hey fellas i have a 89 trans am 5.7tpi and i was wondering can i run headers and straight pipe on this car or does the underbody design not allow it? also is the best exhaust system set up this car? i have no cat and my pipes come off the header down along passenger side to flowmaster muff and pipe

 

There's no room to do it straight back the conventional way. You have to bend to clear the frame rails, transmission and crossmember.

 

What piping diagram or schematic is best for our cars?

 

It depends what headers and mufflers you want to use, and what sacrifices you're willing to make, really.

 

Shorty header (I can't speak for long tubes) and some creative thinking/fab will allow you to run pipes out to the rear like on older cars that had that type of exhaust (duals) in mind when they were made.

It's certainly easier to just run exhaust the factory routing.

 

True duals tucked the old way is possible, but requires a TON of work. I had to make everything myself (torque arm crossmember, modify my Spohn torque arm, make the exhaust, and make my the trans crossmember). But I do have near 8" of clearance at the X and 6" or so at the mufflers. And my car is on sportline springs with stock size tires. My collectors hang very low (3" or so) but unless I build headers from scratch, I cant do anything about that. My old headmans had much better clearance than my new Dougs. But the dougs are much better in everything else so they win.

 

Yea I really want the true dual look...I'm not handy in pipe fabrication...wonder what an exhaust shop would cost me

 

that setup looks great, you definitely have some fabbing skills

 

I didn't have anything but stock parts to clear on mine (unlike yours). I did mod the original trans mount bar for extra clearance. Other than that (I used hooker shorties), it wasn't a lot of work. (I had hotchkis 2" drop springs at the time of pictures as well)

 

That's similar to how I did mne, over the axle on both sides with an H pipe nehing the crossmember.

One thing to keep in mind is that both the pictured setups have manual transmissions. There's no room between the trans and the frame rails on either side like that on an automatic.

 

If you use SFC like the Alston's you can run the piping and a bullet type classic cherrybomb down the outsides of the car, the valley where the pan and sides of the car meet has plenty of room to tuck them up there. no cross member to deal with, but the H - X would have to be right at the end of the headers, which isn't bad, your suppose to put it where you find the most heat. The trick use to be is spray paint the pipes after said headers n where it burns off first, is the key place. Or just run true duals.

Thats where mine is run, though I only have a single down the right side and the pipe runs straight out the back, no axle loop. Any bends just kills the high rpm band of the V6.

Here is an old pic, that door has been replaces. The CB hoook right onto the end of the Y pipe. They sound better closer to the engine, any enigne, my V8 car is the same but true duals.