opionions on header

[johnz138]

I was looking on the ws6 site and was checking out some headers, came across the jet hot long tube header and also the jet hot off road Y-pipe. My question is does anyone hear have that set up? R those headers good? Will the TA run like crap if I use the off road y-pipe. Ad said it has connector for sensor. They looked pretty nice. How about the slp header? is that one good? Thanks.

[Injuneer]

There are two "issues" with long tube headers.... including the Jet Hots (which are sort of a copy of the Hookers), Hookers, FLP's, and PaceSetters.

1. They reduce ground clearance a bit and be a problem on lowered cars. No problem if you are stock ride height.

2. They can not ever be "emissions legal" because the relocate or eliminate the cats. Again, depends what emissions inspections you have where you live.

The Jet Hots are a good long tube header. Their coating should be a high quality, but I've seen a lot of people complaining of premature rusting with the Jet Hot coatings over the last year or two. As noted above, they are similar to the Hookers, but they come with the required emissions connections - pre-cat O2 sensors, AIR and EGR. Hookers do not. FLP's do. You always need the pre-cat O2 sensors. It is possible to delete EGR and AIR, but in your OBD-II 96 it will take some PCM programming to eliminate the SES light/codes for the missing EGR and AIR.

Then you have the issue of "cats".... if you don't want/need them, you get an "off road" pipe. There is no reason simply using an off road pipe would make your "TA run like crap".... its just an exhaust pipe. The issue you have is that your 96 OBD-II uses after-cat O2 sensors as well, and if there are no cats installed, you need to connect O2 "sims" to the wiring harness, or have the after-cat sensors "programmed out" of the PCM to avoid SES/codes.

The SLP headers are completely different. They sell a "dual cat" setup that simply bolts to your stock dual-cat Y-pipe. The power gains on these headers is subject to debate, because of the twists and turns required on the drivers side to keep the stock cat in the stock location. Alternatively, SLP makes a "single cat" setup that is intended for the 94/95 cars, and would require that you add an "S-pipe" to connect the single-cat Y-pipe/cat to the dual-cat intermediate pipe on your 96. The SLP header are "mid-length" at best, so they will not provide the same gains at the same RPM as the long tube designs.