my stock manifolds are warped and just overall crap. they wont seal with the standard steel doughnuts and the soft ceramic ones blow out after about a year, also the gasket where the manifolds mount to the heads blows out every 6 months or so. so far i have replaced the manifold gaskets 4 times and the doughnuts 2 times. i figure it would be more worth my time to spend the money on headers and be done with the problems and get more power to boot.

Also will the iron head 60*V6 headers work with the gen III alum heads? Id like to build a 3.4 with those heads and ECM at some point.

 

id say get the headers. but if youre going to swap to the FWD heads, im pretty sure the pacesetter headers wont work with those.

 

The bolt spacing is farther apart on the heads. No they wont work.

 

The RKSport headers will work but they cost a good chunk more.

 

What you want is your y pipe to manifold ends done like a Buick.

Its so strange but with-in GM each brand did its own things.

Buicks don't have donuts.
They just flange the y pipe like a donut and go steel to steel. No leaks, ever.

They also did thing like moving the dizzy to the front for easy access, along with the oil filter and oil pump. So you can change the pump without removing the pan. Its external.