I'm about to buy a 1996 Z28 thats been taken care of very well and has 103k miles for about $3200 and first thing i want to do is get headers/exhaust and i want best bang for your buck. My friend told me i have to drop the engine to install headers, is this true? And if so how much would it cost to have this done?

 

no you dont have to drop the engine to install headers. just crawl under the car and pray that you dont have any problems with the bolts and clearances. It is hard at sometimes to install headers but you dont need to drop the engine.

 

that sure is a relief

 

if you were to do some major mods like heads, cams, roller rockers at the same time as your headers than putting the headers on while the engines out would be the smart thing. But who has the money to do all those mods at the same time right after they buy the car? I bought my car with 90% of the mods in the sig for 4500 so i didnt have to do the headers myself but a good exhaust shop quotes 5-7 hours including weld time.

 

Pacesetter LT headers are supposed to fit very well from under the car. Easiest way to go is with an ORY and no emissions if you can do that.

 

i thought about just passing inspection then run straight headers? what do you think?

 

i have a bolt on cat so after emissions i pull it, replace the gasket and run an offroad/straight pipe on it for another year. the only bad thing is ground clearance. If i went over speed bumps a little to fast it would bottom out on that flange and it eventually pulleyd my y-pipe off.