Which exhaust manifolds for 5.0 HO/T5 combo?

Putting a 5.0 HO/T5 combo into a 72, there are a million questions and very few answers out there as to stock or semi-stock exhaust manifolds. I'm building this car for my brother for his 60th birthday, (he has no idea), but he's not terribly mechanically inclined, and building reliability into it is a big priority. I know a lot of guys are going to pile onto me for giving up horsepower not going to headers, but all the headaches with engine compartment and ground clearance really have me turned off to headers. I really would prefer to use good ol plain jane cast exhaust manifolds if I can help it. They bolt on. They stay on. They don't leak, eat gaskets, drag on speed bumps, incinerate your hydraulic clutch lines and power steering lines, etc, etc. What ford part #'s and or donor cars are Mav friendly as far as 302 exhaust manifolds? I looked hard at the Scott Drake HiPo manifolds, but the interweb seems to say they won't work. Suggestions?

 

Exhaust manifolds are Mav/Comet specific.
I have a used pair if you are interested.

 

Well, I guess I'm interested. I'm up in Washington State, I hope you don't live in Florida. The shipping would be murder.

 

While manifolds may well be specific, there are no doubt others that fit, just not with original exhaust pipe that will have to be made anyway... I'm fairly sure I've heard the Hi-Po manifolds can be used, but I'd look into using 351 manifolds for this project...

 

I’m just north of Spokane.

 

I heard manifold from a van will also fit. Forgot what year van...wanna say around 76 or 78

 

I really like the sound of 351 manifolds. I wondered whether they are different or flow better than 302's. I really need a peek at which direction the stock Maverick manifold outlets are pointing so I could kinda prowl the junkyard for 351's of the same basic shape. The Scott Drake HiPo's dump out at something like a 45 degree angle underneath the last port. Is that what stock mav manifolds do?

 

Oops, I'm wrong AND ignorant looks like they point down much less than 45 degrees.

 

The drivers side is pretty close to the same angle. The passenger side angles down a bit more than the Maverick manifold.

 

Not the best picture, but you can see that the shape is close to the hi-po manifolds.

 

Wow! It really does look ALOT like the HiPo manifolds. Are you certain those are mav original manifolds? Is it possible their old HiPo's? If they came off your car, how hard did the stock exhaust have to turn downward to clear the firewalls? Was the first bend right behind the manifolds? I'm bolting in my 5.0 tomorrow morning, and I'm wildly curious to see how far it is from the firewall. That's probably going to determine everything. It has stock HO headers from a 91 T-bird on it now, and I'm hoping where it lands is just right, because unlike mustang stock HO headers, these dump straight down, and there's a chance they may line up to miss all the steering junk, and I could just have a pipe bent to turn a real lazy 90 degrees and shoot under the car and I'm off and running. I'll know by noon tomorrow.

 

The issue you will probably have with the T-bird manifolds is width. The bay in the Maverick is very narrow so the manifolds need to be in tight to the engine.

Where in Washington are you? I'm in Kennewick.

 

If the T bird manifolds dont fit you should get the ones that Maverocket has which are what came on V8 Mavs and be done with it. You can spend hours in a junk yard looking and Hi Po manifolds are not going to give you enough gain in HP that you would even notice and would be more expensive

 

I don't think the 351 manifolds will sound any different, but opening for exhaust pipe is approx ½" larger than older 302 manifolds... No doubt will gain some flow... I dunno about SN95 HO 5.0 T-Bird manifolds(headers?), but no 5.0 Stang header I know of fits the Mav engine bay... Std 5.0 Fox T-Bird exhaust manifolds were asthmatic at best(none of those ever got a HO)...

Lemme check, maybe I have something...

 

Nope, no 351 manifolds.

Here's my Comet left(top pic) and one for 302 from a '69 something(May '69 casting)



Mate to the above left manifold is almost same as Comet, angle may be slightly different...

Note Comet manifold is on bottom...