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Mike Kojima posted on June 29, 2012 05:00
Hooker Headers Nissan S Chassis LS Swap Headers and Motor Mounts
By Mike Kojima
Hooker Headers has been a name that has been long associated with good old Detroit iron. Lately it seems that Hooker has noticed the trend of blending American muscle with Japanese chassis, especially the popular swap of putting an LS engine in the Nissan S chassis.
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| The Hooker S Chassis headers are shown here on Formula D Pro, Matt Powers' practice car. Matt's car is an S14 but not nearly as trick as his competition car. Matt's practice car was used to demo the new headers because it more closely resembles something a typical customer might use, unlike his ultra trick competition car. |
Although popularized by drifting and made acceptable by Dai Yoshihara's ride, putting an LS in an S Chassis makes sense. The compact and feathery Chevy LS is nearly the same weight as an SR20DET and lighter than the iron block stock KA24DE. At up to 427 cubic inches or 7 liters it packs a lot of displacement in a small package and it fits nicely into the engine bay.
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| Matt's practice car is still quite a nice piece. It uses a GM Performance Parts LS 376/525 crate engine. This engine makes 525 hp and 489 lb/ft of torque right out of the box from GM. It is stock except for a K&N air intake, a Holly HP EFI ECU and of course a set of the new demo Hooker Headers. Matt's engine swap uses good parts to center on bulletproof reliability using Earl's hose, firesleeve and hose ends, an Earl's oil cooler and a big Ron Davis radiator. The fabrication was done by Costa Gialamas of Gialamas Technical Innovations. |
An LS powered S13 or S14 is a reliable and fun car with about the same or better balance than stock.
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| The Hooker Headers are made of quality 304 stainless steel and are tig welded. They will also be avalible in a lower cost mild steel version as well. |
Due to his relationship with Holley, Matt was fortunate enough to receive a pre-production set of these new headers for testing prior to them being released for full production… the same upgraded components seen on this set will be used in fabricating the production versions.
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| Some nice details of the investment cast scalloped flange with clean tig welds. |
Friday, June 29, 2012 5:37 AM
Mike, any idea if these headers will fit a RHD S13, taking into consideration the steering rack + starter motor?
Friday, June 29, 2012 7:46 AM
You know, I think an LS-equipped S13 or S14 would be an awesome daily-driver. But, I'm also completely nuts.
Friday, June 29, 2012 8:18 AM
Every time I walk up to my S13 Hatch I think about putting in an LS series motor... these headers would just facilitate that process.
Friday, June 29, 2012 8:26 AM
@Dusty, if wanting a 500+hp, smog legal, RWD, 2800lb car is 'nuts', then send me to the crazy house.
Friday, June 29, 2012 8:27 AM
Hmmm... and me with a stripped out S13 coupe just sitting in my field gathering dust...
Friday, June 29, 2012 10:12 AM
Shhhhh don't tell anyone but the LS 376/525 a 6.2L. But what's a few ml difference between friends..
Friday, June 29, 2012 12:07 PM
The headers were demo'ed on Matt Powers non dry sumped practice car so I don't think they are RHD specific. I can find out for you.
Friday, June 29, 2012 12:27 PM
Adam, I don't understand what your point is?
Friday, June 29, 2012 12:50 PM
I think it was a joke, in the sense that in the tradition of engine manufacturers in this country, the listed displacement is actually larger than what the bore and stroke of the engine would suggest (376 vs. 374.9 calculated)
Friday, June 29, 2012 1:35 PM
Thinking of which, just went through old articles on Matt's car buildup, and the V8 controversy. I just have have to say, as a rotary fan... hi, rest-of-the-import-world, welcome to what RX-7 owners have had to hear about for years. What, you guys thought that your cars were some unique butterflies that somehow didn't have engines that lost to the LSx in some crucial respects? :)
Friday, June 29, 2012 3:09 PM
Drive side could make a difference. The LHD steering shaft is the major point of interference for OEM log manifolds (C6 LS2 manifolds do fit with *some* mounts, though). It'll basically depend on what they did with the right side header - did they go with the straightest possible pipe to save cost, or did they mirror the left side header? I've seen both on other S-chassis/V8 swap headers.
Friday, June 29, 2012 3:46 PM
Doubt they would fit on a RHD with an LS swap. The guy I wrench for has an LS6 in his RHD S14 up here in Canada and to even put the v8 in the starter needed an extention shaft made so it would clear the steering shaft. I would love if those headers fit though
Friday, June 29, 2012 4:19 PM
Hey guys, this is Blane over at Holley. Here's some information to help settle the LHD vs. RHD question. Our main consideration was to release an awesome header for this particular swap that lowered the overall cost of completing it. The reason these will not work on RHD S13's/s14's is because they weren't prototyped to. The steering shaft on the drivers side clearly has to be made in such as way that the passenger side does not have to contend with. Conversely, the passenger side has a starter that the pipes have to work around so hopefully that explains why we couldn't make one set that goes on both LHD/RHD configurations of the car. Look for a couple of upcoming press releases that talk about not only this set of headers, but mild steel versions and our LS Engine Swap Mount kit that complements swapping the GM LS engine into an S13/S14. Thanks!
Friday, June 29, 2012 6:40 PM
There we go! Thanks for the reply Blane, any possibility of Holley looking into this market in the future?
Friday, June 29, 2012 9:57 PM
They would need to see at least 30 people looking for that solution to even consider the R&D to do it. Otherwise it wouldn't be profitable.
Saturday, June 30, 2012 11:37 PM
There are no plans to do a RHD header, a big profesional company like Hooker needs more than just 30 parts to justifiy making a part. When we put an LS into the Falken S15 we modifed some Sikky headers to fit.
Tuesday, July 03, 2012 3:37 PM
glad to see that some one who makes headers for the domestic market, see the opportunity. when i was at sema, a rep at manufacturer booth scoffed at the idea of this and here we are. good to see this happening.
 
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