The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop William's, a Fenton knockoff and a poor product.

Can’t recall the exact conversation or when I saw it,
but there was some reports having to do with the need
to rework the Fenton headers being pushed at us today.
I’ve been helping a friend get his truck back on its
feet and yesterday we tackled the manifolds on the ’56
235 that’s in it.
He purchased a complete exhaust kit from National
Chevy Assn., which supplies William’s headers with the
kit. The bottom line read, “Complete with all
necessary hardware and installation instructions.”
Now sitting on the bench and hanging on the side of
the engine, these, like the Fenton headers look real
sharp, however........looks cam be deceiving.

Number one, there were no instructions. Number two the
kit did had hangers and muffler clamps but to install
the Williams headers without special manifold clamps turns
into a real pain in the ars.
We made a call to them and the guys were nice enough
to talk to but really didn’t have much to offer as far
as installation advice. The gentleman that we talked
to did say that the headers were made in Ohio and that
they used the Fenton headers as a master for the
casting. So according to that information the trouble
we have with the William’s headers should also apply
to the Fenton headers.
The trouble: First off, the flanges are cast nearly 1/8”
thicker than the stock intake, which sounds easy
enough to fix by grinding a little step in the
manifold clamps.
The way the flange is cast, the front center clamp
just barely catch the header by a about 1/32” and
only on the top of the clamp. The rear center needs to
be ground away right up to the hole and the flange
casting actually slightly over-laps the threaded hole
in the head. I won’t go into the rest of the
individual clamps, but just to say that large amounts
of the clamps have to be ground away to get them to
fit and the clamping surfaces are then off balanced
since the clamp strength comes for the compound curve
that is used in its manufacture. The strain bumps in
the center gasket have to be flattened in order for
the Williams headers to fit flush, this makes the
gasket longer and it overlaps the exhaust port by
about a 1/16” on both ports, this also destroys the
ability of the gasket to act independently on the two
exhaust ports and single intake port.

I seem to recall posting something on this subject in
the past about the fit of the ‘new’ Fenton castings.
Back in the day I’d installed the original Fenton
headers and they were a well-made direct bolt on part
that required no rework to the castings or clamps.
If they have made ‘upgrades’ to the ‘new’ version of
cast headers then they should also supply a proper
center gasket replacement and newly designed manifold
clamps with the header. I hate to have to say this but
I’ve had to do less rework from parts that came from
across the Pacific than I did to these parts that came
for Ohio, USA.

Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL