When I was after new headers to replace my aging Edelbrock TES system, I looked at Dyno Don's and American Racing Headers as the only high HP options out there. I went with American Racing Headers for their y pipe design and availability, although I couldn't find a good review or write up here at TGO. Well, I can at least rectify that part now.

I ordered the headers direct from ARH as they have a military discount and were really pleasant to deal with. The headers were built after I placed the order and came in about 8 weeks later. They were very well packaged and suffered no damage from our belligerent delivery driver who I can't blame for getting red faced having to haul that heavy box up my steep driveway on a hot day. They came with the headers, y pipe sections (3 different pipes), gaskets, hardware and clamps. Aftermarket gaskets would have to be cut out severely to not obstruct the massive primaries on these headers, so I used the supplied gaskets without any leaks or issues. ARH drop shipped an extra set of clamps but I am not sure why, they came in a couple days after the headers.

Header install was a breeze, old ones were out and an hour and a half later the new ones were in. The only bolt that was tricky was the rear on the driver's head; I ended up grinding down a box end 3/8 wrench to get in there. All the new hardware is 12 point, no big deal but 12 point 1/4" drive sockets are hard to find; it would be difficult to do this job without that.

The Y pipe was a simple installation as well, the ball and socket connections with band clamps is a great way to connect the y pipe and simplifies installation. After test fitting and getting the outlets where I wanted, I used the supplied clamps and was finished with the front portion of the exhaust. I did bend some brake lines away from the headers, on the driver's side there was minimal clearance at first, and I added aluminum heat shielding to the fuel lines on the passenger side years ago but replaced that with a longer better fitting shield to keep fuel temps down. The O2 bung faces the opposite direction (towards the front of the car) from where the Edelbrock system did but I had plenty of wire to relocate the sensor.

After all was said and done, these things sound and look great while giving me a critical 1/2" more ground clearance. As I said before, my driveway is steep and prior to this I always scraped the exhaust just getting out of the garage. Now, I hit nothing at all and that makes the wife very happy. She says it isn't much louder when at cruise, but it definitely is when at WOT.

If anyone is interested I can go into how I integrated the rest of the exhaust but that was a separate project and would apply to just about any header system out there. The two 2.5" pipes transition nicely to an Amazon Y pipe into a 3" or 3.5" system with a few tweaks. This system would have to be heavily cut back and modified to work with any style cat however as the merge is directly where a factory cat would be. I had to go two stages richer for WOT fuel and one stage richer for cruise, so these are certainly flowing better than the old headers.

Thanks for reading, and as a side note: the weld quality is superb. These things even have a stator welded inside the collector to smooth the flow of gasses between primaries, never seen any other brand do that. No spark plug or wire clearance issues running angle plug heads and normal size plugs with massive wires. 10/10, would buy these again.

 

I have a set of these as well with the 1-7/8 primary. Fitment for tye headers was amazing, they basically fell right in with plenty of room around everything. The y-pipe/downpipe needed adjustment as the angles were off a bit but I have a lot of alterations so it may just be my car.

Use the small head 12 point header bolts, they make everything easier.

Overall, very happy.

 

so you have the 1 7/8” primary version? Any way to get a link for the Y collector? Looks like it fits perfect?

 

LCGP Stainless Steel Y Pipe 3...
That is the Amazon link, probably can find a similar unit at Summit or jegs if you aren't the Amazon type. Fit great, no complaints a year later.

 

Thanks! Curious what the rest of your system is? I am thinking about adapting this system: https://www.hawksmotorsports.com/82-...-system-hawks/

Probably also need a 45 deg 3” and possible a strait piece or two.

 

The American Racing headers show a 2.75" connector pipes?

https://www.hawksmotorsports.com/198...erican-racing/

 

The ball collector is 2-3/4. The pipe is 2.5". I was a bit disappointed as well but that how it is.

 

That makes sense. What did you install for the rest of your exhaust?

 

I used a cheap 3" pipe kit from Amazon that had straight, 45, and U bends already and cut/weld the pipes to attach to a hooker areochamber. If I was to get another muffler, I'd probably just get that hooker cat back system or a flow master cat back and weld it in with or without a catalytic converter (depending on state, clearance, and relative danger). I like having cats on most things due to the reduction in CO which is a huge silent health risk for mechanics if they are working in confined spaces with running engines, and the damage is cumulative over a life time.

 

The N10 dual cat system is certainly the best flowing system offered on these cars at the time. The problem I have is the air injection system required to make them function properly. The pumps tend to get noisey. Since I don't drive this car much (~200 miles a year), it sees a lot of short trips where the cats barely get hot enough to burn off without air injection. Since I bought the car without air injection, I really don't want to go through the hassle of installing it. If it was a daily driver my thoughts would be quite different.

 

I made a dual cat connection and dual 2.5" to single 3-1/2" merge to a single 3-1/2 pipe to a borla xr1.