Do they even make shorties that will fit a 1st gen ? If so, please post brand and part number. Thanks.
Well, I did a little search and to my surprise, Summit shows some 1st gen shorties for a Pontiac engine. I never heard of the Brand before. Any other brands out there that I don't know about ?
We ran Hedman 35270's. I don't remember them hangin low or draggin They have real short collectors. So, the tailpipes can be routed as close to the body as you dare. These short collector headers should therefore provide more ground clearance, than headers with long collectors. For street use, you can even do away with the collector flange, or at least cut the bottom portion of it off, so that nothing will hang lower than the bottom of the collector tube. For racing, we ran collector extensions on these to get the exhaust fumes past the cockpit.
I suppose you could even use 3-tube headers, and cut most of the collectors off, in order to reduce to the smaller size exhaust pipes sooner. That should help with the clearance. And there will probably be no noticeable difference in performance thru a full exhaust system. Jim Hand says the 3-tube headers will make about the same power as the Ram Air type, cast iron manifolds. So, there are several choices that will provide a bit more ground clearance.
