[78w72]

have a quuestion regarding header sizes for certain power levels. i currently have a ~525hp 400 based 467 pump gas stroker engine with 72cc round port e-heads & OF roller cam, runs low 11's. can provide more specs if needed. its mostly a street car but sees some frequent drag strip time at test & tunes.

i'm currently running hooker super comp headers with 2" primaries & 3.5" collectors into a full 3" pypes x pipe system with race pros. for such big tube headers they actually installed nicely & fit pretty good, EXCEPT for ground clearance! they hang way too low for my ~2" lowered car on city streets. i have to run tall (27.5") front tires to get by & still have issues on big curbs, speed bumps etc. & when i get some 17"-18" wheels to swap around for a pro tour look i will probably have shorter tires & that wont work too well without scraping the header collector flanges or bottom of lowest tubes.

so my question is regarding header tube size for a 500+hp engine. ive read guys making upwards & above 600 with smaller tubes like 1 7/8, even 1 3/4. im considering changing the headers to get better ground clearance as opposed to changing the ride height or being stuck with taller than needed tires to just barely "scrape" by. would i loose any hp/tq going to a smaller header with better ground clearance? ive heard some say too big of tubes kills tq so maybe the hookers are too big for my application? i am considering having the heads ported by SD to their 315cfm to get closer to a real 550hp.

i didnt pay for the hookers, they came with a car i bought. they are expensive, ceramic coated ones are $800 & i dont really want to buy dougs for around the same price & ive heard they fit worse & arent tuned like the hookers. what i am considering is the tribal tubes tri-Y's. they make a 1 3/4 tube with 3" collector & a 2" with 3.5 collector. is 1 3/4 big enough for my power level? they say yes but they are also trying to sell headers... they are about $500 & supposed to have excellent ground clearance, they say they sit above the subframe rails. look like nice headers & for the most part people seem to love them.

does anyone here use the 1 3/4 tri y's at this power level? or another brand 1 3/4? just lookig for advice on if thats big enough for this power? i have a set of hedman 1 3/4 on a very mild 400 t/a & they fit great & have good clearance, just seems to small for 500+hp.