TTI Shorty Headers

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68 Coronet RT

68 Coronet RT

68 GTS # 508 in Registry
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Is there a significant HP gain eliminating the stock exhaust manifolds and putting on a set of TTI shorty headers ? I already have installed the 2 1/2 inch TTI H pipe system on the car just wondering if it's worth the money to buy the TTI shorties
 
It all depends on the power level of the engine and the car it's in.
You are going to get a lot of opinions from both sides, so be ready for it!
So, here's my stab at it FWIW.

Instead of shorties, why not long tube?
If you increase your power level sometime in the future, you will wish you had done it right the first time.
Unless you have them already, good 340 manifolds are pretty expensive and the TTI headers would be about double the cost, but you are potentially gaining another 30 to 40 horse with them overall.
This is taking for granted that you have a 350 to 400 H.P. small block with decent flowing heads that spins to 6,500 R.P.M. regularly.
If you have a stock 318, then stock cast iron manifolds are just fine with dual exhaust.

On a side note, the F.A.S.T. cars run cast iron exhaust manifolds and stock size bias ply tires and they make loads of power and e.t. very well, so nobody can say it can't be done that way, but there is a lot of science that goes along with it that most people don't know about like striker cranks, perfect machining, balanced and blueprinted to the max, chassis perfectly set up, etc..........

In the long run, do what suits you and your long term expectations.
 
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I agree with Dartnut; however, the advantage with the shorties is space. Look at the old threads. Long tubes just don't fit right. I don't like the idea of denting my new headers, and unless you have a race car you will get great flow from shorties with 2 1/2 pipe and the H section.
 
68 GTS 340 automatic with a shift kit. Stock block, ported X heads, ported Edelbrock Performer RPM intake with a Edelbrock 650 AVS-2 carb, Hughes Engine cam kit 518 lift 224 duration. 3:73 posi gears. The current exhaust manifolds are the early 68 factory manifolds. Car was built September 8th 1967, Engine has a production date of 6/21/67
 
68 Coronet RT said:
68 GTS 340 automatic with a shift kit. Stock block, ported X heads, ported Edelbrock Performer RPM intake with a Edelbrock 650 AVS-2 carb, Hughes Engine cam kit 518 lift 224 duration. 3:73 posi gears. The current exhaust manifolds are the early 68 factory manifolds. Car was built September 8th 1967, Engine has a production date of 6/21/67
Click to expand...
I take it that you are describing the car in your avitar.
(Nice car and set up BTW)
I still think the long tube headers would give you some benefit over stock manifolds or the shorties IMHO.
 
The shorties don't save as much space as people think. The headers themselves offer a little better clearance, but the head pipes are just as tight in a lot of places as a set of long tubes.

I have Doug's D453's on my Duster with a 340. I decided I was going to swap them out for TTI shorties to gain some ground clearance and a better fit, but after going most of the way through the install I decided the TTI's caused just as many new clearance issues as they solved, particularly at the oil filter with my set up. I put the Doug's back on, and the only clearance dimples they needed were at my 1.12" torsion bars.

I did a write up on the swap and my findings in my build thread here My "new" '74 Duster- or why I need a project like a hole in the head

So, my .02 is that the shorties will give you better flow than a set of manifolds, but they're really not much less of a headache to install than a set of Doug's long tubes. At least on my car anyway, as always not all of these cars are identical and especially with headers a few small body tolerance differences can make a big difference. But for me the clearance issues that the TTI's solved and the different clearance issues they created compared to the Doug's were about equal.
 
Agree with above poster. Have the Dougs headers on my 69 dart smallblock, and to me they fit better than several sets of TTI headers i have had on different A body combinations.
I would go with the shorty header at all. To me, of the 3 possibilities, stock, shorty, Dougs i would rate the shorties last as an option.
Either keep what you got or install a real set of headers. The Dougs fit nice
 
Pretty much any headers at all will out flow manifolds of any kind. The 4 into 1 design is far superior to probably 90% or more manifolds out there, so yes, there will be a noticeable difference in power.
 
I'd expect some benefit from the shorties all across the RPM band vs manifolds, even the 340 ones. The Spitfires on my son's 340 '65 'Cuda gave better ground clearance than I would expect overall from a 4-1 setup, but that may or may not be important to the OP. We re-located the oil filter remotely to fix that problem.... which I like to do and consider a plus anyway.
 
Id like to try a set of the schumacher try y headers. I HEARD they slip right in. but not sure. they do have smaller tubes though, so wont make the power the tti's will. i think.
 
Coronet try the try whys as yes they will be easier to install and as long as you are not reving it to the moon will produce a good power curve. I live in australia so we have very little to choose in the way of headers as your USA one will not fit our aussie r/h drive cars. My 410 stroker has a very mild cam in it but made 355 rwhp on a chassis dyno and has run a best of 11.5 @ 120 mph. It had try wys (1 5/8 to 1 7/8 to 2 1/2 collector. We are now able to update to the bigger header ( 1 3/4 to 2 inch to 3 inch collector) I had it dynoed and it produced 397 rwhp, a gain of 42 rwhp. I have not run it at the qtr yet as I had a slipping clutch and have been putting a very trick twin plate unit in so I will run it shortly to see the qtr improvement.
 
I have the TTI shorties on my 340/727 Dart, and on my car the TTI headpipe on the left side interfered with the kickdown linkage. Had to modify one of the bellcranks and one of the rods had to be bent. They do not mention this in their instructions. Also, if you do buy these, attach the head pipes to the headers before you put them on the engine. Otherwise the nuts & bolts on those adapter flanges are a PITA to get too. I think I had every wrench, socket, and extension I own under the car, and it took forever to get all the bolts tight.
 
Oh yeah... expect better fuel mileage too with headers. When young and poor and when I got tired of welding up holes on my rusty old Hookers, I put the factory manifolds back on.... Lost over 1 mpg...over 5% on average. 351C.
 
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