Your right, it will increase drivability. That isn't up in the air, I love pulleys for being able to help reduce stress on the engine. I may get them for the simple fact of reducing the strain on my tranny, because I can't stand having a tranny that doesn't work properly. As for the drag racing on a fully bolt-on Tib with pulleys on street tires, chances are you won't be able to floor it in 1st, but have to probably go 75-80%. So they won't make too much of a difference track time wise.

For a daily driver, they're fun little mods.

 

I suppose my next question is if I'm going to feel more gains with a 4-2-1 header or with lightweight underdrive pulleys?

 

A header with no other exhaust mods will net you very little in gains. It will probably give you some grins from the sound the exhaust makes.

Now, if you pair that up with a high flow cat and a car back, you will probably see more gains with the exhaust. As for the question about using the stock cat, chances are your car has at least 50,000 miles on it. I would not go through all the trouble of putting a totally new exhaust system in without replacing the cat with at least a new one, preferably with a high flow.

As for the pulleys, I did mine when I did the timing belt. The crank pulley had to come off anyway.

 

It has 40,500 so ill use the stock cat for a while then get a hi flow and get a locat shop to mke it fit

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Mad-Machine @ Jun 6 2005, 02:47 PM)</div><div class='quotemain'>A header with no other exhaust mods will net you very little in gains. It will probably give you some grins from the sound the exhaust makes.

Now, if you pair that up with a high flow cat and a car back, you will probably see more gains with the exhaust. As for the question about using the stock cat, chances are your car has at least 50,000 miles on it. I would not go through all the trouble of putting a totally new exhaust system in without replacing the cat with at least a new one, preferably with a high flow.

As for the pulleys, I did mine when I did the timing belt. The crank pulley had to come off anyway.
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I was already aware that headers perform much better with the catback/high flow cat, but I wasn't really expecting large gains from just the headers itself.

I'm glad that just headers give the exhaust a deep grunting tone. Do they help the low-ends torque much?


I will also probably install pulleys at the same time I install a new timing belt. I'm due for a new one anyways (pushing past 60K miles)

Like you said, pulleys definitely help the engine rev up faster which is a plus with my sluggish gearing, and that they also drop the revs quicker.

Sometimes it seems so difficult to just "cruise" in the car when the RPMs don't drop but rather holds them for a few seconds before it upshifts or loses its revs.

 

unless you go with much larger primaries than you need.. ANY header will help your power and torque across the board from idle to redline. A tri-Y like you have is biased towards the middle of the powerband.. perfect for an automatic. A four into one is better suited to a stickshift. Either will be better than stock though.

 

It all depends where you want the power. 4-1 would be high-end but a 4-2-1 will give me that much needed low-to-mid range torque that the engine i.

Eww, just looking at those god forsaken stock headers is making me want to swap them out even more! They look like crap and I bet perform just as well.

I'm thinking about going with Maintec 4-2-1s. Of course, quality 4-2-1 headers have potential to outperform lesser quality 4-1 headers.

But I don't know, kinda pricey.=X $400+ when the gains might not be worth the price. Plus OBX doesn't have any fitment problems, and give PLENTY power for a price of under $200. I'm siked to hear what my engine will sound like with just the combo of CAI/headers.

*VROOOOM*

 

^^ Welcome to my dillemma. I can't choose... when the MainTecs were $399, I was all over them. For $499 though...

If the dollar wasn't so weak, the price would drop back down. Bleh.

 

I think I'm going with OBX. Plus this place nearby me has them in stock, so they can be installed professionally, which I'll need since I'm such a n00b.

 

On a LS1 5.7L motor you possibly could gain 35-45hp with the IHE. On the beta expect more like 15-25hp.

On the subject of 4-1 vs 4-2-1, take a good look at all the hardcore N/A parts manufacturers like TODA racing. They can make 4-2-1 headers work wonders top end as well.