If I can give one work of advice, stay with the rams horns. Headers just seem to invite trouble, sure, they look cool when new before the rust and leaks set in, but unless you're looking to squeeze it all out of a performance build and spend bucks on a tuned set (read pricey), they won't really do you much good. I'm kind of half kidding on the rust and leaks, good ceramic coated headers last a long time, keep your bay cooler, and combined with GOOD gaskets can be leak free, but man are they ever expensive now!

Any good shop should be able to join onto the Rams, and thread some 2 - 2.25" pipes down through the tight spots for you, maybe fit a crossover, and a good set of duals to the back with decent mufflers the rest of the way will make a substantial seat of the pants (and attitude) difference.

The young guys always want the headers, but they eventually become old guys and get excited to reunite with the cast iron again.

Who said money had anything to do with this?

My advice is do what you want to. The rams horn are a nice looking manifold if you want a stock and period correct look, headers when chosen properly will squeeze out horsepower. Never had a set rust out and never had any real issues with loosening bolts either. 

What do you see in here? 

Summitt racing has a ton of systems for the 62 Impala. CLICK HERE 

4SPEED427 wrote:

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Mike Ward MB wrote:

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Im in the pro-header camp. A little research to find the right ones, a little elbow grease to install them and any muffler shop can run duals off of them to the back. First thing that gets tossed on my cars is the cast iron exhaust manifolds.

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 C'mon Mike, I thought you and I were friends!

Kidding of course, I don't doubt there's some good headers but heck the price of a set of headers will pay for a nice dual system for his stock manifolds. If he puts on headers he still has to buy a dual system after that!

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Headers are subjective for sure. You could easily go the cheap painted and rusty route on headers if appearance isn't a priority, you can always find them used on the marketplace and the saving will help with everything else. But be aware that what you are installing is basically 8 uncoated radiant tubes that will be happy to burn your wires and anything else that gets too close. Yes, you can wrap the wires and anything else and paint them, but DIY coatings never seem to last very long do they?

Ceramic is the only way, you'd be amazed how cool they run. I could literally go in and change a plug after a run in my 67 without burning myself. 

Thanks man!

Thanks Jacob