What is the advantage (performance wise) of long headers over the shorty. And will the the true dual exhaust system from Mid-America, bolt right up to the shorty. I was told that on the 81's the shorty headers came stock, is this true? and if so will they bolt right up to my 80.

Thanks
Tom

Everything else being equal (same diameter, quality of construction, etc.), the longer style headers are tuned to extract more horsepower from the engine. Shorty headers are less expensive to make, have a single exhaust pipe bolting up to each side so there won't be the long tubes wrapped around the starter, steering box, etc., plus they make it easier to fit the engine in the chassis.

Shorty headers are best suited for street rods with a custom chassis that headers for specific car bodies won't work with.

It's not that shorty headers are bad for your car, it's just that they're a compromise the factory made when balancing ease of assembly against pure performance and costs. They're not the optimum performance-wise, but easier and less expensive to assemble the car. When GM management has a history of trying to nickle and dime Corvette engineering and performance through the years, it's not hard to understand why such things were done.

Tom,
In agreeing with Gunslinger, I just want to add a little on what I had noticed when I switched over to full length headers vs. stock shorty's. The primary pipes on a shorty are kinda crunched together in the collector, and are not equal length. And the opening at the collector part is only 2" vs. a 3" on a full length. If it was 2.5" (shorty) then it would be worthy to run them.
They will bolt up to your '80, and the dual exhaust system from Mid- America. As a matter of fact the '80 Corvette (Califoria Only) came with a LG4 305 4bbl w/shorty headers. The 350's (non Calif) came w/ the cast iron manifolds. These headers were carried over to the '81 model year.
Sarge

I have an '80 with shorty headers and a true dual exhaust kit from Mid America. They do not bolt right up. The shorty header (maybe its just the ones I have) are actually about 3-4 inches longer than the rams horn manifold. I had to do a little modification, but it works just fine. And it makes a big difference over stock performance. I also went with Flowmaster deltaflow 40's and it sounds great.

vetteonr said: I have an '80 with shorty headers and a true dual exhaust kit from Mid America. They do not bolt right up. The shorty header (maybe its just the ones I have) are actually about 3-4 inches longer than the rams horn manifold. I had to do a little modification, but it works just fine. And it makes a big difference over stock performance. I also went with Flowmaster deltaflow 40's and it sounds great.

Factory shorty headers are the same length as a cast iron ram horn manifold. I will try to post a pic of them side by side sometime this weekend.
Sarge

Here is a pic of a '73 vette ramhorn manifold (passenger side) next to a '81 factory header (passenger side). The height/length are the same. They will fit

They call that a header?