Hello all. I own a 1986 Trans Am, has 350, T5 trans, and has shorty hedman headers on it now with 3 inch exhaust. I feel like putting in long tubes would benefit more with sound and power.

My concern is, when I look under my car, I feel like ground clearance isn’t there. Car looks a little too low. Do they make a crossmember with “humps” for the pipes going into a Y pipe? I see so many people on here with long tubes I don’t see why I couldn’t fit them. Also I researched on this forum and see that my options with the T5 would be hookers which I see isn’t making them anymore, or Doug’s headers.

Thank you.

 

Actually I answered my own question, my car is lowered and ground clearance just isn’t there so can’t happen.

 

It can be done on a lowered car but it is a lot of work and cost to get good ground clearance. My car has a 406 SBC with TKO600 trans. I have Hawks 1-3/4 long tubes mated to Hooker Blackheart true dual exhaust system. I first tried the standard Hooker long tubes. They fit well with everything around the engine and trans but they hung way too low for me. To get the Hawks long tubes to fit I had to remove the clutch slave cylinder set up and go to a hydraulic throw out bearing. I made my own trans cross member with a short trans mount from American Powertrain. I used a slightly modified Global West short torque arm set up that attached to my home-made cross member. The ground clearance is as good as it can get with the headers tucking up nicely in the sub frame.

 

Thank you for the reply back. I figured a custom crossmember and an internal slave cylinder would have to happen. Just sucks that it would be money and time consuming, I have a decent set up now, got the Hedmans into 3 inch all the way back. Just would’ve been nice to have the long tubes. Maybe instead I’ll get different muffler for the rear and tips, I have hooker black heart muffler now but I don’t really care for the sound of it.

 

To fit Hedman LT headers on my lowered Camaro two things had to happen.
1) A y-pipe had to fabricated and it was fitted to the existing 3" "cat-back" Flowmaster exhaust.
2) The OEM crossmember was modified to provide maximum ground clearance.


2-1/2" stainless y-pipe with Magnaflow 2 into 1 merge.



Crossmember with notches and reinforcements.




Ground clearance was decent although with the car fully loaded (2 adults with golf clubs and luggage) speed bumps were a nuisance.


As installed on chassis number 2. (With the aforementioned speed bump damage evident.)

As I move forward with further car development, Holley's engine swap crossmember will be incorporated for a couple of reasons not the least of which is the generous real estate offered by the high arches. This will require the creation of another y-pipe for that to happen though.



7122205HKR

 

Just to chime in, I have hedman longtubes on mine with a T-5. The flange of my driver side collector touches the bellhousing where the slave cylinder connects. Hasn't caused any issues, but it is a tight fit. I then have 2.5" pipes going under the crossmember and dumping before the rear axle.

You won't find longtubes for our cars due to the recent regulation change, however, you can get longtubes from a pre-smog second gen and make them work. Or you can find an old listing for third-gen longtubes and search for those part numbers. It's quite possible they're being sold for other vehicles that are pre-smog but they can't list them for thirdgens anymore.

 

regulations suck haha. You got any more info on the regulations?

 

You can google them to find the specifics but the short of it is that parts which actively modify emissions systems aren't allowed to be sold (unless you want a hefty fine) for vehicles with emissions equipment. The easiest example is longtube headers, even for engine swapped vehicles where someone has put a pre-smog engine in a post-smog car (think a gen 1 SBC swap in a thirdgen, etc.). If you go to the manufacturer's website and type in your parameters you'll be met with a big "no products match your search".

That being said, there are workarounds. For example, 2nd gen camaros span 1970-1981. Pre 1975 you can buy longtubes for. . . 1975+ you can't. but if you have a '75 and order '74 headers they'll fit just fine. Same goes for square body trucks (73 - 87).

 

Yea I noticed that when looking for long tubes. It’s so ridiculous can’t have fun anymore, wish they would just leave the rules and regulations alone.

 

The Hedman 68460 are still available from Summit. These are what I've outfitted in the pictures posted above.
Although they're sold as "long tubes" I suppose it's in the definition. Some of those primaries are less than 18" long. That said, they're not shorties.
I've a 2-1/2" y-pipe. Plenty of clearance can be found as you say. I can't comment on the T-5 though. I'm automatic.

As for those changes, it was mentioned to me that it came about as a result of the EPA getting on Holley's *** about promoting modifications to this generation of f-bodies without provision for emissions equipment. That being catalytic converters in particular.
Not sure how all of that will shake out. It's too bad too because of the Holley engineers was a huge resource here at 3rd gen. Look up username toddoky. Great tech. Excellent products for our cars too.

EDIT: I see I'm not the first to post that emissions news. Seems like the legit answer to that.
That leaves us where we were and that's building our own. Again.

 

What they don’t understand is people can just take out converters whether it’s for long tubes or shorties or just wanting to. They should really leave the folks alone and vehicles that were pre 95. Drives me crazy. They try to control the hobbyists like us when there are more important things to worry about. Fueling those rockets up in the air wasting millions of bucks, now that’s an ozone killer.

Anyways enough ranting. I think this winter I’m gonna put some money towards suspension. After owning my TA for 4 years I just realized the previous owner cut the springs, and also needs shocks between the two it’s bouncy. So I’ll get lowering springs along with some umi stuff as well. My exhaust is fine just my brain needs to find something to screw up.