Well I’ve finally finished installing my hooker 2055 headers. Took about a week but I was taking my time so that I didn’t get too pissed off. Anyway I got the headers ceramic coated from jet-hot. It was $648 for the headers and coating. Pretty expensive but it was worth it to me. Jet-hot misplaced my order which delayed delivery by a couple weeks so they took $40 off the price, so I got them for just over $600. I had originally ordered from ACS but they took my money and I never received the headers. I had to get my money refunded from my bank which I am still waiting on because it takes up to 60 days.

Anyway the header swap went pretty well. It was real helpful reading all of the tips and tricks everyone suggested. It seemed kind of stupid to me how the AC pump and power steering pump were mounted to the manifold studs because I then had to remove them. The hardest part of the project for me was having to remove that stupid dipstick tube. That sucker was really stuck in there. I had to make this little tool to remove that stupid thing.

Here is what I ended up getting.
Hooker Super Competition 2055 with Y pipe and A.I.R. ceramic coated.
MSD Super Conductor 8.5mm plug wire
Accel Shorty 274s plugs
Made For You wire looms for center bolt valve covers
Gutted the stock catalytic converter
Everything else behind the cat is still stock

I didn’t get a heat shield for the starter so hopefully it doesn’t burn up. The headers did make the exhaust a bit louder and maybe a little deeper. It’s kind of sounds like you can hear the different cylinders firing as compared to the constant rumble before. Kind of hard to explain. Unfortunally since I live in PA the snow is here and I won’t be able to drive it until next spring. Oh well. I’m debating whether or not to get a cat back exhaust now or not. I might wait until I drive it to hear how it sounds. I don’t want it to get too loud. I was considering either the hooker or edelbrock cat back system.
Anyway here are a couple of pictures and a sound clip it anyone wants to take a look.



Y Pipe
Driver Side
Passanger Side
Y Pipe on Car
Exhaust Clip

 

Great job man! It looks very, very nice.


I actually just finsished up putting in the same headers on my car, coated from jet hot too. I spend last thursday, sunday, and tuesday putting them in. It was quite a mission, but I learned a lot about my car (I'm pretty new at this) and now it sounds great.

I need to invest in some wire looms -- they look super clean the way you have them.

I probably should have got the shorter spark plugs.. it would have saved me a lot of time!

I ended putting this stuff in during the last week:

Jet Hot 2055's and ypipe
Magnaflow High Flow Cat
Banks 3" Cat Back
Accel Cap/Rotor
MSD Coil
Taylor 8mm wires
Delco Plugs
Deutsch Fuel Filter
Oil Change
K&N Oil Filter

Total was somewhere around $1200 but the car sounds and RUNS so much better.

 

Alright. This was a pain in the ***. I had hard time finding the right plug to use with these headers. I wanted to find the shortest plug so that I could avoid burnt plug boots. My car still had the stock plugs in it when I took them out. The car only has 24,000 on it so they were still ok but I wanted to change them while I had the manifold off. The stock plug was an AC Delco R43TS I believe the number was. Anyway I found out that this was just a little bit longer than the accel shorty plug, maybe by an 1/8 inch. So anyway I decided that I was gonna get the same plugs. I when down to the local auto parts and got the same kind again. When I got home and compared them the new plug was at least 1/2 inch longer then the one that I took out of my car even though they were both the same number delco plug. I could believe that, I was like WTF. So I ended up returning that and got the accels. Anyone have that happen before? Why would the same number plug be longer? The reach of the plug was the same but the insulator was longer.

Hey chomp - How did you like the Banks cat back? I don't thing I've heard one of those yet. Where did you buy it and how much? Do you like the sound? Post an exhaust clip if you can.

 

The exhaust sounds great. Below 2000 RPM, it's fairly quiet, but after that, it's like a second stage kicks in. It sounds deep but not raspy or just a low tone like a flowmaster.

I'll try to get an exhuast clip posted on here when I get a chance. It sounds way better when you're moving than just reving the engine.


I purchased it through enginetechandfab.com -http://www.enginetechandfab.com/store/page49.html

It's listed for $275 but I ended up getting it for $250 +tax/shipping.

I'd highly recommend it since it's very comparable to a $600 borla system, has a lifetime warranty, and is stainless steel.


If you need a high-flow 3" cat, check e-bay. Somehow I got mine for like $35 + shipping!

 

Chomp, was that cat back from ebay used ?

 

well i never really thought i would say this cuz i have SLP's on my car, but those damn hookers look better, if for no other reason than they put the A.I.R. tubes on the right way so it (probably?) hooks right up to the system, not like these pos SLP's with the crap coming out of the top in the middle. i was wondering how you made out with your spark wires, though, cuz that A.I.R. tube is awfully close to them... i have the same type wire holders, but haven't finished them up yet since jegs screwed me by sending the wrong wires... seems like you'd burn some wires there. did you get the "custom fit" wires for your car? and if so, what'd you do with all the slack? hide it behind the distributor?

 

The Cat-Back wasn't what I purchased on eBay. The CAT itself was what I got, and it was unused. I got the Cat-back new from enginetechandfab.com

 

Here's the Magnaflow (Carsound) Cat I got from ebay

 

Here's my complete exhaust before I put it on:

 

And the difference between the driver's side exhaust manifold and the jet hot coated 2055's

 

Thunderstick

Yep, that’s one of the big reasons that I went with the hookers is because I wanted to keep the A.I.R. on the car and it appeared that it had the best setup. The air on the driver side hooked up with out any problems. The passenger side was a little tougher. There is a metal tube that goes from the diverter box behind the engine to supply air to the driver side. This metal tube was hitting the air tree on the headers so I had to bend it a bit so that it would fit right. Then the hose on the passenger side was not long enough to reach the air tree check valve on the headers so I had to get some hose and cut a longer piece. No big deal, hose is cheep. I was really happy with them, dropped in from the top and I didn’t have to remove the motor mount like the instructions had said.

For the wires I just got a universal set. It was made for the HEI style distributor and came with all 90° boots. The boots were already installed on the distributor end. I just plugged them on the distributor and put them in the looms and measured and cut them to length. The wires came with a stripper and crimping tool. It worked very well. The looms came with the three that attaches to the valve cover and then another loom that holds four wires that you can put wherever you want. Most people put it between the valve cover and the distributor but I didn’t need one there. I cut mine in half and put one half in between 1 & 3 cylinder and another in between 5 & 7 cylinder to hold the wires close together so that they don’t touch the primaries. I think you can see it in the picture. I was worried about the wires burning on the air tubes so I have the small loom that I cut in half resting on the tubes instead of the wires. I’m not sure how hot the tubes get. If they have air going to them it might not be a problem. My wires haven’t burnt yet but I haven’t got to drive the car now that it’s winter. I’ve ran it for 20 minutes in the garage without a problem. The looms on the passenger side hit the air tubes on the headers so I had to spin them around 90° so that the loom was pointing up. This way it didn’t hit the air tubes. It still looks nice but you don’t really see them with all of the air hoses covering them up.