Stovebolt.com Forums The Shop Area The HiPo Shop Tight headers

Alone they may or may not make a difference. If you have good flowing heads, headers generally allow you to size up a jet or two. According to a excellent friend who builds engines and has had many dyno hours on his builds pushed me to go with headers vs my rams horns. He even had the numbers showing the HP and TQ curves for 1 1/2 vs 1 5/8 tubes. I opted for 1 1/2 as I doubt I will be running at the high end of the rpms and the mid range tq and hp were higher vs the 1 5/8 until 5k.

All that said I hate headers for the sealing issues. Sampson advertise no gaskets to the head and I have bought copper ones for the collector.

I have not previously encountered someone who
a) has purchased really nice headers
b) hates headers

So it goes.

After spending approximately 65 years building engines, and running dozens, if not hundreds of dyno tests, I have yet to document any sort of usable power gains with headers in an RPM range that the average street-driven engine ever sees. Therefore, I will stand by my opinion that headers, and other visually appealing accessories have no practical purpose. They usually have noticeable downsides such as actually reducing performance in some areas, or increasing under hood temperatures, leaking, and burning spark plug wires. "Your mileage may vary!"
Jerry

Bought a nice set of Hooker long tubes for my 83 Bronco. Hated them. They could not keep a gasket in them. Had to remove to get to the starter.
Bought a nice set of Headman shorties for my 94 Bronco. Hated them. I wrapped them, and they rotted out in a year. I went back to the OE manifolds.
Bought a nice set of ASM equal length equal bend shorties for my 95 Impala SS. It was a 10hr job to get the pass side one on or off. Hated them.

Now I have purchased a nice set of Sanderson. The rear plug is impossible to get to.

The definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing and expecting different results.

Just sayin'...

Ferris: have you gotten to check your cab clearance yet?

No I have not. I figure once I get the rest of the front clip internals panted and bolted on I will set the cab in place, mount the doors, and begin final bodywork before cab paint.

I hope to get pleasantly surprised with enough room for everything at that point. I do think it will be ok, but I am worried about the clutch hyd lines, and how/where I am going to fit a muffler and diverter under the cab to exit out under the step. Even if I went out the back there is no room due to the factory 3 link.

Otto,

You are correct, but the OE rams horns do not mate well with the new style head. I had few options.

I knew that popcorn time would come.

(Honest disclaimer: I hated my headers the day I changed oil on my 283 for the first time. Swapping filters was a very bad experience. I have made peace since then. Someone else will wrestle filters next time.)

A remote filter would solve that problem, but needing to do stuff like that to resolve a self-inflicted inconvenience just reinforces my original commentary about running headers when they do nothing for improving overall performance.
Jerry

Haha!

The only vehicle I've ever owned with headers is the 1976 F150. Previous owner installed them. It's a 460 so there's no room under the hood as it is. Those stupid things are so hot it's ridiculous. They're also about 1/16" away from the steering gear so when I had to have it rebuilt it was a chore getting it out.