Headers are worth it, the ones made for the 3800’s are bigger than needed but won’t hurt much. I always wanted to try making custom headers. The exhaust ports essentially face up, and exhaust manifolds and headers make an abrupt turn right at the flange. Not great for flow. Figured someone would have corrected that by now
3800 Who Builds Shorty Headers?
- Thread starter Eddie
- Start date
So you have some parameters to think about, exhaust port size in the head, header primary diameter and collector / main exhaust diameter.
If the exhaust ports are 2.25, no reason to go bigger there but downstream there is value to think about what you can buy now vs going bigger in a custom header.
Superchargers like getting the air out so bigger downstream I'd think would add.
Also depends on how aggressive this car's combo is.
If the exhaust ports are 2.25, no reason to go bigger there but downstream there is value to think about what you can buy now vs going bigger in a custom header.
Superchargers like getting the air out so bigger downstream I'd think would add.
Also depends on how aggressive this car's combo is.
To elaborate more on setup…if you have a lot of overlap in the cam, it can fill up the exhaust really quick. I’ve been out of the 3800 game for a quick minute, but I don’t believe there’s a ton of overlap in any of the off the shelf cams, nor do any combos utilize high rpm either. I’ve always recommended the smaller s&s headers over the larger primary headers on this platform. It’s pretty much all you need, and the packaging was better.
That being said, you might lose some TQ down low with the bigger primaries and on most setups it’s no big deal. You normally get a bigger stall and gearing and you don’t worry about anything under 4k anyway.
3800 is all about the wide TQ band with a 4 speed trans and the highway gears. 2800-4800 rpm is where this motor lives. This really needs to be considered to be realistic with goals. IMHO most of the time people build these things and make peak power in a shorter rev range rather than moving the rev range higher.
If there were better heads and readily available rotating assemblies capable of 7000+ rpm, I think the headers would come more into play.
That being said, you might lose some TQ down low with the bigger primaries and on most setups it’s no big deal. You normally get a bigger stall and gearing and you don’t worry about anything under 4k anyway.
3800 is all about the wide TQ band with a 4 speed trans and the highway gears. 2800-4800 rpm is where this motor lives. This really needs to be considered to be realistic with goals. IMHO most of the time people build these things and make peak power in a shorter rev range rather than moving the rev range higher.
If there were better heads and readily available rotating assemblies capable of 7000+ rpm, I think the headers would come more into play.
I don’t know where I was going with that, but I did port some manifolds, you have so little material to work with that to port properly you have to add weld to them so there’s enough material to port.
When I first started experimenting I had a hacked together IC with ported and jet hot coated manifolds running low 13’s at 104mph. Added headers/rockers and ran 12.70’s at 108-109.
Tweaked IC and optimized pulley size/ported blower 110/111 mph trap. E85 and timing 117/118 trap.
There were obviously more things I did, but these were the big hits
When I first started experimenting I had a hacked together IC with ported and jet hot coated manifolds running low 13’s at 104mph. Added headers/rockers and ran 12.70’s at 108-109.
Tweaked IC and optimized pulley size/ported blower 110/111 mph trap. E85 and timing 117/118 trap.
There were obviously more things I did, but these were the big hits
I believe some of the Intense Cams that are "N/A" grinds have narrow LSA. Honestly I like the looks of them better than quite a few of their blower/turbo grinds at face value.
Thread Info
-
Created -
37Replies
-
3KViews
-
Participants list
