Exhaust questions

[old Rusty C10]

1982 C10 5.7 motor Edelbrock intake and carb
Im looking to have power and the best possible gas mileage
my exhaust is kinda shot. The manifolds are there as is the Y pipe and it feeds down into something that kinda looks like a cherry bomb muffler then that goes into the intermediate pipe which is rusted and the muffler and out the dual tail pipes..
for now im going to go to the local chain and get a cheap walker muffler intermediate pipe and the dual tails and that should cost me under a hundred dollars if i install it myself .
In the spring im going to want to put a decent exhaust on there.
Heres the question I wanna put back the A/C compressor and the rest of the air conditioner back. I was thinking of Headers and some kind of mufflers then straight out the back under the bumper. I dont want to have the truck too loud either and i dont wanna spend more on the exhaust than the National Deficit
any ideas? Also ( now im getting old and senile) but its been a while since i built a truck but are there certain brands of headers to stay away from due to the fact they warp when they get hot?

[Ivan D.]

the thing that looks like a cherrybomb is actually a catalytic converter, depending on the local emissions laws you may or may not need a new on - some states like mine don't do testing at all so I can get away with no cats on any vehicle, however if NY has sniffer tests you will probably need a new cat, or two if running duals.

The exhaust setup I'd favor would be a set of long-tube headers that merge into a Flowmaster Y-collector with 2.5" inlets and a 3" outlet, the run the 3" exhaust up behind the cab with a tractor flapper valve on top of the pipe, like an 18-wheeler I've seen that done on a 351-powered Bronco, only he had a high-flow cat (canadian vehicle) and a muffler and exited out back, this setup replaced a perfectly good dual 2.5" system and improvements were pretty noticeable, especially in the low-end torque.

[old Rusty C10]

luckilly on a truck my age out of NYC ( i have it registered to my house upstate) i dont need to pass exhaust save having one on there.. its a safety inspection ( lights horns glass wipers) and i passed that
i had thought of doing up the back of the cab but it would take away bed space which i do need.. my trucks serve double duty as work trucks as well as projects.. os the exhaust will either go straight out the back or out the back of the bedsides

[Pyrotechnic]

I had a dual 2.25 inch setup with a H pipe and some 3 chamber flowmasters on my old truck. I think 2.25 pipe is cheaper than 2.5 or 3 inch so that will save you some money.

Dynomax and Flowtech headers for these trucks are junk as far as i'm concerned. I've got a set of Hedmans waiting to go on but the design looks much better.

Turbo mufflers seem to be a good deal. I had a set on my GMC and they had a nice tone and were pretty quiet on the highway, but they sounded pretty cool at full throttle. The best thing about these is no interior resonance at all, and they are dirt cheap, about $30 each. My setup didn't have an H pipe, but I imagine the H pipe would mellow and quiet them down even more.

[old Rusty C10]

ill do some research on hedeman headers and hopefully i can find a set that works with the AC setup. years back i had an el camino that gave me alot of issues with the clearance by the compressor. i dont recall the brand of headers tho