"Quality, price & design are also factors to be considered. Many aftermarket parts don't meet standards, headers are only one of them."
Good morning Fred.
My welding job at Doug's Headers was in the summer of 1967, 51 years ago. There is no question that a lot has changed in that time, especially in the realm of finding quality for sale at any price. But working inside a header building facility taught me that headers that actually fit properly and don't leak can be made and I actually have a set on my sbc powered street roadster right now.
One trick I learned at Doug's was to bolt headers to a head and spot heat a dime sized area on a few of the primary tubes to a dull red heat with an oxy-acetylene torch to relieve any stresses created by the fabrication welding. That relaxes the tubing creating a proper fit. On my roadster all it took to create a long term (15 years now) leak free installation was using quality Fel Pro gaskets, stainless steel socket head bolts and lock washers, and re-tightening the bolts a few times at first as the gaskets compressed. No special bolt locking hardware was used, just the stainless steel lock washers. The heads are aluminum Edelbrock parts and I don't know if those are more or less prone to bolt loosening than iron heads.
Since this is supposed to be an information sharing forum it seems like the original poster on this thread might be interested to know that there are plenty of header success stories. There is no question that quality is a little more expensive and harder to find than it once was, but it's out there.
