Tiny exhaust upgrade question... (97 K1500)

[chillman88]

Hey all,

When I did head gaskets, I put a set of shorty headers on my truck, the kind that bolt right up like the stock manifolds. They are leaking (I'm thinking it's the ball flange) I'm going to scrap my 92, but take the y-pipe off because it's a dirt cheap way to get a 3" exhaust. Would I lose a lot if I just put the exhaust manifolds back on? or should I find the leak in the headers and fix it. If i'm only looking at miniscule amounts of gain, i'd rather not mess with the headers FOR NOW since it's my DD, and every minute it's down, i'm without a car. How much good are these shortys really doing? (besides, the y-pipe from the 92 is bigger all around, the y-pipe from my 97 is off my 305, and dented/kinked!)

Thanks!

[blue-bandit]

im pretty sure that the shorty's dont flow that much better over the stock manifolds. if you had long tubes ide say keep them, but as your daily.... you probly not going to see much of a difference if you take off the shorty's IMO.

[chillman88]

I heard that too, but I also heard they make more of a difference on an OBS than they do on an NBS, simply because the NBS exhaust manifolds flow better than the OBS ones do. Really, I'm wondering how much of a difference that amounts to.

[blue-bandit]

Im very curious as well because i was pondering getting a set for my OBS 5.7, but from what i had researched the gains weren't very impressive...

[chillman88]

bump

[chillman88]

bump again. Nobody else wants to chime in?