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I put a set of chrome hookers on my 77. bought the stainless leg protectors and put them on. you will have to jack the front of the car up to slide them in. make sure you have the car well supported as it will have to go up quite a bit to slide the headers underneath. I removed my plugs , oil sending unit, disconected the ac bracket. there were a couple other things but not a big deal. my bud helped me get the headers on , he held them up while I got the bolts started. probably took about 4 hours to put the headers on and the engine parts back on. then I did the side pipes once the car was back on the ground. I like the sound and look of them
Headers will produce a gain when they're OPEN but when the exhaust has to pass thru the restrictive exhaust pipes, mufflers, and tail pipes any gain gets lost and that's the the factories never offered them. Larger pipes and higher capacity mufflers are the key to better performance.
From: Some days your the dog and some days your the hydrant.
Royal Canadian Navy
Originally Posted by keithinspace
I have Hookers and have been pleased. Fit fine. No banging to make them fit. Thick flange. Installed great.
I am curious about one aspect of the Stahl design: It looks like they collect into a single 4" pipe while under the car and exits the side as such.
The Hooker design (replicated by Billy Boat, Doug's, OBX, etc.) has the four 1-7/8 'collector' pipes running parallel to the ground then roll UP just beyond the sill into the 4" collector.
To the casual observer, it looks like the Stahl design sacrifices about 2" of ground clearance between the pipe and the ground. I'm not sure how I'd feel about that.
I have to say, the Stahl design looks absolutely awesome and if I had a dedicated drag car, there probably isn't a better direction to go. Being as I HAVE whacked my Hookers on the odd speed bump, I would question how well that full-4-inch-under-the-car design would fare in a street application.
I will also add one interesting thing about my Hookers versus others I've seen: My 1-7/8 pipes leading to the 4" collectors are all one piece. Unbroken. In the pictures I've seen of the OBX sidemount headers, for example, there are several smaller pieces of pipe that are welded together. Maybe this is BETTER...who knows. I'm of the general opinion that less welds means less places that COULD be a leak at some point. But perhaps that opinion is unfounded.
You also have "The Insert Decision" to think about at some point. You need to decide how quiet or loud you'd like, because the there are inserts that run the gambit.
A couple of videos of my bucket-of-bolts idling with STS inserts.
Nice vids btw but you gotta rev that up to 4000 to really appreciate the sound!
I have the Hooker SS also. When I changed the motor mounts I needed to do some clearancing. Having watched the video on header bashing I think I may have gained a few HP!!! I also had to trim the rocker panel on the driver's side. But once the header was installed, you can hardly notice where the panel was trimmed because the head pipes start their curl upwards into the collector.
My car came from the PO with a set of sidepipes. Not 100% sure they were hooker, but looked the part. Problem was they were rusted at the 4 pipes as they entered the 4" collector and it is IMPOSSIBLE to remove that rust without sandblasting. Also, the sidetubes themselves were SWISS CHEESE. Bunch of holes and internal rust.
The PO did the car the "favor" of starting it and letting it putter for 15 minutes every week or two. For years. All this did was get a bunch of water in the exhaust, both in the low points and in the reverse-flow inserts. There it would sit, never getting hot enough to heat the exhaust the entire way through. Awful.
When I rebuilt my engine, I also got a set of BLACK Hooker sidemount headers and sidetubes. The very first thing I did out of the box was COMPLETELY sandblast the factory black coating off of them under the direction of my engine builder. He said that factory black was CRAP and only good to keep the rust off the headers whilst in transit. I repainted with flat black high-temp header paint.
I now have 2 complete summers on the pipes along with an impromptu drive in the rain. I have seen ABSOLUTELY ZERO rust, rust spots, wear spots, discolored spots, or any other sorts of spots on my sidetubes or headers. They look like they were just installed.
Stainless steel is cool, but I've heard two things: First, the 'blue' look is inevitable. Be prepared to like it. Second, I've seen posts on this forum where "Stainless" doesn't mean "Stainless" and that there is some flaking and pitting of the finish happening. I believe this is more with the OBX pipes...I don't recall seeing any particular feedback on the Hooker-brand SS pipes, which can be good, or could mean that folks just don't spring for the extra cost.
Personally, I'd ONLY get the black or the stainless. The plated/coated ones will look good when you put them on the car BUT CAN ONLY GO DOWNHILL FROM THERE. You can't polish them without removing the coating. If you blast and repaint them, you may as well have started with the black ones.
Personally...this is me, here...I'd only get Hookers. I figure they've been doing it since the dawn of time and should have it pretty well figured out. It's an exhaust system and is subject to some pretty extreme stuff.
I have a peculiar issue with my car that made it difficult for me to get a good seal at the head, so I have to run these expensive graphite-insert gaskets that work AMAZING. Simply awesome pieces. Haven't had one stitch of a leak, which is saying something in my extreme condition.
As far as Mr. Leadfoot4's story...dunno. I doubt many of our cars see much rain duty. All I can say is to blast and paint them with QUALITY paint out of the box (if you get black) and stay on top of them if they do show any rust.
And DON'T start your car if you're not going to let it get hot through-and-through. That's good advice anyway, but it is especially kind to your exhaust system.
