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So I spent the day fabing up a custom y pipe to go with my hedmen 68460 long tubes on my 87 IROC with an LT1 with 6speed and a 1.5" drop. Everything looked great up in the air, I had nice flow and tucked everything up tight as possible, then lowered the car back down and man was I wrong. I used the low point on my spohn crossmember to gauge how to hang all the other pipe (and try not to have anything lower than it), and it did not pan out. It just weird angles under there, definitely was not straight forward. I can post some pics later for now I am quitting and don't even want to look at it. My question is what do some of the custom y pipes for LT guys run look like? Also am I dreaming that I can make this work? It looks pretty hopeless at this point, but dam did it sound awesome!
Re: LT1 swap, lowered and long tubes...am I dreaming?
Bringing the old to the new . . .
Did you ever get this figured out? I'm going to be headed down this path soon too.
On my road racer 91, it has true duals, but the crossmember is custome fabbed so it goes up over the pipes. I also cut the headers in the vertical sections and removed about 2" to gain ground clearance. So it's tucked pretty well. Also, the floor was modifed some and the pipes exit to the right, what would be just behind the passenger seat. Modded the rocker panel as needed, but then braced back to the cage for stiffness. Also frame connectors are welded to the pinch weld. Lots of work to be sure, and not all of it is friendly for a street car.
So not sure if I'll try that route, but then keep going toward the back and over (or under) the rear axle or what.
My '68 Camaro had dual 3" and I went under the axle there, it was way easier (coilovers / narrowed rear / minitubbed, etc, etc). Nice and easy to remove exhaust that way too. Looked wild from the back too Had Magnaflow mufflers that sounded oh so sexy. Might consider that combo, we'll see if there is room.
Re: LT1 swap, lowered and long tubes...am I dreaming?
Yea I ended up having an "incident" where insurance replaced my headers for me, so while I was at it I upgraded to the hooker 2210's. I surance paid for a shop to do the y pipe but they did a crappy job. It all hangs so low I hate it! Frirst off for rubbing on any dip in the road and secondly that it looks stupid and cheap hanging below the car for the side you see everything. I wish I didn't have so much money tied into these headers cause I would just go with shorty's, but I kind of like the idea of cutting them up and making my own from them like you did. I still have my damaged hedman, maybe I will try with those first. But right now car stuff is on hold. That USD is killer up here in Canada if you want work done down there, so much for Loydd Elliott cam and heads.
Re: LT1 swap, lowered and long tubes...am I dreaming?
If you're using the Spohn crossmember, ditch it and buy another vendors. Any other vendor's will give you better ground clearance. There is also the possibility of easily making your own crossmember that has humps in it for the exhaust to pass under. The long tube headers aren't the problem, it's your crossmember.
Re: LT1 swap, lowered and long tubes...am I dreaming?
I will be fabbing my crossmember. Don't have a plan just yet. But I'll take some pics along the way, and maybe I can post it if it turns out half decent.
Re: LT1 swap, lowered and long tubes...am I dreaming?
Originally Posted by Tibo
If you're using the Spohn crossmember, ditch it and buy another vendors. Any other vendor's will give you better ground clearance. There is also the possibility of easily making your own crossmember that has humps in it for the exhaust to pass under. The long tube headers aren't the problem, it's your crossmember.
That had crossed my mind a few times, rather than cut up the spohn I would just start from scratch and use the adjustable Torque arm off the spohn.
Re: LT1 swap, lowered and long tubes...am I dreaming?
The design looks great and affords the most exhaust pipe room that I have ever seen. My only critique is that the area that you welded to isn't very strong, did you happen to weld a larger and (relatively) thicker plate to the tunnel first? I'd be watchfull about deforming the tunnel if you didn't. I also saw that you no longer have a cross member but rather a transmission hanger or mount. There is the question of is the transmission crossmember's sole responsibility to hold up the tranny or is it also to serve as a brace across the transmission tunnel? I've only heard speculation to that point.
Re: LT1 swap, lowered and long tubes...am I dreaming?
I have the hawks double hump T56 crossmember and a custom Y-pipe for my Hooker 2210's.
I hate posting those pictures though, all of that surface rust makes me cry. I really need to strip that floor and redo it before the surface rust turns into Rot.
Re: LT1 swap, lowered and long tubes...am I dreaming?
Originally Posted by Tibo
There is the question of is the transmission crossmember's sole responsibility to hold up the tranny or is it also to serve as a brace across the transmission tunnel? I've only heard speculation to that point.
i agree, I love th space created, ur my sub frame connectors are welded right across from the trans support for the purpose of solidifying the car from one side to other and what an unbelievable difference it made. Mind you my car is t tops but when used to jack up half the car the opposite side wouldn't even think about lifting up unless you went way up there, after the sub frame connectors you can jack a few inches and the other side will start to lift. Also I cannot live without the torque arm on the mount which has always been my hold up on cutting the spohn cross member. But I still think I will crawl under there this winter and see if I can't come up with a compromise.
Re: LT1 swap, lowered and long tubes...am I dreaming?
The trans tunnel was actually pretty thick metal and welded in nicely. Been there for 3 years now never cracked or had any shifter movement and me and the wife run it pretty hard with drag radials. Not concerned with it flexing I have welded in subframes and a welded in 8 point cage.
Re: LT1 swap, lowered and long tubes...am I dreaming?
Originally Posted by Biledriver
The trans tunnel was actually pretty thick metal and welded in nicely. Been there for 3 years now never cracked or had any shifter movement and me and the wife run it pretty hard with drag radials.
We may have different definitions on what we each think of as thick enough metal but if the metal hasn't deformed/dented in that area, it's harder to make an argument.
Originally Posted by Biledriver
Not concerned with it flexing I have welded in subframes and a welded in 8 point cage.
OK, gotcha. 8 point cage would probably help enough with added chassis stiffness to have less need for a transmission crossmember.
Re: LT1 swap, lowered and long tubes...am I dreaming?
I hated how low my last exhaust was and built it on a whim. I never knew I could buy a crossmember with double humps but making my exhaust higher than my subframes was more than I ever expected.
08-24-2015, 12:55 AM
Had Magnaflow mufflers that sounded oh so sexy. Might consider that combo, we'll see if there is room. 
