Hey guys, I am new to this forum, not new to building cars, but as with any car my maverick has specific concerns and I figured you guys would have the experience to help me. I bought a 1973 maverick with a 302 and a c4. The car is in excellent condition, owned by a grandma on the west coast so it rust free. I just sold my 1968 cougar XR7 6 months ago and couldn't stand not having an older car to tinker with and drive. The plan for the maverick is fairly simple right now. I am going to do a full non-power disc brake conversion from mustang steve (2014 mustang gt 13.2" rotors) in the front, a small bearing disc brake conversion on the 8" rear. I am pretty sure the spindles will work with that kit, let me know if you know otherwise. Subframe connectors. The front suspension is just going to get rebuilt with moog R-type control arms, new shocks, and 1" lowering springs, new springs and shocks in the back. The engine is going to be a mild-ish 306 with tfs 170 heads. I already have a 74 block out of a mustang. I actually have a few other engines, 351c with closed chamber heads and a 4 bolt block, an LS based motor (which I would love to throw into the maverick but I am not interested in cutting shock towers, unless it fits...?), and a 69 351w. What I really am concerned with is the headers. The first thing I have to do is build a new exhaust, so I want easy to fit headers. I know hooker 6901s are the standard option, I also found a set of scott drake high flow cast headers and I am wondering how good they are and if they will be big enough? According to scott drake these are reproductions of the boss 302 headers (some say those cars made 350 actual horsepower and I am aiming for 350-400 at the crank). This is a column shift car and I plan on converting it to an aod in the future, I was going to get a lokar top mount shift kit for the c4 for now and then buy one for the aod when I convert it. I planned on either doing a dual exhaust with 2 2.5 pipes both going over the axle side by side on the passenger side or running both pipes out of the headers into a 3-4" pipe squishing it into an oval and going over the axle for a single outlet (kinda like an f-body). If I run a 3" I won't squish the pipe, but have a dump right after the headers if I ever open it up and have a nice very mild muffler for driving through town. Let me know what you guys think of the brakes and exhaust. Also, what intakes fit without interference with the hood? I am putting a quickfuel 600 vacuum secondary on it, so a holley 4 barrel. Thanks in advance.
from Northeast Pennsylvania Keep in mind that a header built for a Boss 302 was built to fit the Cleveland heads that the Boss used
I checked it out, it is just a hipo 289 header, which i am sure could be ported. Do you guys think the tri-y headers will work? 1.5 inch primaries and 2 inch collectors.
If you are going to use headers & you are pulling the mtr for a rebuild anyway,DO YOURSELF A FAVOR,& cut the towers.I`m sure someone makes the plates & it is not that hard to do,if for no other reason than changing plugs,these engine bays are tight.
Well I am concerned with structural rigidity of cutting the towers. The welding I don't have a problem with. how many people do that and are there any negative side effects? I read somewhere that the 6901 headers are actually pretty easy on spark plug changes. you are talking to a guy that had to crawl under the car to change a spark plug on a 65 Falcon with a spark plug socket and box wrench because nothing else would fit and the headers were a bad kind of custom.
So guys how about those 6901 headers? I also saw some headman headers, it seems like the headers are pretty much the same part numbers as a 65 mustang. I am looking for good clearance around the shock towers. Any suggestions on that?
i had the 6901s on 2 different mavericks. they hang pretty low under the car and on one of the cars they hit the pitman arm and limit the left had turn radius. as best as i can tell the manufacturing tolerances on the headers are why one set hit on one car and a different set didnt hit on the other car. ive had the headman headers and replaced them with the hooker 6901s. the headmans are a smaller tube size. they use an oval port that didnt perfectly seal the header gaskets to head. they use thinner gauge tubing and thinner flange at the head. ive installed the thorley shorty headers. they have their out lets at a bad angle. the passenger side points towards the floor pan, its not a big deal but could have pointed down a little more to have a straight pipe coming off of it. the drivers side is bad. it dumps over the pitman arm. at full left turn the pitman arm block half of the collector outlet and is only about 1.5" below the collector. it requires a skilled exhaust shop to make the really tight and restrictive bend to clear the pitman arm. then getting around the bell housing is tricky. i plan on taking the hooker headers that hit the pitman arm on my car and changing them into try y headers. this will give me my full left turn ability back and get me at least 2"s of ground clearance.
Not sure if anyone has tried these, but they look promising, patriot h8433. I have never heard of them or used them.
no im talking about making my own. ill take the hooker 6901s and cut the bottom half of the tubes off. then put 2 into 1 collectors on them then run the 2 tubes down into another 2 into one collector. mustang headers dont fit mavericks well. the shape of the bottom half of the firewall is different and usually the mustang headers will hit it.
Well it sound like I should be modifying a pair like you. Modifying the bottom of a header is way better than making new tubes. I wish they made a well fitting set of shortys or long tubes. On another note, has anyone put an LS based motor in their maverick without modifying the shock towers?
I started with 6901 hookers, when I built my 306 I switched to headman 88300 coated headers. The headman's fit perfect in my car, clears everything by a mile... My Sprint will be getting either headman shorty's or cast original manafolds...