I haven't gotten any video of me in the driveway stabbing the throttle. Just haven't gotten around to having someone else holding the camera.
I need to create a couple more videos as I'm sure folks are tired of seeing these same ones. Haven't gotten around to that, either.
All I seem to get around to is driving my car, playing with my kids, and spending what moments I can with my wife. I guess that's good enough for now...
I just swapped in a 454 in my 74 and went with Doug's Headers and sidepipes with the middle of the road mufflers. $!600 beans from Jegs for all and got them in within a week. Didn't even have time to make up a story to the ol lady on the big packages were for.
They look great and look to be well manufactured The chrome was perfect and they went on like butter including the factory indent for the steering box. I have had problems with all the above with many other parts
I just swapped in a 454 in my 74 and went with Doug's Headers and sidepipes with the middle of the road mufflers. $!600 beans from Jegs for all and got them in within a week. Didn't even have time to make up a story to the ol lady on the big packages were for.
They look great and look to be well manufactured The chrome was perfect and they went on like butter including the factory indent for the steering box. I have had problems with all the above with many other parts
Can I ask what you got? I'm seeing $730 for the headers, $300 for the side pipes and $180 for the inserts for Doug's. On Summit.
My car came from the PO with a set of sidepipes. Not 100% sure they were hooker, but looked the part. Problem was they were rusted at the 4 pipes as they entered the 4" collector and it is IMPOSSIBLE to remove that rust without sandblasting. Also, the sidetubes themselves were SWISS CHEESE. Bunch of holes and internal rust.
When I rebuilt my engine, I also got a set of BLACK Hooker sidemount headers and sidetubes. The very first thing I did out of the box was COMPLETELY sandblast the factory black coating off of them under the direction of my engine builder. He said that factory black was CRAP and only good to keep the rust off the headers whilst in transit. I repainted with flat black high-temp header paint.
Personally...this is me, here...I'd only get Hookers. I figure they've been doing it since the dawn of time and should have it pretty well figured out. It's an exhaust system and is subject to some pretty extreme stuff.
As far as Mr. Leadfoot4's story...dunno. I doubt many of our cars see much rain duty. All I can say is to blast and paint them with QUALITY paint out of the box (if you get black) and stay on top of them if they do show any rust.
With respect to the highlighted areas....That's exactly where my headers rusted out, too. The joint of the primary tubes and collectors rusted away, and the collectors were falling off. Maybe it was something in the make-up of the wire they were using in their welding process.
I bought my set in 1977, and the whole set up, the headers, the side pipes, and glass pack inserts, set me back about $700. That was pretty costly, back then, since the sticker price of my '77 Trans Am was $6200. Nonetheless, I figured that for that kind of money, the paint would be more durable than it turned out to be. In other words, I installed them "as-is" out of the box. After being on the car for a year (driven one summer, stored one winter), I took them off the car, took them into work, and took advantage of my employer's very large glass bead blasting cabinet, to remove what was left of the original "paint". I then hit them with VHT primer, followed by VHT satin black. I touched them up bi-weekly. They lasted another summer, and that was it. We tried to fix them, but it wasn't successful.
In all honesty, the car was basically my summer time DD, so yeah, it went out in the rain, and yeah, the tires kick up water.........
The side tubes, however, I never had an issue with. I didn't even have to repaint them.
Headers will produce a gain when they're OPEN but when the exhaust has to pass thru the restrictive exhaust pipes, mufflers, and tail pipes any gain gets lost and that's the the factories never offered them. Larger pipes and higher capacity mufflers are the key to better performance.
Can I ask what you got? I'm seeing $730 for the headers, $300 for the side pipes and $180 for the inserts for Doug's. On Summit.
I was incorrect i should verified my cost before posting. Even though I am still not exact for Chrome I paid about $830 for the headers, $330 for side pipes and $280 or so for the mufflers it was around $1400 I can't recall if there was tax but there was no charge for shipping.
Ive had Hooker silver ceramic coated side pipes on my 72 since 2004. I am just now replacing them with the same but stainless steel ones. The have lasted 12 years thus far and here is a pic from a few weeks ago. Had I cleaned them more then once a year and not driven in the winter they would have lasted longer. I installed them myself and yes they are a bitch to install the first time. Once you know the tricks to the install its not bad. I suspect the people complaining didn't get their car high enough to swing them in and work them properly.
...didn't get their car high enough to swing them in and work them properly.
I second that emotion...I had mine as high as I could get it when replacing my engine and installing my headers. Wasn't that big of a deal. You do need quite a bit of room to swing them into the engine bay.
............ I suspect the people complaining didn't get their car high enough to swing them in and work them properly.
When I installed them on my T/A, I read the instruction sheet, and it said to get the car 3 feet off the ground. In my youthful enthusiasm and optimism, I said to myself, Yeah, right.......". Turns out, they weren't kidding!!!
When I installed them on my T/A, I read the instruction sheet, and it said to get the car 3 feet off the ground. In my youthful enthusiasm and optimism, I said to myself, Yeah, right.......". Turns out, they weren't kidding!!!
