Did you check with TA about whether their shorties will fit? www.TAperformance.com Also you might consider whether on a stock 430 you will obtain any significant increase in perfromance. You may just get more noise.
i knew you would get back to me devon. did he use you as his ginny pig template or had he previously done a set? thx vito
They'd never done a big block Buick before, but they have been prototyping headers & exhaust for the OEMs forever. They used my enlarged gaskets for the flange patterns and simply began building one tube at a time from the heads down to the collectors, attempting to keep primary lengths equal. They had tons of different mandrel bent pipes in my diameter at several different radii, it was just a lot of cutting, trial fitting, deburring and TIG welding to get it all done. Definitely a new animal on the drive home, and they'll last a long time as I asked for stainless. Devon
I have seen a published test with Chevy shorties versus long tube headers and the shorties made less hp but just by less the 5 hp if I recall. Not as much as you might think. I have not seen a test with Buick shorties versus long tube. But with the shorties you can eliminate any ground clearance issues and maybe solve some install issues. I suspect that you cannot fell a 5 hp shortfall.
I'd agree, especially considering our relatively low rpm ranges. Had the shorties been available back then I would have chosen them in a heartbeat; but in some ways I'm glad I didn't, as I'm told my current cylinder head/engine plan would have been held back even further by the small primaries on the shorties. Devon
TA claims a 10 hp drop going from their big comp headers to shorties, but it all depends on the combo. Unless you're planning to run heavy breathing carb/intake/heads over 6000 rpm, I would stick with the shorties. Devon
