I own a 1981 white/red driver/project, bought with all emissions removed, a Performer intake with a giant Holley on top, several 'custom' exhaust concerns and I'm sure a lot more as I dig deeper, so at this point she will never see an NCRS stage, and I am looking to just make her a mechanically sound car that's fun to drive and looks and sounds great. My question is about the exhaust; the 81 manifolds are garbage and hacked up from the emissions removal operation. I want to use original ram's horn manifolds and hang new exhaust and mufflers, pref no cat if possible. Wondering what my best application for this car would be with more emphasis on optimum performance than originality. Any info will be very helpful, thank you
just go with whatever is bent to fit and you like and can afford, some systems are 300 or so some can run well over a grand, if bypassing the cat id go either aluminum or stainless, but steel can be as reliable as long as its installed correctly and car Is allowed to run long enough to heat the system, doing a 2 block run and shutting down the car allows water condensation to eat away the pipes and no cat means theres more voc and other nasties to react with that water.
I would really invest in a premium pair of long tube headers from Hedman or Hooker........the torque gains here are totally worth the price of admission, and it will support future mods.......it will pick up huge in the low to mid range when tuned correctly.
From there, there is many options to choose from.......I like the chambered system from Wilcox. It fits well, sounds killer and does away with the "potatoes" at the rear of the car. I installed this system on my 69' 427/400 and it was awesome for the money.
A pair of long tubes and exhaust.....along with a real distributor curve and carb tuning can make a different car out of it.
note on the custom crossover, be sure the crossover pipe is at least 1/2 the size as the main pipes, the constriction perfectly self balances pressure, and if you ever have a large backfire the crossover can save you some engine work later.
