Jump to content

AFE twisted steel headers and y pipe

TruckStig

By TruckStig
in Engines & Drivetrain

Recommended Posts

TruckStig Enthusiast

TruckStig

Posted
Posted

Does anybody have experience with the AFE twisted steel headers and y pipe? They're factory style "shorty" headers and according to the AFE "in house dyno results" they provide better gains all throughout the rev range than their own long tubes do. I take any manufacturers provided dyno results with a grain of salt, but what's with them showing better results on these than their long tubes when almost every person on here says that 1 7/8" long tubes will give you the best gains all throughout, even on a 5.3? 

 

AFE twisted steel            AFE long tube

 

I called AFE today to make sure they would fit my RCSB and was told they will fit but they're on back order. So the dilemma now is, are these my best option if I don't want to give up any low end hp/tq? Or should I cancel my order and look into Kooks, Texas Speed....or even the Stainless Works with the x-pipe? I also ordered an AFE momentum pro intake and Black Bear AutoCal as well.

 

I'm mainly looking for experience and/or results from headers on this specific platform to compare and not opinions based on fluid dynamics, back pressure, scavenging theories, etc....but I'll gladly hear what anybody has to say.

Nasty Senior Enthusiast

Nasty

Posted
Posted
3 minutes ago, TruckStig said:

Based on what? I'm just curious. 

Price and quality.  Im sure afe are nice but nithing beats the quality of arh or stainless works

TruckStig Enthusiast

TruckStig

Posted
  • Author
Posted

I gotcha. I caught the aFe on sale for $1300 with the cats. Stainless works are still having their sale, but I don't want to spend the same or more if I could potentially lose in the low/mid range. I had aFe downpipes on a twin turbo BMW I had a few years back, the quality and welds were great and they looked perfect when I removed them and sold the vehicle.

Nasty Senior Enthusiast

Nasty

Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, TruckStig said:

I gotcha. I caught the aFe on sale for $1300 with the cats. Stainless works are still having their sale, but I don't want to spend the same or more if I could potentially lose in the low/mid range. I had aFe downpipes on a twin turbo BMW I had a few years back, the quality and welds were great and they looked perfect when I removed them and sold the vehicle.

I get it  if you want even cheaper and good quality you can go with texas speed. I know a lot of people with them and they sell the hell out of them and i think they're 800

TruckStig Enthusiast

TruckStig

Posted
  • Author
Posted

It's not really about the price, I do want quality headers....I just want what has the best gains over all (even in the low/mid range) not a header that sacrifices in the low end for slightly better gains in the top end.

 

I know the topic has been discussed several times, I'm just curious about experiences with these specific headers and want to see why the aFe dyno results on these were better than their long tubes. There was a big difference in gains between the 2.

 

I'd buy the stainless works with the x pipe tomorrow if I knew for a fact there would be better gains without any sacrifices. Even when it comes to SW with the x pipe vs the Texas Speed headers..... I'm not sure there would be gains from the x pipe on the SW vs the y on the TS but the quality from SW alone would make me go that route if there are no performance draw backs. 

SILVER SLED Senior Enthusiast

SILVER SLED

Posted
Posted

Keep in mind that the 385hp and 420hp 6.2 use the same exhaust manifolds.  So your 5.3 manifolds will flow 420hp easily. The exhaust restriction on a 5.3 vs a 6.2 is in the y-pipe and back.  So unless you have immediate internal engine mods planned on your 5.3, money would be better spent on a 6.2 y-pipe and larger 3.5” cat back exhaust that would fit a 6.2. 

Nasty Senior Enthusiast

Nasty

Posted
Posted
3 minutes ago, TruckStig said:

It's not really about the price, I do want quality headers....I just want what has the best gains over all (even in the low/mid range) not a header that sacrifices in the low end for slightly better gains in the top end.

 

I know the topic has been discussed several times, I'm just curious about experiences with these specific headers and want to see why the aFe dyno results on these were better than their long tubes. There was a big difference in gains between the 2.

