Spitfire vs. Block Huggers for SBM in an early A

[halfafish]

Howdy, all! I'm interested in opinions and experience with some headers. I'm going to put a 318 from a 74 Dart into my 64 Valiant. Quite some time ago a member had a set of real Spitfire headers for this application, but they sold to someone else. Fast forward to today, and it turns out the Spitfires did not sell and are available. However, in the meantime I got a set of block hugger headers for this combo, they are squirreled away in Parts Mountain. They look like these.

The Spitfires look like this.

This will be just a fun street car, the 318 is planned for a set of standard Speedmaster heads, LD340 intake, SFT cam at about 224* @.050 with .470 lift, HEI ignition, about 10:1 compression on a stock bottom end.

Does anyone have experience with either of these headers, and if so what are the pro's/con's to them? I'm guessing the rest of the exhaust will be 2.5" duals out the back.

 

[RustyRatRod]

Those block huggers will fit IF you relocate and reshape the #1 tube and tie it into the base of the #3 tube and make it so that it does not "stick out" past the #3 tube from the side, if that makes sense. I cannot ever remember the member who did it, but he did a nice job and even had it recoated. It looked nice.

 

[Commando66]

Buy the Spitfire headers and be done. Avoid the nonsense of modifying the stainless block huggers. The initial price difference is going to be be in negative territory really fast if you have someone else modify them to fit.

 

[Professor Fate]

I think this is the one:

63 dart v8 swap

I think either one is going to be a pain to hook exhaust up to.

 

[Super-Cuda]

Here's another option for you.

DD9 Header Set, Small Block Chrysler Engines


Specifically designed for the engine application you are using.

I don't know anything about the quality of these headers. Maybe others can chime in on how good they are,

 

[grimreaper]

I have the spitfires on one of my cars. They work well. I would go with those if they are available and not priced to set you into the national debt range. All they require is to attach flanges.

 

[62 dodge lancer 340]

I have these headers on my 1962 dodge lancer with a 340 engine and they worked fine, i had them ceramic coated

 

[RustyRatRod]

I think this is the one:
View attachment 1716049426
63 dart v8 swap

I think either one is going to be a pain to hook exhaust up to.

Yeah that's it! I thought it was a nice job and not "nonsense", but to each his own.

 

[junkyardhero]

for that set up you're not going to see massive gains between a shorty header and a 340 manifold. and honestly, a 360 or magnum manifold might be damn close as well.

here's a thread from last month on the topic: Shorty Headers

basically, it comes down to if you're going for headers, buy the expensive ones or suffer the consequences of fighting with the install. even more so with 4spd application.