I'd love to ceramic coat mine, but I think I dropped enough coin in the old girl for a while. Looks like they won't be that bad to pull in the future if a guy changes his mind. I did my last set with bbq paint and they lasted really, really well. I plan to take pics of the whole process. If I can figure out how to post them I will.
i recieved my new crites headers..I notiched my shock towers already..where do I notch for the metal that they shipped in box??
I haven't started yet, however I believe it the center rib in the shock tower. There are alot of guys who have done this so I am sure someone can help you out.
It looks to me like you fit the fiberglass template over the rib to make an outline of where to cut, and then weld in the plate they give you...
Those pictures of the headers show me a couple of things. First they don't make sure the flanges line up. Second They don't make equal length headers. and last is that the headers are probably to large to be good extractors for the exhaust. I will make my own equal length, long tube, headers to match the requirements of my engine.
If you have the tooling to make your own, go for it. I run the crites headers, they fit okay, and I didn't need to spend countless hours fabbing them. They make tons of hp on my 408w, and in no way is a 1 3/4" tube too large. If they made 2" headers for this swap that would be the ideal header. Let us know how yours turn out and I will see if I can get a picture posted somewhere of mine in my car.
Well, I disagree. It doesn't take long to make a set of equal length headers - I have done it a few times and if you know what you are doing you can turn them out in about the same time it takes to replace your rear end. It takes a welder and some pre-formed tubing bends and collectors and flanges. I do use a flange blank and some soft wire to adjust the bends so it all comes out equal length and fitting properly. There are two philosophies on exhaust systems. One is based on back pressure and that says the less pressure the better. The other says if you use the velocity of the exhaust gasses you can get better flow than you get with less pressure. This requires equal length tubes to be able to tune the exhaust to the engine. You can't mass produce this kind of exhaust because there are so many variations in engines. They can make equal length headers though but most header makers don't want to go to the trouble. The thing is that if the tubes are not equal length then the engine can never be tuned so that all the cylinders are making optimum HP. So they make BIG tube headers that just reduce back pressure to a minimum rather than tubes of the correct size to keep the velocity up to the point where it can add to the intake charge. If reduced pack pressure was so important you could make more power with no exhaust - and THAT DOES NOT work. I can go into the theory and practical applications but no argument will convince anyone who has their mind made up. I will just say that I agree to disagree.
With this application and only notching the shock towers the header need to have individual tubes in order to install them. They are actually not too bad to get in and bolt up but I don't know how you would do it without notching the towers.
As far as the whole issue on which header is better......I totally agree that equal length tubes, tuned for your engine is the only way to go. I went with the easy way out because I have no idea where to started to build a set and didn't have 1200 bucks(that's what they want in Edmonton to make a set) to blow on them. I wish I could. Either way a low to mid 11 second ride is still a blast and I probably wouldn't notice the 10 hp you would pick up.
The headers look nice...............for a street header. Yes I agree and as has been said before, you make the headers to match the motor/heads/cam/car/intake/carb....................etc. The Crites headers look OK, and for a motor that is driven on the street and an occasional trip down the 1320 they will be fine. For a race only motor, well they leave a lot to be desired. Here are some pictures of the Dawson headers made for the Maverick I have, I am not sure what the length of each pipe is, but they are 1-3/4" OD and do come apart so they can be taken off. These were also made for the TFS-R heads which have a higher port than stock/normal. The car with a motor that is 4 seasons old will do 10.5's with the throttle stop and dip into the 9's without................and this is through the race mufflers.
Crites headers! Just orderd mine today. they said I purchased the last set til spring...wow that was close. now the 302 comes out and the work begins. 351w install after all the work should be ready by feb-march. what have you guys been doing to relocate the oil filter?
I will try get a pic of the relocation kit I used. It's really nice aluminum stuff with steel braided hoses. For the life of me I can't remember the brand.
I haven't installed my headers yet but I got these in the photos. The filter adapter is from Canton and the filter housing is from Perma Cool. The adapter has 1/2" NPT ports and can be mounted in any position. The filter housing has the same ports on either side and 2 plugs to cork off the ones you don't need. When I figure out where to put the housing I was gonna get some JIC fittings and have good hoses made.
I saw your question earlier, and was going to respond.................you have exactly what I have. The frame mount has been on the car forever and I just added the Canton block adapter when I dyno'd the motor. The braided line I have is HiTemp hydraulic hose with ported fittings for a little better flow especially for the pre-oiler.