 

I'd buy the stainless works with the x pipe tomorrow if I knew for a fact there would be better gains without any sacrifices. Even when it comes to SW with the x pipe vs the Texas Speed headers..... I'm not sure there would be gains from the x pipe on the SW vs the y on the TS but the quality from SW alone would make me go that route if there are no performance draw backs. 

Headers in my opinion are all the same gains. They all use more or less the same size piping. Go with arh then. Again just my opinion

qwank Senior Enthusiast

qwank

Posted
Posted

Yeah, headers are headers, you just have to decide how much you want to spend on quality and if you want short or long tubes.  

TruckStig Enthusiast

TruckStig

Posted
  • Author
Posted

So the general opinion is that the Dyno results from aFe and the difference between their short and long tubes on a 5.3 are simply invalid and should be ignored? 

 

The only reason this confuses me is that they have no reason to skew results when comparing their own products making the cheaper one seem like the better option... right?

 

Does anyone have before and after Dyno results or have experience with both short AND long tubes on the 5.3? I'm hearing that a header is a header, is everyone saying that a 1 3/4" shorty style with a y pipe will be the same as 1 7/8" long tubes with an x pipe?

Nasty Senior Enthusiast

Nasty

Posted
Posted
15 minutes ago, TruckStig said:

So the general opinion is that the Dyno results from aFe and the difference between their short and long tubes on a 5.3 are simply invalid and should be ignored? 

 

The only reason this confuses me is that they have no reason to skew results when comparing their own products making the cheaper one seem like the better option... right?

 

Does anyone have before and after Dyno results or have experience with both short AND long tubes on the 5.3? I'm hearing that a header is a header, is everyone saying that a 1 3/4" shorty style with a y pipe will be the same as 1 7/8" long tubes with an x pipe?

Shorties are pointless.  1 3/4 if yours not built. 1 7/8 if you are bullt.  

300 Blackout Enthusiast

300 Blackout

Posted
Posted
Does anyone have before and after Dyno results or have experience with both short AND long tubes on the 5.3? I'm hearing that a header is a header, is everyone saying that a 1 3/4" shorty style with a y pipe will be the same as 1 7/8" long tubes with an x pipe?
There are tests posted online of short vs long in a 5.3. Short and long are not the same. You will get bigger gains with long. The main reason is scavenging. No short tube could match a long tube in scavenging.

I completely understand your concern about not wanting to lose low end for high end gains. I had the same concern when looking at headers. In the end, I found short tubes simply can’t keep up with long tubes. You aren’t losing anything as far as low end gains since BOTH short and longs will produce more than stock, however, the longs will continue to gain power as RPM increases whereas the shorts will fall flat.

If you don’t quantify the gains each produce, then yes, one could say the biggest gains of shorts are in the low end and longs are in the high end, however, once you quantify those gains, you see the longs are producing just as much as shorts in the low end and even more in the high end.

A better way that I conceptualize headers is that they are the foundation of future modifications. A turbo, blower or cam will have a much greater impact on power and won’t know the difference between aFe, Stainless Works or ARH as long as they are big enough to let it breathe. However, slap a shorty header onto the stock exhaust and your blower, cam, turbo will begin to choke.

If you have the money, I agree with the others to go with Stainless Works or ARH. Buy once, cry once. Build the best foundation for future power mods and you won’t have to spend that money again.
300 Blackout Enthusiast

300 Blackout

Posted
Posted
Shorties are pointless.  1 3/4 if yours not built. 1 7/8 if you are bullt.  
Pointless for power gains compared to longs? Perhaps.

Useful for me to get rid of my rusted out stock manifolds and replace them with something a little nicer for under $200?...Yes, yes they are!

