I am wanting to buy some headers for my stock 5.3 and was wondering if 1 7/8 headers would be too much? Future plans are TSP 220 came and stall.

 

1 3/4" is more than enough.

 

go to big a tube and your bottom end torque will suffer alot

 

unless your running a big converter where you don't care about low end, I would go 1 3/4" with 3" collectors.

 

Depends on your goals, I've seen some 5.3 setups gain big from 1 7/8 headers... depends on what your going for. Everything is a compromise and with a 220 cam, I'd stick to the smaller primaries.

 

I always try and use the largest primary I can get depending on what im doing (which is usually turning over 7,000rpm) but in your case, you honestly don't need a 1 7/8 header.

The general concensus is "within 10% of the exhaust valve size" but this is just a general rule for the 90% crowd under 500hp. When you start turning alot of rpm and don't care about anything under 4,000- then you start jumping up the primary size considerably.

Now- I say you don't need a 1 7/8 header. Truly, you don't. Now- how much will it hurt going from a 1 3/4 to a 1 7/8? usually 6-10hp at PEAK. Average torque will remain within 3-6 along the curve and average hp will only differ 2-4 over the entire curve. If you feel that you will eventually increase the cubic inches, then go ahead and get the larger headers and live with the slight loss till then. If not, stick with the smaller primaries.

 

All of thee above

 

Thanks for the input. I will be going with 1 3/4 since I plan I don't on doing anything else besides the cam and stall for now.

 

if you plan to do a motor swap to a LS1 or larger in the future go ahead and get the 1 7/8. if not stick with 1.75