With emissions regulations getting stricter every year for performance cars and aftermarket performance parts, high-quality headers and catalytic converters that keep the EPA off your back for your high-horsepower street car or truck are harder to come by. The modern muscle era is not over yet, with GM still making 650-plus horsepower versions of the Chevrolet C8 Corvette and Cadillac Escalade, but with every new factory high-horsepower platform comes the demand for high-end aftermarket parts to increase that performance. Now, you can breathe easy with Kooks Exhaust for your C8 Z06 or Escalade V.

Cadillac Escalade V

Introduced for the 2023 model year, the Cadillac Escalade V is a 3-row luxury SUV that can haul around your family, haul your boat to the lake on the weekends, or just haul ass from a stoplight with its sports car-beating 0-60 time of 4.4-seconds. Kooks Exhaust now has header and cat packages that will help you take that performance further than the stock 682 horsepower while still keeping even the craziest environmentalist happy.

A 682 horsepower LT4, 10-speed auto, and all-wheel drive help take this full-size luxury SUV to 60mph in 4.4 seconds.

The headers are constructed of T304 stainless steel with 16-gauge 1-7/8-inch primaries and 3-inch collectors. Like all Kooks headers, they feature leak-free 3/8-inch thick flanges and 2-bolt ball flanges. You can order them in two different versions: one set of headers with EPA-verified GREEN cats, offering higher flow with a 400-cell substrate, or with their high-output GREEN cats, which are EPA-verified for use on applications up to 1,000 horsepower and feature the highest flow with a 300-cell substrate.

That Flat-Plane Crank Howl

When the 2023 C8 Z06 Corvette was unveiled back in the summer of 2021, it blew everyone’s minds with its naturally aspirated 670 horsepower, 5.5-liter flat-plane crank DOHC V8, which to this day is the most powerful naturally aspirated production V8 in history. Along with its shocking power and acceleration is its distinctive exhaust note, which you can now increase that performance and sound with Kooks headers and cats for the C8 Z06.

Kooks is offering a specially designed set of headers for the Z06 that feature a Tri-Y design with stepped primary tubes. One of the reasons the Z06 can make such high horsepower out of only 5.5-liters is its highly tuned intake and exhaust flow, so the team at Kooks knew they needed to build something to improve on that. The Tri-Y design scavenges exhaust from each cylinder more efficiently to match the flat-plane engine’s exhaust pulses. With a stepped primary tube design, the smaller diameter tube provides a higher exhaust velocity allowing the exhaust to evacuate further while the exhaust valve is open. The larger diameter tube in the last half of the primary reduces the pressure drop, improving flow. This design tends to favor the mid and upper RPM range, so it’s no surprise Kooks found it necessary for the 8,600 rpm V8.

The headers are built from of T304 stainless steel with 16-gauge 1.875- to 2-inch stepped primaries and 2-3/4 inch collectors. The collectors feature the same flange as the factory exhaust manifolds, leaving the customer with three options for their C8Z. You can order only the headers to retain your factory cats, you can opt for the headers with Kook’s Ultra GREEN Cats that are higher flowing with a 400-cell substrate that’s EPA verified and can support up to 850 horsepower, or you can have the headers and cats with their matching heat blankets to keep the catalytic converter’s high temps in the exhaust, not your engine bay. Regardless of which option you choose, you also get the required gaskets and hardware for installation.

Kooks Headers and Exhaust are developed in a state-of-the-art facility in North Carolina, hand-crafted in-house with locally sourced T304 stainless steel material, and come with a limited lifetime warranty. For the best in quality and performance, let your C8 Z06 or Escalade V breathe easy with Kooks Exhaust.