All too often "we" ask questions without providing all the info and all to often "we" answer without knowing all the facts. In a street car long tubes might be the right answer or the wrong answer. I was told very specifically from the guy that put my cam specs together that I MUST run long tubes with this cam. My cam was specifically setup to match my heads, intake, carb, trans and rear in a street application. I was also told (cam guy & carb guy), against everything you read in the forums, to run a 4150 double pumper with mechanical secondaries Because with "my" combination it's what works, will it work for you, probably not.

There is absolutely no doubt there is a ton of valuable information in this forum but without giving very specific information about your setup the answer you get may not be suitable for you. I think you see some of the posters asking or hinting that more information would be valuable.

After looking at the specs, gauge of tubes, seeing the ground clearance and overall quality I went with FPA. Not the cheapest player out there but they do make a beautiful set of headers. Also one of the few that will clear my 4R70W.

 

Yeah I know about the power steering bracket I can pick that up no problem. I currently have manifolds so any headers will be a nice addition! I would love me a set of Doug's but just too expensive right now... Maybe down the line I'll be able to pick some up just not at this time.

 

I had no clearance issues with the Tri-Y's I put on my car. They also hug the bottom of the car so no clearance issues under the car either.

 

MUST run LT's is rather a bit of nonsense. If the cam is ground for LT's that's what it'll run best with, but you could run it on tri-y's or even a stock manifold if you wanted(which would of course cost a ton of power). It's highly unlikely that not running LT's would prevent the vehicle from running normally, it'd just cost power.

As far as double pumpers, I always recommend them, except with weaksauce gear, tight stalled automatics. Double pumpers will generally outperform vac 2nd carbs, especially on throttle response.

 

Settled for a set of hooker 6111-1HKR. I got them at what I felt was an amazing price... Considering their retail!

 

I bought chrome tri-y's from Sacremento Mustang for $229 shipped to my door, and they came with the bolts, gaskets, collectors. They fit perfectly and I have no clearance issues even using the z-bar clutch linkage. They're probably not the best headers, but for the price they sure work for my street car.

 

You're absolutely right, but you don't go to the best cam grinders looking for a "normal" running engine and he knows that. My point is/was you need to know the application to provide meaningful feedback.

 

That's true. That's why I usually try to give generalizations without knowing anything about the setup. Perfect example....tri-y's are used on NASCAR Cup cars. They suffer not for top end power. But, the headers they run are all custom built, and unlike any tri-y you'd ever see on a street car.

 

Would the same tri-y work with either the 302 and 302HO/351 firing order?

 

I'm running them on my 302 with the HO order. No issues. I actually was curious about that myself before I got them, and drew it out and figured for the firing orders....it functions the same with either one, all it does is swap which of the primary tubes gets used first before it gets to the secondaries. But with either firing order, the primary/secondary timing spacing is the same.

When you think about it, the firing order difference doesn't make them a different engine. Same crank, the difference is it swaps some of the exhaust strokes for compression and vice-versa. Just a different cam and firing order, and balance. The tri-y setup pairs the cylinders based on crank position, since it's trying to pair cylinders up to avoid exhaust header overload on the 90* spacing same-side firing. Good ones also function like a step tubed header for pulse tuning purposes.

Edit: Here's an article in advanced exhaust system design and tuning. Some of it covers the basics, most of it covers stuff way beyond what this thread was dealing with. But it has a part towards the bottom about the tri-y Cup setup, gives you an idea of why the tri-y design is used and how it functions. Makes it easier to understand the exhaust firing pattern issues that American(and all 90*) V8's have.

http://www.epi-eng.com/piston_engine...technology.htm