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On my car when I first started working on it it had headers that went to two pipes that ran all the way to the back of the car with glass packs to finish them off. the problem was that when they were installed they put the two exhaust pipes on the same side of the car. so I just finished taking all of that stuff off the car because I wanted to go back to the original style with the one pipe going back to a muffler and then coming out the back with two tips. I want to try and keep the headers as they are not in bad shape but do not know what exhaust system would work with them and have not been able to find anything on how to figure out the model number on them. My dad who is the original owner of this car says that they are hooker headers. I have been trying to clean them up for a day or so to find maybe a missed number but all I have seen is the number 860 stamped down at the bottom right above the collectors. I can get pictures soon. Now if I can't keep these headers then I would like to replace them with another set. I have been looking at hedman and hooker mainly. I am fine with 2.5" or 3" I just need to know some good "easy" instal ideas. I have heard from a lot of people that the hedmans don't fit right but if they fit then I would be ok with going with them, I just don't know what cat back system to use with them because they are 2.5" right?
So I think I have covered a lot of what I wanted to cover. Now if I messed anything uo with how things work on here I am sorry, this is my second thing I have posted on here so I am still trying to figure out how things work. Im just a young guy who is excited about fixing up his dads old car. thanks!
What you'll find is that any existing headers that you have will require a custom y-pipe to go with any cat-back system you care to get.
Case in point: My own Hedman mid-length headers were mated to an Flowmaster cat-back arrangement that duplicated the OEM set-up but with larger pipes. I had to build the connecting pipes myself.
What you see there is a stainless steel 2 x 2 1/2" y-pipe to a Magnaflow merge (2 x 2 1/2 into 3 merge). That y-pipe was designed to connect directly to the Flowmaster cat back I had on the car already. The flange at the bottom of the last picture was connected to a complimentary flange that was welded onto the Flowmaster cat-back.
What you'll find is that any existing headers that you have will require a custom y-pipe to go with any cat-back system you care to get.
Case in point: My own Hedman mid-length headers were mated to an Flowmaster cat-back arrangement that duplicated the OEM set-up but with larger pipes. I had to build the connecting pipes myself.
What you see there is a stainless steel 2 x 2 1/2" y-pipe to a Magnaflow merge (2 x 2 1/2 into 3 merge). That y-pipe was designed to connect directly to the Flowmaster cat back I had on the car already. The flange at the bottom of the last picture was connected to a complimentary flange that was welded onto the Flowmaster cat-back.
So Could I keep my headers that I have now and then just do this? how much would that cost to do?
I also wanted as much ground clearance as possible so the original crossmember was cut up and reinforced. This allowed the pipes to tuck up close and added some room.
As for cost: if you go the stainless steel route and have it tig-welded, expect to pay several hundred dollars. There was quite a bit of additional work done for this installation and we would have charged a typical customer more than a thousand bucks. That includes hacking the ball socket connector off of the headers, repairing the collector and adding a 3-bolt flange. Modifying the cat-back system to adapt to the merge as well as modifying the merge. It also covered clearancing the crossmember and reinforcing it.
It would considerably less money to go with conventional mild steel tubing and mig weld it though. There are plenty of examples here at 3rd gen.
04-19-2016, 10:04 PM
