Made my own down-pipes for Hedman shorty headers
As we all know when it comes to V-8 exhaust on A-bodies things can be a real pain unless you drop big $$$ on TTI or Doug's headers. One lower-cost option is the Hedman Tight Tubes which is a shorty/block-hugger design. They fit great but the issue is the outlet location; it faces straight down and is only inches away from the steering linkage. When I first put mine on I had it hooked up the best way it could at the time with the pipes going under the drag link. Of course after only a few hundred miles the pipes got smashed up pretty bad to where they were not more than 1 1/2" wide which obviously restricted flow.
Recently when I went to swap my rear axle to an 8 3/4" model and pull my trans for a TC swap I decided to drop the exhaust and see what could be done. After laying under the car and looking at the situation for a long time I figured the downpipes could be made to go up and over the linkage but the bends would have to be SUPER tight. I took a trip to my local racing parts store (OnTrack Performance off Santa Fe/Dartmouth in Englewood) and had a EUREKA! moment when I came across this:
These are exhaust "donuts" made by a company called Pro-Werks. I'm not sure how they are made but they have a radius of curvature basically the same as the diameter of the pipe itself; literally the tightest bend you can physically have on a metal pipe. I also ordered a set of Sanderson angled collector reducers and got to work slowly mocking up, marking, and MIG-welding the sections together until I came up with these:
As we all know when it comes to V-8 exhaust on A-bodies things can be a real pain unless you drop big $$$ on TTI or Doug's headers. One lower-cost option is the Hedman Tight Tubes which is a shorty/block-hugger design. They fit great but the issue is the outlet location; it faces straight down and is only inches away from the steering linkage. When I first put mine on I had it hooked up the best way it could at the time with the pipes going under the drag link. Of course after only a few hundred miles the pipes got smashed up pretty bad to where they were not more than 1 1/2" wide which obviously restricted flow.
Recently when I went to swap my rear axle to an 8 3/4" model and pull my trans for a TC swap I decided to drop the exhaust and see what could be done. After laying under the car and looking at the situation for a long time I figured the downpipes could be made to go up and over the linkage but the bends would have to be SUPER tight. I took a trip to my local racing parts store (OnTrack Performance off Santa Fe/Dartmouth in Englewood) and had a EUREKA! moment when I came across this:
These are exhaust "donuts" made by a company called Pro-Werks. I'm not sure how they are made but they have a radius of curvature basically the same as the diameter of the pipe itself; literally the tightest bend you can physically have on a metal pipe. I also ordered a set of Sanderson angled collector reducers and got to work slowly mocking up, marking, and MIG-welding the sections together until I came up with these: