[Quad]

Hey guys, I just recently bought a 84 GT. Someone down the line had a custom exhaust put on it. It's got stock headers with a mandrel bent tubing kit welded together with flotech 40 mufflers. Now the problem is that the driver side is 4 inches off the ground give or take a little. So right now the exhaust is bottoming out on the ground. I hate to take it to a muffler shop and have it repaired with a plain exhaust section to get that pipe up where it should be. I was considering buying a X pipe and working with what's already there. Right now I'm running dual's but seperately. So I have two cat's and though I don't know what they are can't imagine they spent the money they did on the exhaust and din't put on high flow Cat's. So I think I've got everything I need besides getting the pipes off the ground. So now on to my question. When I try to get an X Pipe they have them for my year but their for conventional headers that go to the bottom of the car. I'd like to retain the stock headers for now as the engine upgrades will come later after I work the other 10 million bugs out of the chassis for now. So do any of you have a older GT or know of someone with a older GT that has installed a X or H pipe for a 86-94 GT. I'm familiar with them and the body is identical the the 85 and 86 I've had. Only thing I don't know for sure is if the headers were different on a 84 than what was on a 86. I'm reluctant to buy a $200 X pipe when I don't even know if it will bolt on or rid me of my problem with my exhaust dragging the ground.

BTW it is a 302 carburated, MT, with no A.I.R. and I know I'll have to plug the O2 holes in the 86 model if it does have them. I was looking at the Flowtech offroad X pipe and then just making a flange on the cat's to bolt right onto the end of the x pipe(after I cut them off and make the extension pipe the correct length). I would greatly appreciate any help!

[matt17]

i am pretty sure i know what wrong with your exhaust,my guess is when they spent the money and time putting on the headers & exhaust they didn't spend 50-75 $ more on a double hump cross member!84 gt's did not have headers and ran a single pipe that dumped into 2 tail pipes side by side each other!check to se what cross member you have,you might be able to save what you got by changing it!!!! good luck!

[meangreen92]

Your car came stock with cast iron exhaust manifolds. You would need
some '86 to '93 specific headers to use one of the commonly available
H or X pipes. Those pieces need the dual hump crossmember.

[Quad]

Well I have headers on it. I have looked at a lot of the newer GT's and the headers on this looks the same as those. I'll make the assumption that someone took the headers off a newer GT and put them on mine. The appear to be made of steel and I'm guessing here but I'd say 1 1/2" tubes of a not equal lenth configuration. They Pretty much end right behind the 4 and 8 cylinder about 6 inches below the plug. Now the crossmember does have humps and I'm assuming again for the exhaust. The newer models I've had the crossmember looked the same. I also currently have on the passenger side about 1 1/2 inches to 2 inches of clearance and on the driver about 2 - 2 1/2. It's not actually hitting under the crossmember though. It's hitting where it bends coming down from the headers to go down the length of the car and where the exhaust caps are. I might take some pictures and UL them so you can see what I'm talking about since it's pretty hard to describe. Don't know if I can UL them here but if not I can link them. However the humps on the crossmember aren't the problem. When the person installed the pipes the made the peice of pipe that ran up to the header about 4 inches too long. The only actual way of fixing it would be to cut some of that pipe out and reweld it. However when I cut a section of that pipe out the angle to the manifold will change so it will need to be bent. I may drop the exhaust and see what I can do with it since I'm having trouble getting shops around here to work on it since it isn't "Original Equipment" they won't do anything but repair what I have and not modify it.I could probably cut the section out and bend it by heating it with a torch... problem would be is if the pipe's are made out of alluminum I wouldn't be able to weld since my wire welders can only do mild steel(gasless). I don't think they make a wire with flux for alluminum anyway. Never looked as everything on Pinsetters are steel of some sort. However the same intelligent person that left the pipes 4 inches too long also clamped one of the cat's right up beside the crossmemeber... thus eliminating a good half inch of clearance betwen it and the crossmemeber as well.. so I was wanting to get it moved back a little, however I do think I could make do if I got that 4 inch section cut out and rewelded. I think I'm only shy about 2 inches from being able to clear the road with a mostly level surface and with the suspension bottomed out.

Next Question. I've never ordered a X or H pipe. Figured I'd order one simply for the fact there are no good muffler shops around here. They repair stuff fine but when it comes to making the parts.. they are less than desirable. So figured I'd make it easy on them if all they had to do was bolt on the X pipe and weld some flanges on the existing pipe and cat's. If any of you have ordered one do the pipes go past the crossmember?

Seconldy I know the cat location for most cars is in front of the crossmember. I don't really see any problem with locating the cats after the crossmember.. probably somewhere under the driver seat. Couldn't imagine any issues I could have with this location but never did learn much about exhaust tech. I'll try and get pictures tomorrow when it's daylight and preferably somewhere dry. Maybe even on a lift if this other guy I talk to looks at it.

[Ra_]

i dont think your allowed to move cats due to emmisions laws pesonally i don't have to deal with emissions so i don't bother with cats and such if you don't either you could move them but they won't work as well cats need heat to work so the closer they are to the engine the better

if your going to have a shop install your exhaust make sure they will do it some places don't like it when you bring your own stuff