/LT4

LT5 @ 11:1 compression, sure. i run it in mine. i run 94 at the track.

but blanket statements like that are misleading and not helpful (costly even) to many of the youngsters who are buying up these badda$$ cars are breathing new life into them.

to anyone who reads that mans post, a tpi anyway, in stock format, 91 or 94 is not “spcified” for your tpi. nor the 84 crossfire!! lol.

i would highly recommend that you use a gas app and find local providers of non ethanol gas though

Sorry... you are correct VikingTrad3r.
I had been using premium Shell and Esso in my '87 because I was avoiding ethanol since I drove it so little and it sat so long over Winter etc. I was just in the habit of using premium and had it "locked" in my mind.

 

[VikingTrad3r]

Sorry... you are correct VikingTrad3r.
I had been using premium Shell and Esso in my '87 because I was avoiding ethanol since I drove it so little and it sat so long over Winter etc. I was just in the habit of using premium and had it "locked" in my mind.

Absolutely I could not agree more on the ethanol!

Sometimes you do find the only way to get ethanol free is to buy premium. But even premium can have it ive found.

there is an app i use called “puregas” on my iphone. its shows me where ethanol free can be found. cheers!

 

[vintageracer]

Absolutely I could not agree more on the ethanol!

Sometimes you do find the only way to get ethanol free is to buy premium. But even premium can have it ive found.

there is an app i use called “puregas” on my iphone. its shows me where ethanol free can be found. cheers!

Yes. I think Premium is only way to avoid ethanol here in the Toronto area. I've heard that they might even be putting ethanol in the Shell and Esso premiums!