Okay so when I bought my 77'z28, the previous owner had a set of hooker super comps on which hung horribly low. He had installed the exhaust himself and when looking at it from the rear, it probably had about 3 inches of ground clearance.

After bottoming out numerous times, I have two GIANT flat spots on the bottoms of my headers and there is a lovely "pop pop pop" or "tick tick tick" coming from the passenger side of the engine. I couldn't take it anymore and bought a set of hedman shorty's. I took it to a shop in hopes of getting them installed and the exhaust welded up higher since the previous owner bolted them up so low. I was met with jerk mechanics and turned away.

First the guys told me that I should stick with the ones I have because full length headers give you more horsepower than the shorty's. Well yeah thats true, but I don't really care about horsepower if I can't even make it into my driveway... Becides I'm sure the flat spots on my current headers are more restricting to the flow of exhaust than the shorty's would be. Next they tell me that I should install taller engine mounts to raise my engine instead. Well yeah that would work, but then I would still have flat headers and a hood clearance problem to boot. Finally after all that they say they can't install the headers because they don't want to be responsible for any snapped bolts when installing the new headers. So they told me to install them myself and then drive back an they'd weld everything up.

So now I have a set of headers sitting in my garage and I'm not sure what to do next. What should I do? Should I just install the shorty's and take it to the shop knowing I'll be down some horsepower or could I get a complete exhaust system from the headers back that would help me maintain my current hp? Either way I want the clearance issue resolved. Bottoming out is the worst.

Thanks, Andy.

I would install the headers, drive it over to their shop, and do some open-header donuts in their parking lot, then flip them the bird and take it to their competitors for giving you a ration of sh!t before telling you to do it yourself.

Hahaha. Yeah it was really discouraging. The guys were jerks and didn't even try to help me out. I'll definitly find another place to take it to but I'm still considering something like a flowmaster exhaust to help with the hp issues. Still not sure yet.

<font face="Arial,Verdana" size="2">Originally posted by 73454:
I would install the headers, drive it over to their shop, and do some open-header donuts in their parking lot, then flip them the bird and take it to their competitors for giving you a ration of sh!t before telling you to do it yourself.</font>

Hahahaha that sounds like what I'd do.

I had a similar situation with my other car, I had gone to a big name muffler place almost at the end of my street, I asked how much to run pipe from new headers to the back on a 72 Javelin $550, after seeing my face he then said $350 if I supplied the mufflers, now this is after I told him it was a straight shot back on one side and a 2" offset on the other, not to mention I was the only customer there. I then ask how much just to hand me two 4 foot long pieces and put a 2" offset in one, $150, as I turned and headed for the door he hollered out "how about $90, without turning back I gave him a visual answer. I found a small garage that did it for $40, put them on myself and got the confidence to do the same on my 79Z, but I don't think I would try with out a welder.

------------------
79Z Made with tools - Not chop sticks

My brother had exhaust run from the manifolds all the way back, including mufflers, for $250, on his '38 Chevy. On a mild engine the difference between the 3/4 length and full length headers isn't enough to worry about considering ground clearance issues. If you're needing pipes from headers to mufflers, I'd pay between $150-200, MAYBE $250 if it's aluminized. That's plenty of profit for a muffler shop.

First off, Super Comp are racing headers. Period. They are not for the street and that is why they hang low. Buy some 1 5/8" headers from someone other than hooker and they will not hang so low. You are actually losing power with those headers on a street car as the tubes are to big to support low end torque for the street. Again, Super Comp headers were never meant to be on a street car, Super Comp, a racing class in NHRA.

^Thats EXACTLY what I thought. When I bought the hedman headers, I noticed the pipes have a smaller diameter which should be better for low end torq corrct? Even though I didn't know the specs and performance of the hookers, it made sence to me that the hedman ones would actually help, not hurt.

Oh well, I get my next paycheck on friday, so I think I'm going to order the flowmaster american thunder kit through the shop and have them put it on for me. I will have to put the headers on though. Any prep i need to do to before? The gaskets were folded up when they were shipped. This won't cause a problem will it? Do I need to put any sealer in there? I'm also missing a couple of bolts and none came with the kit. Where can I pick up a few for cheap? Any other info I need to put them on myself?...

Yes, the smaller tubed Heddman and Hooker headers shouldn't hang down all that low, imho....

Buy a set of whatever small headed "header" bolts you want to use!! I like the little, 3/8" hex-head jobbers but maybe Allen head??

AND I figure that the labor to have headers installed would shock the day-lights out of you is why they pulled your chain!! Probably would charge a half a day at $60, maybe $75/hour??? Then hit you with the rest of the job separate!!

pdq67