My 1972 Comet GT Clone

I don't have that.

 

Nope, neither do I.

 

Ummm, how much space do you guys have??

What heads are you guys using??

I'm guessing my Pro Comps are slightly wider at the ports than the average heads...

With the engine still on the hook the driver side fell in, even had spark plugs in place... The right one as a real fight, had to pull engine frame mount and drop steering... Still with the engine raised I couldn't get it set back down till I trimmed the rearward upper control arm bolt(yeah that was real fun), there is plenty of space once engine is setting on the mounts... I suppose all that Hell was due to the insufficient clearance over on the driver side...

 

I'm using E7TE heads.

 

I have a 302 and had to do that.. I used a sawzaw and it took about 15 seconds.. But I wasn't concerned about messing up any paint or making mince of anything. I trimmed the idler bolts while I was at it. They are fairly long.
Like I mentioned, we have different setups so I'm just weighing in on simularieties of the pangs..

 

I don't know how much clearance I have without going out to the garage and looking.

I have Racing Head Service Pro Action 180 cc Cast Iron Heads

 

LOL, you won't "pry" a dimple into the Thorleys, they are thick... Anyway after trying to gain some space by moving engine over a bit, I wound up pulling the header(three times no less), massaging it lightly with the BFH and also grinding on the steering box... In the end I have maybe 1/8" clearance I hope it's enough...

 

I was being sarcastic with the word "gently" lol.. Cautious rather.. I have enough clearance that the wrap I put on the tubes barely touches and shows signs of slight wearing. That's just from the few times I have run the engine at idle. I am sure it will touch every so often. I hope to feel it someday Unless I get to change it to a MII before.

 

More bovine effluent...

Found ear on trans won't allow the exhaust to swing far enough to allow the car to steer(engine block plate will need trimmed as well)... No I guess it's not the end of the earth but would have been nice to know about this before installing engine...

 

now that you mention it i remember having the trim the engine block plate..i think your exhaust should be able to clear that ear though..take a deep breathe and have another look at it, or is the exhaust already made

 

We didn't use the supplied collectors, my exhaust guy bent some up, that gave more clearance.

 

Yeah I suspect that's what will happen with mine as well...

I wanted to temporarily route the exhaust away from P/S boot so I can run it enough to check out the brakes, torque converter, tweak carb, etc... Unless I cut that ear(which serves no useful purpose that I see), I'm not going to be able to steer it to the right... The flange is thick and not beveled inside so there is very little adjustment to be had, even if it were I don't see any way to angle it far enough away from the Pittman arm without cutting...

 

holy crap.. that looks tight. Is that 14 guage pipe?

I'm guessing you'll probably need to do a few things to achieve proper clearance here.

1. Break the angle coming off the header collector about 5 degrees or so away from the pitman. Or better yet.. run a slight mandrel bend right off that collector to achieve the same thing without having to break the angle with a side-cocked straightpipe. Wouldn't take much radius and flow will be interupted to a lessor degree too.

2. Clearance both the pitman AND the bellhousing/engine plate. Obviously it would be better to grind more off the bellhousing than the pitman arm, so bias it in that manner if at all possible.

3. Slight additional dimpling of that pipe for extra pitman clearance and to avoid excessive amounts of bellhousing/engine plate notching.

Doing a bit of "cumulative clearancing" on everything mentioned above should easily allow sufficient clearance without having to really affect any one component too much. Also might be best to run a small amount of heatshield material in that tight area too since it'll protect the pitmans joint/dust boot and ultimately keep from cooking the grease out.

 

I thought these headers were supposed to fit.

 

It's 14 ga, I'm hoping to get enough clearance without cutting on the pittman arm...

Yeah I think I heard that somewhere as well...

To be fair if these headers were designed around a trans without that finger sticking out of the bell I could see how this issue would be over looked, but not the block plate... Course they could vary as well, but all these parts are stock orig...

It's kinda disheartening after I bought a cheap set of headers for a 5.0 Stang that fit my T-Bird next to prefect...