Is there something special with them? From the looks at the pics it is just some standard metal tubes. Isnt this something that I could fab up and save the money? I have not seen these in person so I dont know. If I am wrong, please let me know.

Brian

 

AIR tubes are part of emissions. With you being from CA I'd recommed that you not remove or alter them.

When you say "fab up" do you mean create them and add them to AIRless manifolds? I guess you could, but the time and effort may not be worth the money saved.

 

Ya, that is what I was thinking of. It doesnt really look all that tough. But, I dont really know what all is involved besides just those tubes.

Brian

 

so do you have headers right now?
are you looking into getting them?
whats going on you already have them but you want to fab them up?

 

I do not have the headers right now. I am wanting to get them but I wanted to find out this first. I was looking prices on headers and it looks like headers without the AIR are about 60-100 less than the others, so I wanted to find out if anyone has made their own.

Brian

 

I've been wondering if you could get away with converting the AIR to a MAC-type setup. Stock manifolds have a tube located near each exhaust port, but MAC headers and a lot of LT-1 headers have a single, large tube at the collector, or on the last cylinder.

I know why some catalysts have air injection, but I never figured out a good reason for the air injection right at the exhast port. I don't think i've seen it on anything but smog-era GM cars.

 

A.I.R. existed as soon as the early '70's. The idea is to add extra oxygen where the exhaust gases are still hot enough to react with the unburnt fuel in the exhaust. For 3rd gen era cars, the A.I.R. is routed to the exhaust manifolds when the engine is cold and in open loop, then down to the converter only when the engine is warm and in closed loop. If the air was routed to the manifolds when in closed loop, it would confuse the O2 sensor and lead to a false rich mixture, defeating the whole purpose. The extra oxygen at the cat (which stays hot due to the catalyzing action) helps make the cat more efficient at its job.

You could weld pipes from stock manifolds into headers if you wanted. You will certainly void the header warranty, and you'd better be pretty good at thin sheet welding.

 

So then you would just reccomend paying the extra cash for them already on there? That is what I thought the general consensus would be.

Brian

 

Unless you know of a way where you could possibly keep the old AIR tubes, dude, just spend the extra cash so you dont have to down the road when you FAIL emissions. I'm looking at this option now with my situation and it seems the ONLY way for ME to go.