Chevy SS Forum banner
1 - 20 of 26 Posts

· Registered
Joined
·
201 Posts
Discussion Starter · #1 ·
I spoke to Steve @ (ARH) American Racing headers today...I asked him if they had plans in the works to produce headers for the 2014 SS...He said they were getting a lot of calls on them...he spoke to the owner who said they can send a set out for the G8 to see if they work, if they don't fit they will pay for the shipping back to them and refund...If anyone is interested, give them a call...
 

· Registered
Joined
·
467 Posts
Are you going to give it a try?
 

· Registered
Joined
·
467 Posts
What are your goals? I've been around a bunch of different G8s with varying mods and can give you a pretty solid mod recipe to meet your goals.
 

· Registered
Joined
·
467 Posts
I don't know any G8 guys running the West Coast Cylinder heads, but do know a CTS-V guy running them.

Rick Crawford in South Carolina is the guy to go to for head porting and throttle body porting. He also has an intake manifold modification that he does that yields some great gains. He goes by G8-4-speed on the g8board.com and grrrr8.net. The guy knows his stuff and has guys coming from all over the country to do work for them.

He can work over a set of factory heads to flow better than the CNC ported GM heads.

He has a naturally aspirated G8 running in the 10's.
Pontiac G8 Conquers 10-Second Quarter-Mile (Videos!) - GM High-Tech Performance

https://www.facebook.com/RickCrawfordRacing

So, it really depends on your goals whether it be horsepower, quarter mile times or both. Rick has some cams that he recommends to folks depending on their goals. For example some want a mild cam so that they can get by with a stock torque converter while others want something more wild that requires a stall converter.

Me personally, in my 6.0 (L76) I'm running stock heads with dual valve springs for the cam, stock intake manifold, stock throttle body, Livernois Stage 1 L92 cam, stock stall, Kooks long tubes, high flow cats, Vararam intake, and tune and I'm putting 407 to the wheels. It's not crazy power, but I can run 12.7s in the heat of summer and as low as 12.2 - 12.4 in some nice cool fall temps. I've run a best of 12.26 so far and that's with the stock GT gears which are 2.92s. I'm pretty content with it as it sits, but if I wanted to go faster, I'd have Rick do the heads, throttle body, and intake manifold and would add a converter and it should easily run 11's.

In contrast, one of my G8 friends is supercharged, putting 606 to the wheels and running 10.7s so there are definitely a bunch of options depending on what you want and how much you want to spend. His is so tame that you could drive it across the country in comfort.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 8ball and Jstue

· Registered
Joined
·
466 Posts
Contact Nick @ARH and he is going put together a package and send to me. I will take very detailed pictures through the install process. If they fit I will try to get some dyno numbers out of them before any tuning. Will let you know what I receive from them and updates as the process goes along.
 

· Registered
Joined
·
989 Posts
Contact Nick @ARH and he is going put together a package and send to me. I will take very detailed pictures through the install process. If they fit I will try to get some dyno numbers out of them before any tuning. Will let you know what I receive from them and updates as the process goes along.
Provided all hanger locations are the same, and the exhaust routes up the same way, G8 headers are a great option for SS guys. This means you'll have a flange after the axles, and can now try G8 axle back options (of which there are a LOT).
 

· Registered
Joined
·
51 Posts
I just spoke to Nick over at ARH since he is a friend of mine. I found a picture of how the axle back connects a few threads from this one and it has a ball and socket connection compared to the G8s flange. Obviously an ARH system for a G8 won't connect to a SS stock axle back.

So Nick is offering a deal for someone to bring a car into their facility on Long Island so they can make it work with the stock SS axle back.
 

· Premium Member
Joined
·
3,373 Posts
As posted here there's a photo of ARH headers (from a G8) on a late Caprice in the Middle East. No idea if the tube runs are the same as current production for G8, but--not mentioned here--the oil cooler on the LS3 in the SS is going to be a stumbling block.

The ME Caprice pictured is not LS3 and never had the oil cooler--SS and Caprice PPV (cop car) with L77 here in US both use the same cooler configuration.

SS owners have discussed this--not sure whether the desire for headers overrides the worth of the cooler. It remains to be seen whether it's possible to have both.

A full set of header & exhaust pics of ME Caprice are in this post/thread on New Caprice forum.
 

· Registered
Joined
·
875 Posts
they won't fit. j-bends on a SS are different then G8
 

· Premium Member
Joined
·
7,509 Posts
I don't know any G8 guys running the West Coast Cylinder heads, but do know a CTS-V guy running them.

Rick Crawford in South Carolina is the guy to go to for head porting and throttle body porting. He also has an intake manifold modification that he does that yields some great gains. He goes by G8-4-speed on the g8board.com and grrrr8.net. The guy knows his stuff and has guys coming from all over the country to do work for them.

He can work over a set of factory heads to flow better than the CNC ported GM heads.

He has a naturally aspirated G8 running in the 10's.
Pontiac G8 Conquers 10-Second Quarter-Mile (Videos!) - GM High-Tech Performance

https://www.facebook.com/RickCrawfordRacing

So, it really depends on your goals whether it be horsepower, quarter mile times or both. Rick has some cams that he recommends to folks depending on their goals. For example some want a mild cam so that they can get by with a stock torque converter while others want something more wild that requires a stall converter.

Me personally, in my 6.0 (L76) I'm running stock heads with dual valve springs for the cam, stock intake manifold, stock throttle body, Livernois Stage 1 L92 cam, stock stall, Kooks long tubes, high flow cats, Vararam intake, and tune and I'm putting 407 to the wheels. It's not crazy power, but I can run 12.7s in the heat of summer and as low as 12.2 - 12.4 in some nice cool fall temps. I've run a best of 12.26 so far and that's with the stock GT gears which are 2.92s. I'm pretty content with it as it sits, but if I wanted to go faster, I'd have Rick do the heads, throttle body, and intake manifold and would add a converter and it should easily run 11's.

In contrast, one of my G8 friends is supercharged, putting 606 to the wheels and running 10.7s so there are definitely a bunch of options depending on what you want and how much you want to spend. His is so tame that you could drive it across the country in comfort.
Rick is in North Carolina. Right near Fayettenam.
 

· Registered
Joined
·
467 Posts
Rick is in North Carolina. Right near Fayettenam.
Thanks for the correction. Went to go correct my post and didn't see the option to edit it????
 

· Registered
Joined
·
466 Posts
I can honestly say if SW developes long tubes that connect to the factory catback they will get my money. Kooks you have to buy their intermediate pipe with cats at 1599.00 and axle backs at 799.00 plus the headers run 1100-1200 depending on the ones. lookin at 3600 dollars for a complete system. That is insane!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Whipple SS

· Registered
Joined
·
989 Posts
I can honestly say if SW developes long tubes that connect to the factory catback they will get my money. Kooks you have to buy their intermediate pipe with cats at 1599.00 and axle backs at 799.00 plus the headers run 1100-1200 depending on the ones. lookin at 3600 dollars for a complete system. That is insane!
You can use stock mufflers with the system....
 
1 - 20 of 26 Posts
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top