Just wondering if headers were available as either a factory or dealer installed option on '72 A bodies and would it be in any literature?

Thanks.

 

Headers were not available from the factory as an option or factory part. Sure, you could have probably gotten a dealer to install aftermarket headers.

 

Headers were NEVER a factory available option from Oldsmobile. There is no fuzz on this. Dealers would have installed whatever you wanted if you paid them enough.

 

To clarify what Joe P says......this is for factory GM parts and aftermarket things.

 

Were tube headers available installed at the factory from any manufacturer in the muscle car era? I remember tube headers were famously available on the '60s Z/28s, but the cars were delivered with the headers in the trunk. And IIRC, the Z-11 W-motor Chevies of the early '60 could be had with aluminum manifolds (drag racing service only because they melted if the engine was run hard for extended periods), but they weren't separate tubes, but cast en bloc.

I don't think any manufacturers supplied proper tube headers as a factory-installed RPO.

 

I never saw them but I remember the headers in the trunk on the early Z28's. I wonder who manufactured them. Hedman would be a guess but I have no idea.

 

Those are the only ones I recall. Automakers in the 60s famously offered cast iron headers on selected very high performance engines. These sell for stupid money today.

 

Warranty concerns may have made RPO header installations a non-starter due to leakage issues. Just a guess.

 

Seems I remember some GS Buicks came with a set of headers in the trunk, along with certain Stage II pieces. Hey, the original Stage 1 stuff came in the trunk too, till Buick figured out it was simpler to install it at the factory...

Not sure about Rambler SC/Ramblers. Hurst may have put those on. AMCs suffer from the same header clearance issues Oldsmobiles do.

 

There were no exhaust pipes manufactured for connecting to headers. Headers implied "racing" and the factories were against that. "Speed contests" could also void your warranty.

 

??? I'm pretty sure I had a set of Doug Thorley's attached to factory exhaust in a '68 Camaro.

 

Then you should be able to find a part listing in the Chevrolet parts manual. Did you get it new from the dealer ?

 

No, it was the 1980s. Where are we going with this?

 

I don't know where we are going, but I know where we went...wwwaaayyy off topic.

 

I suspect what Ralph was trying to get at is that if headers were available installed from the factory, there would have been corresponding pipes or adapters somewhere in the parts books and he hasn't found any.

 

Actually not really.

At first I thought the question was nuts. But now after reading all replies it seems reasonable. I guess if Olds would ever have done it. I imagine it would of been with the early W30s and all W31s.

 

If Olds had done it, Joe P. would have the part number.

 

Not everything had a part number--for example the C48 firewall cover for 1966-7.

 

IIRC, The Chevy headers had part numbers stamped into the collectors. They’re the only “orderable” tubular style headers I remember being available and they weren’t available as assy line installed.

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