I was kind of in the same place over the last few months. I decided to go with Hooker Competition headers, Corvette Central 2 1/2" duel exhaust intermediate pipes. The pipes and headers fit great with no issues. The nice think about the pipes is they are correctly bent to fit the factory location in the frame. I also did not buy the pipes with the welded mufflers. I bought the N-11 off road mufflers, again to fit as factory including the rear hanger location. The only thing I had to deal with was the intermediate pipe extensions to mate with the headers. I just brought the chassis to a local muffler shop. The made both connections for $100.00. The nice thing for me and important was the ability to take the system apart. So this method allows for all connections to be secured with SS band clamps and bolts at the collectors. The complete system is out local being ceramic coated inside and out. The headers I bought were just painted for this reason. They were only $203.00 to my door. The pipes were $155.00 plus $24.00 shipping from Keen Products. The muffler were $238.00. for the pair. Again all items were uncoated. The ceramic coating is costing $640.00. I hoping I only do this once. Hope this helps. BTW I had the same concern with the side pipes. I just wanted a good cruiser without a overly load exhaust. My car is a 1968. A little different but this should apply. I was also concerned about heat. I think this approach should help with cabin heat. The company doing the coating say I should see up to 300 F reduction.
Peter

 

Well, at least you're thinking rationally about this. A couple things to consider.

On the power side, in most cases, the worst header will make more power than the best exhaust manifold. Not an absolute but a pretty safe bet. How much power you leave on the table depends upon the engine and the header design. At your power level, you're probably looking at around a 20 horsepower loss. Maybe more, but not a lot more.

On the practical side, you know the manifolds and exhaust system fit with no weird obstruction or fitment issues. The pipes won't drag on bumps, you can get to the spark plugs, they are durable as cast iron, they don't leak, they are quieter than headers. They are not as sexy as headers, but oh well. Plus you already own the manifolds, so all you need to do are put new pipes on it...and they'll fit without any re-engineering.

If you don't really need the extra power it certainly is something to think about, isn't it?

 

Hooker style side pipes are like tomatoes. Some like them and some don't. Personally I do and have been happy with them. When I bought my car it had Hooker Max Flow inserts (glass packs with a 2.5" thru tubes) that all the glass pack was burned out of. I had to wear ear plugs to drive it. I have tried and heard several other inserts and they were either too loud, too quite, or just did not have a good sound. I finally made inserts from an old set of Hookers that I cut both ends off of and used Magnaflow 22" glass packs with 2.25" center cores. At cruise you can carry on a conversation and during acceleration they are pretty aggressive which is pretty standard for Magnaflow.

As to your performance concern you will be better off with a header. Now a set of stepped, tuned headers with 3" exhaust may be better than side pipes, but either will be better than the rams horns. For driving occasionally on nice days, probably any set up will be fine too.

 

I would decide if its all about the looks or the performance.side pipes cant be beat for looks.a great set of headers into a free flowing rear exhaust can sound great and be best for performance.or you can do the old time always works way,,,,,,flip a coin.hahah

 

This tells me is doesn't matter what power it makes or looses. Just get the sound you like with the right muffler setup. X pipe and h pipe change the sound so it may be something to look at, but don't worry about the power you won't notice the difference in the seat of your pants.