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing

  • Latest Articles

  • Posts

    • diyer2
      AFM Experience

      By diyer2 · Posted

      Hey guys, sorry for the confusison about this. This wasn't my experainnce, it was copied and pasted fom the net. 
    • KARNUT
      AFM Experience

      By KARNUT · Posted

      The problem with failure rates or increase failures are there’s people who don’t have a problem. What are you doing wrong they say. We had 4 5.7 GM diesel’s in the family when they came out. One was flawless. My uncle who happened to be the most abusive. Early rotary engines were known to use oil. I abused my first car so bad in six months I replaced the clutch, transmission and rear end. It didn’t use oil. My brother in law has a 2013 Tahoe and an older Yukon. The Yukon has 280K miles. The Tahoe around 175K. He runs them to about 300K. If his lifters fail before that time he would consider it a failure. My Hondas, I know people hate it when I mention them. Identical engines. One with cylinder deactivation one doesn’t have it. One shudders when the eco light goes on or off. Cylinder deactivation. But wait! According to the web. It can happen with lock up too. So now people in the know are changing the oil and transmission fluid more often. Then you read it could be a programing issue. So what do you do? There’s lots of money involved. I see three ways to deal with it. One only works if you don’t drive lots of miles. Lease, never get out of warranty. Or only buy older vehicles with a good track record. They all have bad runs. Usually when there’s a change. Even Toyota and Honda. 
    • Grumpy Bear
      AFM Experience

      By Grumpy Bear · Posted

      Question @diyer2 on this line if you please. Are you saying the shudder is the system turning on and off at the frequency of the shudder? Guess I'm asking if you are saying you have seen it do this with the bi-direction scan tool in graph mode? If so have you been able to discern the 'trigger'. Something is telling to cycle rapidly.    My truck just started doing this recently. 197K on the clock. My response has been M5 anything under 55 mph. I treat it like a lugging stick shift. Gear down and let it spin a bit. Engauge M5, then tow mode and then M6 lets the trans stay in 5th but the AFM is active. Smooth like Skippy.    My thought was that as a machine ages the friction gets lower and as the system is load based, the lower friction would allow it to turn on at ever lower rpm until it reaches the lugging point. And yes I am ignorant of any minimum rpm requirement for the system. If you know that would be useful information.    As you know I run a Scan-Gauge II which allows me to watch the On/Off of the signal to the VLOM. While in the shudder mode I'm not seeing is cycle at that frequency or at all for that matter outside the triggers @newdude posted a few years back. Now is it possible that the refresh rate isn't fast enough to catch it? Maybe. It is why I asked my first question about graphing and trigging parameter.     As we have observed from members here the failure point is all over the map miles wise as you note yourself in your opening post. That by itself begs a few questions like fellows that comment on these lifters failing even after the system has been disabled. Long after. 😬   https://www.enginelabs.com/news/tech-tips-replacing-ls-active-fuel-management-lifters-with-melling/   The Gen5 lifters operate the same as the LS versions. In fact they are the same lifter.    https://www.enginelabs.com/tech-stories/sorting-out-gen-v-lt-lifter-failure-with-a-simple-valvetrain-fix/        
    • SwitchBladeSierra
      14-18 Sierra 1500 Heated Steering Wheel Help

      By SwitchBladeSierra · Posted

      UPDATE 2: Steering wheel control backlights and control of the cluster can supposedly be achieved by adding a wire to pin 20 of the cluster and tapping it to pin 2 of the main clock spring harness. I'm going to give it a shot - will update  
    • newdude
      Seems to be Missing a lot of Updates

      By newdude · Posted

      GM Global A pickups 2019-2022 can do OTA programming for the radio.  GM VIP (GM Global B) can do OTAs for almost every module on board.  So a 2022.5 and newer pickup can do OTAs for recalls like the 2.7 fuel flow recall.  EVs get OTAs that improve one pedal driving, radio issues, HVAC issues, updated battery management software, etc.     So age of the vehicle/what GM electrical platform its on will alter what amount of updates can be pushed on OTAs.  

  • GM-Trucks.com Clubs

  • Popular Contributors

×
×
  • Create New...