I have a T-56 in my '86, and want to get some full length headers. I was thinking of getting hedman hedders since they say they'll fit my angle plug heads and are a bit cheaper (money is tight) although I'd rather have hooker longtubes. They also offer a y-pipe to fit. 2 questions...

Any difficulties with clearancing with them and the y-pipe between the trans or the ground(my car is lowered 1" in front)?

Does the y-pipe delete the catalytic converter, or will it fit right up to my Borla?

Thanks!

 

I have LTs and a T56 in my car. Ground clearance is horrible. I also have the Spohn 3rd gen T56 crossmember so running the y-pipe past it was a PITA. I also have 3" flowtech dump chutes on the y-pipe we made. The LTs did miss the T56's slave cylinder housing on the tranny by less than 1/4". PRETTY CLOSE! I think I'm going to true duals with Dynomax bullets this winter. I might notch the front "subframe rails" and run pipe thru there for extra clearance. A buddy of mine did this and it looked/worked great. Hope this helps some. Later!

 

Ooooohhhh... You must get pics of your's and your buddy's systems as I have yet to see anybody with the T56/Spohn CM/LTs combo at all, much less with a functioning exhaust system on it..... In my planning of upgrading my exhaust I had gotten to the point of actually considering not going to LTs and going with the SLP 1 3/4" shorties...... I don't want to do that. I would really like to go with Hooker LTs, but I really don't know how one would make a Y-pipe with this setup and still make it even remotely streetable . But hey, if you have something that works and your buddy has another version, that is sweet!!!!! I REALLY don't want shorties - and definately not the POS Edelbrock TES that came on the car anymore..... So, in short, I (and others I am sure) would REALLY appreciate any pics and/or more info you have about how to make the LTs work with the T56/Spohn CM setup.

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer ,
Matt

 

Please post pics of Hooker LT and T56.

 

Anything?..... Anybody??

TIA

 

When I get the motor pu in, I'll make sure I post pics of the LT's with the T-56. I think I've chosen to go with the Hedman D-port longtubes for this one.

 

Anybody have anything new on this subject?

TIA

 

 

Sorry about the long wait. I have some pics but I need to scan them to post or something. They're aren't the best pics but you'll get the idea. I have a digital camera now so maybe I'll just take some more pics when the GTA is on the rack again. My exhaust is still WAY too low and I think we're gonna redo it or make a new cross member to help out. Later

 

Hey, no problem on the wait, I just didn't want this to fade away . I hear ya on the crossmember issues but at least if I see how you did it I can get a feel for if I want to go through the LT headache or just settle for the SLP 1 3/4 shorties.....

Thanks again,
Matt

 

I'm still trying to get my stuff installed. I think I said before, I'm going to try 1 5/8 Hedman longtubes. They're supposed to work well with HT383 crate motors with or without aftermarket heads, and should make for an easier install. If I can't get them to work right, I may run a y-pipe behind the tranny, but I have to wait until it's in the car to see if it'll work. Anybody know how low is too low for a lowered car? Mine's been lowered 3/4" in front, maybe a little less now that the front end is lighter.

 

Almost a year later, any new news on this? Anyone do this? I believe 91Z28 did this, or should i say thirdgenresource did it when they had his car for his motor swap. I believe they cut the primary and welded something up. I also have read that a few did not have to cut anything!?!? Anyway, any new info. with pictures? I have just started a search so if this has been discussed before, go easy on me. I know there are a few in TRAXION's thread that have said they did it but they did not go into detail. I believe one person who went with a SPD X-member grinded it a little. Anything else that should be looked at? I figured the this title would tell it all, so.....

 

Yeah I did end up doing it . I went with Hooker 2210s, sold my Spohn T56 crossmember, and welded up my own one-off T56 crossmember out of mild steel. Unfortunately I don't have any real good pics of the CM yet.... Here are some passenger side installed pics of the custom Y-pipe I had made locally:









You can sort of see the CM where it runs across in the second picture. That is 3" pipe for the Y going into a 4" Mufflex cat back. The rear collector flanges are to facilitate dropping the gearbox out without having problems with the exhaust getting in the way. The Y-pipe ran me $200 for everything which is admittedly a bit pricey, but I think it was well worth it considering all of the flange work he had to do and it has damn good ground clearance, all things considered.

The Matt's Performance T56 Retrofit Cross Member ....lol...... is the grey unpainted/uncoated steel stuff and part of it has some black marker on it where I was going to trim it down to yield better ground clearance. But with the collectors - and subsequently the Y-pipe (and my SFCs) - being as low as they are it really didn't matter for ground clearance when it came to trimming the CM down so I gave up on that. Future plans are to take it back off and clean up the welds and rough edges and paint or powdercoat it.

The black powdercoated bars are from the S&W Racecars SFCs which use a crossmember between the two frame-tie portions to mount a torque arm too. They also have a driveshaft loop built into them.... In case some of ya have not seen them before .

When the weather gets nicer I will get some better pics of it.

 

I had a custom crossmember made for my t56. I had a spohn crossmember, but the exhaust wouldnt clear. I had the custom one made so that it actually goes up a bit beside the transmission. I was running Hooker long tubes, hedman xtensions, duals, and dynomax bullets. The lowest part of my system was the collector flanges. I had an h pipe before I installed the t56, but removed it because where it was located it would have hit the t56. I think I could fit an x pipe in if I position it right, and plan on it when I put the car back together.

Ben

 

So pretty much a custom CM would have to be used huh. I also see that no one had clearance issues with the bellhousing. Look here, anyone run into this? http://www.thirdgenresource.com/jasons91z28 Those pics look good Matt87GTA. More pics would be great whenever guys. Later

 

I thought I posted some pics of my Hooker/Sphon/T-56 combo a long time ago. I'll look for those over the weekend if anyone is interested in seeing them.

What I had a shop do eventualy was run the drivers side across the bottom of the tranny in front of the TA. Ground clearance wasn't to bad (even over speed bumps), but the car wasn't lowered either.

Now that I got my 400 out waiting for a new set of heads and cam I'm thinking I am going to go with the SLP headers so that when I do lower the car with the Jamex Springs I have had for a while I will not have any issues with ground clearance. Especially living now in SC where the roads are rutted very bad.