The easy way is to get another passenger's side muffler hanger and put it on the driver's side. If you are not going to use cats, you can trim the end of the drive shaft loop so that it only has one bolt, and run your pipe almost mirror image to the passenger's side. (The LT1 trans support will not work with this arrangement). I welded a partial section 10 inches long of the OEM support on top of the original trans support, allowing for floor clearance, and cut the bottom out, up to the inside of the top. I am going to have my car up in the air tomorrow, so I can take a picture for you. If you are going to use the LT1 trans support, you will have to slightly flatten the pipe, you could use an LT1 exhaust pipe to make it easier.
If you are using cats, you need a set of heat shields for the driver's side. There are a number of them. The cat on the driver's side will not fit where the OEM cat fits on an LT1 car, because the header is much longer than the manifold. You would have to mount it under the floor, with a heat shield on standoffs, like the one on the passenger's side. The floor on the driver's side is lower than the passenger's side, and could cause some clearance problems, so you may want to raise the floor on the driver's side about an inch, if possible.
The O2 sensor must be put on the front of the header collector, or on the pipe that attaches to the header (mine leans at about 45 degrees toward the engine on the pipe). If you put it on the pipe attached to the header, you need a patch wire, and a clip to hold it from swaying. I used a pigtail from an old O2 sensor, and a pigtail from a junk yard harness and a waterproof crimp, because the pigtail from the O2 sensor was stainless steel) I attached a spare pan clip to the top flywheel cover bolt .
If you are not going to wrap the headers, you also need heat insulators for the plug ends of the spark plug wires. (get them from a few LT1s, there are 3 on each engine). Plan on making a set of custom sparkplug wires. You also need a set of looms that you can bolt to the engine (the holes are already there, drilled and tapped.
The driver's side header will come very close to your brake lines, and you may want to put a heat shield in that area as well, if you are not going to wrap the headers.
To properly shape your pipes, you need a way to measure angles on the centerline of the pipe. I used a long piece of wire, but found a tool for angles worked better. Some angles are on different planes, so it takes a bit of effort to get them right.
If you are not going to wrap the pipes, I would suggest some heat insulation for the wires in the engine compartment. There will be a lot more heat than the stock manifolds, and the headers get closer to a lot of the wires than the OEM manifolds.
I put headers on my wagon last winter, and conquered all the issues you are facing. I did not put cats on my car, because we do not have inspections here. I did wrap the headers, and did the above mods. I dumped the exhaust just in front of the axle with 45 degree turn downs. Mufflers are big Flowmasters, and I used 2 1/2 inch pipes.
BTW if you are interested in making a little more HP, I have the cam, injectors, and computer from a TBI 9C1. With these items the base HP is 205.
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Sun Jun 09, 2013 10:14 am
