I'm looking to try and go the easiest route with a true dual exhaust. The only problem is that I don't want to go with the dynomax kit which follows the stock routing. I need to know where the best/cheapest place to buy pipes is and which pipes would be the easiest to work with as well as the clamps etc. I'm looking to go anywhere from about 2.5" to 3". I've got about $400 to work with. The guy at the muffler shop told me that it would cost me about $1000-1200 to route the pipes along the stock routing.

It would be nice if I was able to go out the back behind the axle instead of infront of it. If anybody has any idea how I could manage this it would be greatly appreciated as i'd like to do while i still have the cash.

 

OK, I am gonna help you out.

First off, I would recomend cheaking out my whole site, as you might find other helpful hints in there, but specifically go here...

1991 Chevrolet Camaro - Dennis's Chevrolet

Thats the 21st page of my site.

I am gonna tell you this straight and with no question. For 400 bucks you cannot make a ture dual set up if you are not going to do any of the work.

Ok, do you have any tools at all, that can help you out? A saber saw, sawsall... air tools, anything.... if you have any tools, I can help you out. If you wanna clamp stuff, this is gonna be MUCH MUCH MUCH harder, If you have a pipe expander then maybe you can do it with clamps and then have a shop weld it up.

The cheapest way is like this...




That is about $40 worth of pipe and $80 mufflers.

The rest was done by me, as a first timer. The welder was $200 and I used my dads saw and bought new say bits for it. It is not recomended that you use a saber saw to cut pipe, but screw it, I did for a while. It woks great.

let me know if this helps. And check out my site, as well as the words, i generally input helpfull things here and there. later

-Dennis

 

Yea I have access to a welder, saber saw, sawsall etc. and I would be doing it myself. Also what's the best/easiest way to jack up the vehicle for doing such a thing.

 

OK... So you have the tools. Then yeah, you can do it for less than $400.

I just got 4 jack stands, and maxed out their hight adjustments. Then jaked the read up all the way, from the center and did both rears at the same time. Then I did the center of my K-member and slipped the jackstands in. CAUTION: be carefull when trying to go from the center of the K-member, the car can rock and tip off the jack. Just do it slowly and make sure you are in the center. If not, do either side one at a time. Now you have the car in the air.

Buy 3 four foot lenths of pipe in whatever diameter you want. (go with 2.5 at the most) I have dual 3" and it is way over kill and I am making over 500HP at the flywheel. There is just no need. Then buy 3 180* bends. If you get under there and have a good imagination, you can start seeing how each piece needs to go. I used a piece of cardboad, rolled up in the shape of the pipe, to start pushing it up into the places i wanted the pipes to get into. That was you can see if they will even fit where you want them to. After that, cut up the cardboad and start fitting each piece roughly by hand. Then you can find the optimal lentgh of each section. Do each part 1 at a time. When you get the section in the right place, tack weld it to last one. Just a couple tack welds will hold it there for now. Move to the next part till you are done. Then take the entire thing off the car and fully weld all the seams that you first tack welded.

Bolt on and you are good to go. Might cost you like $200 bucks at the most depending on mufflers.

Hope this helps. Check my site, that is how I made my pipes. (pretty much) I was teaching/ inventing what I just described as I went.

later

-Dennis

 

Thanks alot!!

Just wondering where the best place to get pipes from would be and also how/where do u bolt it on underneath?? Also I still have the crappy stock headers will that present a problem?? I can probably swing in a set of cheap headers if the stock ones won't work. Would I need to go full-length or shorty?

As far as mufflers go which are usually the best to use cause I was kinda lookin at these.

MagnaFlow Performance Mufflers: MPE-14416 - summitracing.com

 

hold on just a second there. "stock headers"???? What are you talking about? You mean exhaust maniflods right? Are you sure you know enough about cars and these cars in general or about custom work to do this job?

No offense, but this seems kinda scary when I think about you not knowing where to buy pipes and where you are gonna wanna put hangers.

But I will answer anyways, Buy the pipes from summit and put the hangars wherever seems conenient. Weld a tab onto the pipe and drill a hole in the car. You can get hangars at any parts store for a couple bucks.

I don't even know where to start with answering your header question.... Man you make it seem like you need to spend a lot more time reading stickies and stuff like that.

I will still help you, but be carful man.

 

heh my bad. yea i meant manifolds It was a long day lol. I wouldn't be doing this myself anyways gonna get someone who's done mufflers before to help

Sry but my pipe question was rather vague just forgot to look up in the thread about what kinda pipe and how long.

Also if I were to put a cheap set of headers on would i have to get shortys or full length?

 

Depends what you want. Shorties or full lengths.... Not sure I get what you mean.

If you want the power of the lont tubes and the reduced ground clrearance. Then get the long tubes. If you want some good flow and want good ground clearance still then get shorties.... That all depends on you and what you want. you can build a custom exhaust off whatever style headers you want. Thats whay they call it custom. Its whatever you want, not what is available or will "bolt on". Try and be more specific, maybe I am not getting what you mean....

 

HED-68460 Headers, Street, Full-Length, Steel, Painted, Chevy/Pontiac, Camaro/Firebird, 5.0/5.7L, Pair

HED-18700 Exhaust Pipe Extension; Hedman X-Tension; Exhaust Pipe Extension; Uni-Fit; 2.5 in. Tube; w/3 in. Ball And Sock

SUM-642025 Crossover Pipe, H-Style Balance Tube, Steel, Aluminized, 2.5 in. Diameter, Universal, Kit

and get a couple mufflers, i would go with these for performance, FLO-325108

total is 337 from summit for that whole kit

 

how much more reduced ground clearance would there be with the full-length that isn't already going to be reduced due to the dual exhaust?

 

i might sound a bit daft, but i was looking on doing something along the lines of this as well. ive got a 88 trans am. since the stock set-up is single exhaust with only one o2 sensor, how would i go about putting in a true second pipe and still get that o2 sensor to read correctly for both pipes?

 

your O2 doesn't give a crap about the other pipe.There are many cars from back in the day that ran one sensor on one side. Unless you are a prostock racer who wants to know what each bank of your motor is doing for the purposes of data logging and then re-tunning your motor.... One sensor on one side will do just fine. Don't sweat it for even a second.

Next

On ground clearance, you are right and also uninformed. Not all ground clearance is created equal.

Clearance here is not the same and clearance there. Duals will make you loose clearance, I garontee, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't fight for every inch wherever you can...

So you see what I am getting at??

By the collectors is a very easy place to scrape. long tubes will scrape there, shorties wont.



In all honesty, I promise you I am not trying to sound like as ******* here:

If you do not know if you need, or should run shorties or lontubes, in all reality, chances are you are more than fine running shorties. So don't worry about it and just pick up a nice set of shorties. Long tubes are more for racers anyways. They loose a bit of TQ and make more top end. For a street car you need the other way around, which is what shorties are for. More TQ and still great HP.

 

Just a couple other quick questions. Will i have to adjust timing? and....which are better headers to go with the flowmasters for $100 or the dynomax blackjacks for $120

 

What! I am not even aware that it was possible to buy headers that cheap. Lemme check out what you are tlaking about and get back to you!!!


Damn I got my used set of long tubes that were coated for a cheap $500. I would think that you need to spend at least $200.

 

OK, well I looked up what I could and coldn't find any flowmaster headers. I did find those blackjacks though.....

Listen I am gonna give it to ya straight. If you are only gonna spend that much, they are not gonna last very long. They are just too thin guage steel. And uncoated, they will go to hell eventually. There is no cheap way to make a nice exhaust. You can spend a little now, then a little more later, then more later,.... or just save and buy the right parts once. The blackjacks, as most cheap headers, have a tiny port size. Not sure what kinda power you are looking to make, but these aren't gonna be flowing like crazy...

If you are going to buy them, then do it.... But asking what is better, a 100 or a 120 dollar header is just pretty useless.... Any company that sells them for that price is putting absolutly no R+D into the part and just bending pipes that fit in the car.

What I am trying to say is that all the headers that are in that price range will five you identical flow, sub-par. So just pick one.





Look of deals on used stuff. You will save $ and get good parts. Patience is a virtue.