I drive a 1986 Trans Am, 700R4 Automatic Transmission. I want to get rid of the constrictive exhaust manifolds, and I was wondering which headers to purchase. The problem being, I swapped the stock 305 for a 350 I dug out of a full-size Blazer. I was wondering if the part listed below would fit: http://www.summitracing.com/parts/HED-68460/ Thanks!

You need to find some shorty headers, those would give you a week of work modifiying and moving parts around that won't be possible unless your a good mechanic. I think that Headman makes some shorty headers that will be as close to a bolt on as you can get.

so the long tube won't work because there'd be parts in the way?

but would hedman shorties bolt in to my current setup?

Yeah, I have the same setup as you do, my engine is out of a '78 truck though but still a 355ci. The shorty's are for mostly street applicable headers, while full length headers would be more suited for the track. But I am only 90% sure on this. Sorry

haha that's okay, thanks

what kind of setup do you have?

That's not true. While a different brand of long tubes, I just put a pair of Doug's long tubes (hooker copy) in my car and haven't modified much at all. Being that I have an L98 I had an oil cooler that I had to remove but if his car was a 305 car then it probably didn't have that. Other wise they dropped almost right in. Ground clearance with long tubes isn't going to be all that great but no properly sized exhaust for these cars will be. Especially with an auto that keeps you from tucking the exhaust up beside it.

And long tubes are just fine on the street. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

i'd really love to grab some long tubes instead of shorties, but maybe i don't understand the difference...

i thought that long tube just took lazier bends so that the headers altogether were alot longer which improved flow, power, and sound

but i need anything besides these manifolds

which would be better for someone just looking for something easy, and not needing parts moved?

if someone could pull a url for me, i'd be forever in your debt

These are shorties:



These are Long Tubes:



Shorties include a y-pipe that takes the exhaust down to the stock location for the cat, so you can run an off the shelf exhaust kit.

Long tubes will require custom fabrication and in most cases will leave you with pretty terrible ground clearance because the pipes have to go around the transmission and crossmember.



That's mine with a custom crossmember and a T56, you dont have nearly that much room.

This is my old system, but if you went long tubes you'd probably want to stick to dual 2.5 inch pipes. These are 3 inch pipes.







If you want something easy... shorties all the way. Long tubes require a lot of special considerations.

I agree with the above post. If you are stick solely with the auto then I would find the best possible shorties you could. Make sure they have 1 3/4 primaries and 3 inch collectors. Also make sure the y pipe doesn't go any smaller than 2.5-3 inches. Those will be more than enough for your 350 setup now and will support any future horsepower addons.

If a T56 swap is in your future, then I would suggest holding off on buying headers and save up for headers AND the t56 swap. Then get either a set of Doug's long tubes or a set of Hedmans like the power above me has. Then custom design your own y pipe setup with a flowmaster merge collector on it. After that you will have all the exhaust you will ever need. I don't believe in duals. Partly because of ground clearance and sound, but also because I believe a properly desgined y pipe setup will perform just as good and any gains to be had will be on an engine that most people won't be able to build. The end result just isn't worth it IMO for duals on these cars.

wow, thanks guys for all your help

you guys have been an extremely useful wealth of information and i couldn't be more educated

i'll be sure to update you on which option i go with

thank you so much!