at the moment I don't want to drop a lot of money into an exhaust system.

I was thinking about going with the Flowtech performance exhaust with the raptor mufflers on my 80 Z/28 stock motor and headers

has anyone have any thoughts on these

 

I dont know anything about that set up,but if your looking for a good system for a cheap price,either the jegs or summit brand system are both really good,and a good price.I have the jegs system on mine,and there are a few people on here with the one from summit.

 

As I dig a little deeper into this, I also have to decide headers or drop pipes, drop pipes about 150.00 almost the price of headers but a lot less work

 

Headers really aren't that hard to install,and they will give you better performance.If you jack the car up as high as you can get it,and support it with jack stands or something,the headers will go up from the bottom pretty easy.Being you have an 80,there are 2 braces,i on each side,that run across from the frame to the control arm,remove those as they will block the space where the headers go,and you want to unhook the battery so you dont short anything out while installing them.It sounds hard,but it really isn't to bad,and will definitely improve the power in the car.

 

yeah the hooker headers are almost the same price as the down pipes, I think I need to take a look at my parts car, think there was a set of headers on that one, who know might be some stainless steel on that one.

 

I second the JEGs or Summit kits. I have the Summit kit and it's complete from headers to the rear of the car, including mufflers for around $189. I bought the 2.5" system, and that's seems to be the popular size for most cars.
Headers are so reasonably priced for decent stuff that I'd just get new if there's any questions on the used ones you have. The Patriots are pretty good, and only $172.
Patriot Exhaust H8047 - Patriot Tri-5 Headers - Overview - SummitRacing.com

And Summit headers are $109.
Summit Racing SUM-G9001 - Summit Racing® Headers - Overview - SummitRacing.com