Gonna be redoing the exhaust on the bird at some point and weighing some options. I know what will work with a t5 but I know aods make things tough and even more so on a column shift. Just wondering what works right now.
I don't think any long tubes will work with column shift. Best bet is to wait til you swap the t5 in all honesty.
As far as I know, shorty headers don't even work with the column shifter. You'd have to convert to floor shift, or go T5 before doing the headers unfortunately.
You can make shorty headers work with a minor relocation of the column shift support bracket that bolts to the K-member (like, really minor). May affect your PRNDL accuracy a little. Can't speak to long tubes, though.
I've made shorty's work on a buddy's 20th before but that was years ago and I cant remember what all we did lol. Wasn't much tho. I know floor shift and longtubes are doable but I think I'm limited to bbk on that. Guess I'll have to suck it up patch the leaks for now lol. Shes got some home brew true dual setup with no cats and glasspacks right now. Was a decent job until they decided to cut the cats out that they put in and welds on the new pipe leak.
Shorty headers work fine with a column shifter. I've been running my car that way for 15 years. Remove the lower collector stud on the driver's side and replace it with a nut and bolt. Clears the column shift linkage just fine.
I had 1-1/2" primary long tube headers with the AOD on my column shifted '83 for several years. Ran these headers:
https://www.hedman.com/product-detail/88360
Made some modifications to the shifter linkage but again it was what I would call minor being I did it back in 2001ish and I was a complete mechanical retard back then.
I might have to give them a try. I'm gonna need motor mounts here soon and that would be a good time to do it lol.
They work. In fact equal length shorties work as well. I've been running Mac equal length shorties since 2008 and before that ran some Hooker 3/4 length slip fits that have been discontinued. I ran those for a little over a decade.