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Curious as to any unique 'vert fitment/clearance problems with headers. I am lowered with UMI 3-point SFC's and only have a few inches of ground clearance. How do the various header/y-pipe manufacturers fit, compared to the SFC's? Do they hang lower?
Anyone have any ground clearance pics of the headers installed with some SFC's for comparison?
I was kicking around the idea of some Texas Speed or Ebay stainless headers.
I have ebay stainless headers/y pipe. No clearance issues. If I was buying headers now I would be getting the Speed engineering 1 7/8" ones. Will be at the Camaro Corral saturday if you want to take a look at mine
I have Kooks and umi 3pts and no clearance trouble what so ever. I would have to go double check, but I am pretty sure the SFCs are lower than the header collectors. If you're not scraping SFCs then your headers should be fine.
As a side note, if you can save up for it I would highly recommend a more well known brand over the ebay headers. I had them for a while and they worked great, but when I switched to Kooks they had so much more clearance. The way the primaries are routed gave probably 50% extra space even with going up to 1 7/8 primaries.
When I had my camaro, I added texas performance 1 7/8" headers and catted Y. I did loose ground clearance and took it easy on the road. Unfortunately my driveway has a decent incline and scratched regardless of my speed or angle every time. Looks like kooks might offer better clearance with their y pipe.
TSP 1 7/8" headers and y pipe, installed with stock suspension on poly motor mounts but now rolling on bmr lowering springs, to date no snags on anything but I am super careful of how I roll...this pict is pre-lowering, you can see my sfcs too, 3 pt bolt ons, not sure if umi or bmr? Install notes: TSP headers went in fine, no major issues, no hitting of any frame areas, Y pipe goes on fine but must be clocked in the exact correct position or it will hit under your driver seat where the brace goes. Took me several retries (months) to get mine correctly clocked under the car. Motor mounts are a bitch, prepare to be miserable if you do them at the same time, which I suggest, YMMV
Last edited by 99'CajunFirehawk157; Aug 12, 2015 at 10:09 PM.
Thanks everyone, especially Cajun...looks like the Y certainly is lower than the SFC...I think that could cause me problems. I'll get out and measure my clearance tonight, but it's relatively low.
I'm with DropTop - Kooks with UMI SFCs - no issues with clearance at all. Probably as much as stock or the clearance issues are more with the SFCs rather than the exhaust system.
I also did motor mounts even though car only had about 25k miles at the time. I have no experience with anything other than Kooks - but installation was was smooth as could be (but I have a lift).
I took a measurement, and as the vehicle stands right now my stock y pipe on the driver's side is 3.5" off the ground. Seems that's the lowest point...for the most part my SFC's are better tucked than the stock y.
I'd have to believe headers would reduce that 3.5" pretty badly, wouldn't they? Well...actually...Cajun's pic looks darn close to what I have stock - the SFC and Y pipe anyway. I definitely have less ground clearance.
For reference, I am not THAT low:
Last edited by Atrus_SS; Sep 17, 2015 at 07:14 AM.
i have jet hot / hooker 1 3/4 and im happy with the clearance on my 99 with 16" rims stock ride height. my aluminum trans pan actually hangs slightly lower than my headers. good luck.
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Headers & SFC's on a 'vert 
