Quote:
Originally Posted by mikeSS
quote
One thing you need to consider about adding headers is that you are significantly increasing the air flow of the engine. One of the more important things the tune is going to do is make sure your Air/Fuel ratio is good. By adding headers you are going lean out your fuel mixture. I believe that the factory tune on the Camaro is supposed to be pretty rich but if your headers happen to lean out your A/F ratio to much you'll take a big chance on burning a piston.
So...lets say that I put on headers without a tune. The car runs fine for a while and then all of a sudden you eat a piston. You take it to the dealer to look at and even though you have the factory tune they will surely determine that your headers are what leaned out the car and caused the issue. Then you'll be out of pocket to fix everything and possibley loose the drivetrain warranty anyway.
So....technically just adding the headers could cause you to have your drivetrain warranty voided with or without a tune.
All of that is above and beyond the fact that your car will run much better with the tune....again becasue they are getting your A/F ratios and things like that to run optimal for your car.
Talk with some of the tuners/performance shops and see if they don't agree.
For me....I'm waiting to add LT headers until I'm ready to do a tune and take that possible chance that either the headers or the tune might void my drivetrain warranty.
If you don't want to take the chance on voiding the drivetrain warranty then you probably shouldn't put the headers on.
Just my take.....
|
The main problem with your "take" is that shorty's don't significantly increase the airflow through the engine. It's debateable whether they flow more than the stock ones at all. For the sake of arguement, lets say they do. They haven't been proven to gain anywhere near the 18hp that most companies claim. I highly doubt you're going to burn up a piston with a 5-10hp gain. The PCM can EASILY compensate for that little of a change.