superdart
Shade Tree Tinker Gnome.....
I put my car together using unknown brand long tube headers WAAAAY back when (ok, only about 12 years ago). I bought the car as a roller, and the headers came with it, along with most of the rest of the engine (some assembly required).
There was a ceramic coater in the area so I had them done. They look good, but over time they have taken a beating because they just don't fit very well. The left tubes have taken a beating due to some speed curbs in parking lots, the steering link and idler arm have notched the right side tubes over time. Not to mention the secondary on the right side is bent at a slight downward angle, not making for a pretty pipe routing underneath. Oddly enough they cleared the old power steering gearbox just fine (and of course the manual box that in the car now). Of course there is a bit of a heat soak issue with the starter also.
So, to do it right, I need to run TTIs, or that is what everyone says. I can afford them, but I would rather not drop that coin if I didn't need to.
Then I just read a link on block huggers, which got me thinking maybe I should go this route.
I don't race the car, and in all honesty, it's just a 9:1 360 running a mild hyd cam, with stock valves in a set of 576 heads that have seen just a little cleaning up. Do I really NEED long tubes?
I could go for some huggers, get some good mandrel bends to weld on the collectors and then clean up the freaky pipes from there to the existing mufflers. I know it wouldn't sound as aggressive, but with the Edelbrock RPM mufflers I have on the car (old style pass throughs, NOT the chambers) it will never be a "quiet" car.
Thoughts?
There was a ceramic coater in the area so I had them done. They look good, but over time they have taken a beating because they just don't fit very well. The left tubes have taken a beating due to some speed curbs in parking lots, the steering link and idler arm have notched the right side tubes over time. Not to mention the secondary on the right side is bent at a slight downward angle, not making for a pretty pipe routing underneath. Oddly enough they cleared the old power steering gearbox just fine (and of course the manual box that in the car now). Of course there is a bit of a heat soak issue with the starter also.
So, to do it right, I need to run TTIs, or that is what everyone says. I can afford them, but I would rather not drop that coin if I didn't need to.
Then I just read a link on block huggers, which got me thinking maybe I should go this route.
I don't race the car, and in all honesty, it's just a 9:1 360 running a mild hyd cam, with stock valves in a set of 576 heads that have seen just a little cleaning up. Do I really NEED long tubes?
I could go for some huggers, get some good mandrel bends to weld on the collectors and then clean up the freaky pipes from there to the existing mufflers. I know it wouldn't sound as aggressive, but with the Edelbrock RPM mufflers I have on the car (old style pass throughs, NOT the chambers) it will never be a "quiet" car.
Thoughts?
