Dr, Ken is a force not to be reckoned with!!! Ken, I just learned something new!!    You da man!!!

Oh and Ken you are one of the best, don't sell your self short.

There is a lotta love goin round in here.

Either side pipes or chambered exhaust.   Both are loud and sound very good.    Of course my 2 1/2 pipes and AeroChamber mufflers could fill the bill as well.

I have the chambered exhaust with headers and 2 1/2" and love it...very deep sound. I do catch myself making sure their isn't an officer around when letting her have it.

Last summer, after nearly 10 years of only sporadically driving my car (couldn't pass a GA inspection because I removed the Cat), I had essentially a complete mechanical restoration on my '81.  I basically disabled the A.I.R. system and the "upgrade" included an Edelbrock Intake and Carb., an MSD ignistion system with the spark box, Hooker headers, a completely new 2.5" x-pipe exhaust system (but with the stock mufflers), new radiator, new A/C, new brakes, and new tires.  Now the car runs and sounds like a covette is supposed to. Except for these mods, the car is fully documented and completely original with only about 26,000 miles on it, so I kept all of the removed parts - just in case.  But the point here is that, at least in my case, the headers seemed to have made a BIG difference, especially in combination with the other mods. '81 was not a stellar year for performance (only 190 hp!), but these mods REALY helped! I wanted to keep close to a stock look, so I stayed with the original air cleaner. I guess the "Keep you GM Vehicle all GM" sticker doesn't apply... :-).  These are the before and after shots... roadbiker2008-08-05 17:52:20

Roadbiker,

Thanks!  I used Hooker Ceramic Metallic headers.  The exhaust is custom-made and they welded flanges with bolt holes that mate to the flanges on the headers.  They also designed the "X" in the pipe so that it is in the same place as the catalytic converter used to be. At the other end they welded the pipes to the stock mufflers (originally the stock mufflers were held in place with clamps). My next investment may be in new mufflers.  The car sounds really good now - 10x better than before, but I think I can get a nicer, throatier sound with some good performance mufflers. I jst don;t know which to chose.  I am open to suggestions. 

I have the same headers on my car.   They are very nice indeed.  My pipes are from Allen Stainless, and the mufflers are Hooker AeroChamber mufflers.   I really like the sound.  When I installed them along with the Weiland 8004 dual plane intake dyno test showed before 161 hp 232 ft lbs torque,  after 175 hp 234 ft lbs.

hey ken and roadbiker,
when you installed your headers, did you have to ding the driver's side to miss the steering box?