Hi guys
I'm planning on buying hooker headers for my 73 dart sport, and am wondering if its advisable to go with single or dual exhaust. I'm not racing her, but am looking to balance between a nice growl, decent performance while maintaining a relatively quiet ride.
Any suggestions on x or y pipes and mufflers would be appreciated
thank you

The big single is the way to go. 2 1/2" for a street car 3" for show

The primary to collector length is important. 29-33" I like 31

1 3/4 or 2" primaries.....1 3/4 on the street

I like a Magnaflow "Y" better than the Flowmaster

Use a large muffler. OEM type is quiet. Summit racing $39 is my choice

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Yeah....Im the one who destroyed this rare, vintage automobile.....

Your experience my vary, but I have dual Dutra manifolds dumping into 2 inch pipes, those pipes y into a single 2.5 inch pipe back to a Smithy's glass pack and that exits into a single 2 inch pipe after the muffler. I have no idea how much increased horsepower it gave over the twin-catalyst spuds and log manifold, but I can take hills in OD that I normally would've downshifted to third. The sound is a little loud, or so I'm told. Without my hearing aids it's very quiet. With them it has a throaty rasp when I let off the gas and an admittedly annoying drone at highway speeds.

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If it was easy, everybody would be doing it.

Thanks kindly for the advice. Part of me wanted dual exhaust out the back(for the looks) but performance and sound are more important for what I want.
I assume the route over the rear axle(keeping it the same as it is right now) is the better way to go?.(I read here somewhere that the exhaust pipe coming out before the rear wheels can present a carbon monoxide threat so I want to keep clear of that. I tend to go on 1-3 hour cruises and don't want a cabin filled with exhaust).


Thanks again for your time.

I think the drone of a loud exhaust would drive you bonkers after an hour on the road. Take the exhaust all the way back for safety reasons. My truck exits in front of the rear wheel but Ford did the same thing from the factory and it hasn't been a problem, but in a passenger car with the windows down it would be like having the exhaust exit under the door in a pickup truck. So to stay alive, run the exhaust out behind the car.

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If it was easy, everybody would be doing it.

thanks coconuteater..appreciate the tips.

I have some more questions regarding this..please go easy on me, I'm a newb with doing work like this so some questions may sound lame. While I realize the best method is trial and error, I have a limited budget and time to do this work and would like to use others experience to help me through this more efficiently.I have done a good deal of research, I find a lot of it tends to be confusing on actual direction.

just so I understand correctly about the collector length, so my system starts at the exhaust manifold, to the headers, to a Y-collector that is attached to the Y-collector( will this be welded or using a flange connection?)_______?

Not sure where the 31" collector length fits in, after the header and before the Y, or after the Y and before the exhaust pipe?_______?...is that something I purchase or have fabricated?_______?

is it better to have this system welded together or with the use of flanges that allow removal?_______?...I don not have access to a MIG welder( I will be using SS for the exhaust).

while I'm sure there are many pros and cons to any idea I go with, I will be going in the direction of:
hooker headers long tube(ceramic coated)
Y and collector-diameter size and length_______? to be determined
2.5" exhaust pipe straight back over the rear axle
muffler_______?(type to be determined)
and 2" tailpipe

any help with the blanks and questions and errors would be appreciated.

You go from the headers (3:1) to a 31" primary pipe 2" is fine .

The 2 primary pipes (31" long) go to a 2:1 collector .....the collector exits into a 2 1/2" tail pipe

You can very the sizes of the pipes but there are a limited range of collectors.

The header should come with connectors for your primary pipes....see what size they are.

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Yeah....Im the one who destroyed this rare, vintage automobile.....

perfect...thank you..headers will be my Christmas present , cant wait to see THOSE under the tree..

I prefer cast iron to headers personally. This is from my experience, you'll buy cast iron once but headers every 3-5 years. You torque cast iron once but headers every couple of months. Only once have I had a cast iron manifold crack, but that was a turbo application running high levels of boost. But I've had headers rot from the inside out, coated or not (it's difficult to coat the headers on the inside of the pipes) and the headers become brittle and leak.

For a full on race engine, headers are hard to beat. On a street vehicle, you take your chances. They might last years and years, who knows? But in my personal experience they fail and require period tightening very soon. Plus, at street speeds the engine isn't running wide open so you'll need to compromise collector length and tube diameter if you want any low end torque, at the expense of high RPM power. Bearing this in mind, there aren't a whole lot of choices in headers for a slant six like there are for, say, a small block Chevy.

But it's your vehicle. Your decision is your decision to make. Those are just my thoughts. Opinions will vary.

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If it was easy, everybody would be doing it.

I agree. Those headers would not be my choice for street use in Canada.

My choice is a single 2 1/4" <shrug>

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Yeah....Im the one who destroyed this rare, vintage automobile.....

Forgot to mention that with headers you'll need some way to heat the carburetor if you have cold weather where you live. Otherwise, icing can occur in the carburetor, even with a hot motor. Not saying it can't be done, it's just another thing to consider. I have dual Dutra manifolds on mine but no carb heat; winters here don't get very cold so it's not a problem. But if I drive up to my dad's house where it snows a lot, yeah it's a problem.

A stock air cleaner with the preheat hose can be hooked to one leg of the headers for warm air to suck in through the snorkle in cold weather (or around the exhaust pipe if dual Dutras) and that is usually sufficient heat. If you modify the stock manifold and use a single Dutra casting, you retain the hot box under the intake and even an open element air cleaner is fine in winter.

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If it was easy, everybody would be doing it.

thanks again for the input. Cold weather driving is not a concern as I put her away in October and pull her out only AFTER they stopped salting the damn roads here( my god they use a lot of that crap on Ontario roads).
Do the Dutras create any distinct sound like headers?..and performance wise, are they as good as/better then headers?..I've read about them here but I've also read some horror stories on items some guys make and sell here( Doug Dutra sounds like he knows his stuff, and most on here back that up so I can only assume he is what others say he is-sorry for being skeptical, but life has a way of doing that to me)...not sure what I'd be getting into, and as I've said, I have a (wife imposed) limited budget(apparently our kids education is more important..lol) and want to do this right the first time.

Others report that headers have a "tinny" sound to them, but with my hearing problems I couldn't tell you if that's true. To me the Dutra manifold is "overbuilt" - it's extra thick, extra strong, and will last decades. That's why I chose them, plus headers tend to shift the RPM range of an engine upwards. I needed low and mid RPM grunt, and they seem to have delivered better flow than stock while retaining power down low. Plus I like to spend my money locally, and not to some big company.

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If it was easy, everybody would be doing it.

love the idea of buying local, but theres nothing up this way like th

any idea how to get ahold of his product?..I tried a few links, but they tend to just show pictures or talk about the duals?