hey my names tom. im the new guy and seen tht yall have alot of useful information on this site and i wanted to be apart of it. anyways i have a 89 pontiac firebird formula, its got the 305 tbi, auto tranny. i replaced the cat with a straight pipe and took out the muffler, but im wanting to get some headers to open 'er up a bit. i just dont know which ones are gonna fit. but im also wanting to put a muffler on it with true straights coming out in front of the back tires. im looking for a deep rumble sound and was looking at magnaflow, but they are pretty exspensive,. does anyone else have this setup under there car? idk if this is a good idea or not but i do plan on putting a a mild cam in it this summer...any input would be helpful

 

Welcome to TGO.

For headers, consider full length. The problem we run into with an individual muffler is clearance under the body. You might want to go online or to a car show and visit the vendor booths to check out various products based on the build and configuration that you have in mind, see what might work for you.

Good luck!

 

I don't know a thing about these, I just started seeing them out recently, anyway check-m out; http://www.cherrybomb.com/products/extreme

 

The problem with the above suggestion of full length headers, is that your car will no longer be street legal. Many states don't pay attention & let people ditch their emissions stuff.

Just buy some good shorties/mid-lengths & you'll be both legal & the exhaust will flow good.

 

thank yall it really narrowed down my search alot, i live in TN so there is no inspections or anything, we have peopole around here that have pretty much open headers running down the road, but im gonna get me some full lenght headers and some cherrybombs and i think thatll sound pretty nice

thanks again

 

Considerations on this one should be fairly simple.

At the moment, choices can range on a lot of things. Personal opinion, personal brand loyalty, whatever, practicality and performance.

When deciding that practicality and performance is your thing (I know itīs my main consideration when buying parts) your choices will be limited to Hooker 2460īs for application up to 300 HP and Hooker 2055īs for application over 300 HP (or Dyno Don).

If you need AIR tubes, that even reduces to only the 2055īs as the 2460īs donīt have them.

You can consider Hedman, which has nice headers and a Y pipe as well, but they are not quite as solid (although lighter, could be relevant for racing) as the Hooker headers.

Long tubes reduce ground clearance and regularly need some fabrication skills to make them fit. Shorties from other manufacturers offer lots of compromises where the Hooker headers and Yīs donīt.

As for deep rumbling sound, there would be quite a few options. Cherrybombs are too coarse in my opinion. I picked the Dynomax super turbo cat back because itīs deep, doesnīt produce an annoying droning sound at any RPM and is only slightly louder then the stock exhaust which for me was a deciding factor.

Itīs also fairly cheap. For application up to 300 HP a 2,5" cat back would do, for anything over 300 HP better choose at least 3".

If you want loud and deep, and legality, practicality, custom fabrication and ground clearance are no concern, consider a set of full length headers, short duals to the passenger side of the vehicle and NASCAR style boomtubes. You can find a link to a fabrication topic on those, including sound clips, in one of the stickies (I think it was the one with the soundclips)

 

AIR tubes are an option on Dyno Don headers, although I think while there are there & function, they are technically only for visual passing. Doubt he has actually paid to have them CARB certified.