tti or schumacher headers ? opinions plzz

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sabre67

sabre67

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Building a 383 for my 71 duster to be street driven,just looking for opinions on header choice. tti or schumacher your opinions would be greatly appreciated .thanks sabre67
 
Tell us about your engine build and goals.
 
1966 383 325-350 hp 727,8 3/4 3:23 gear in 71 duster mostly highway cruizing,,car shows and occasional foot into it blasts.sway bars and good shocks, thats about it thanks oh ya 4 wheel discs
 
sabre67 said:
1966 383 325-350 hp 727,8 3/4 3:23 gear in 71 duster mostly highway cruizing,,car shows and occasional foot into it blasts.sway bars and good shocks, thats about it thanks oh ya 4 wheel discs
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I would go with Schumachers then or even the TTI shorties........
 
Schumacher's are rated up to 500 (or 550, can't remember exactly) HP.

They're cheaper as well, should be a good route, unless you plan on going higher than 500. If you have the money to throw, you can always go tti, but I believe you may need a slight modification to fit them.
 
Schumachers all day. You can use them with PS, don't capture the starter, no banging on the tubes to make them fit, etc. Well worth the price to avoid all the aggravation you can read about on this site about making big block headers fit into an A Body. Get the headpipes, too, and then the JEGS 2 1/2" A Body exhaust system and mufflers and you're done.
 
Thanks for all the replies a great help,I think ill go the Schumacher route thanks sabre67
 
First off,I know shu's got a lot of fans. But when I first got a good look at em,I'am thinking "what the hell!" Tri-y's made purely to get the gas out. Come on now,1 and 7,2 and 8 paired up after a long primary tubes.3 and 5,4 and 6 paired up almost at the port. And all pairs firing 180° apart. Thats like having a manifold thats a tunnel ram for 4 cylinders and a low rising duel plane for the other four. Why? It just upsets my sensibilities. I'am done. LOL.
 
get full length header or just run manifolds. better yet, save your money and run manifolds.
 
hangn0ut said:
First off,I know shu's got a lot of fans. But when I first got a good look at em,I'am thinking "what the hell!" Tri-y's made purely to get the gas out. Come on now,1 and 7,2 and 8 paired up after a long primary tubes.3 and 5,4 and 6 paired up almost at the port. And all pairs firing 180° apart. Thats like having a manifold thats a tunnel ram for 4 cylinders and a low rising duel plane for the other four. Why? It just upsets my sensibilities. I'am done. LOL.
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Unequal length headers are still usually better flowing than factory cast iron. You don't get the scavenging advantage that you get with long equal tube headers, but they are a good compromise.

With that said, every big block A-body I have built used B-body HP manifolds with modified TTI head pipes (they claim they will not come close to fitting, but they are wrong. I would really like them to sell me unwelded head pipes). There are things that much be done to fit manifolds on an RB, they fit better with a B block. BUT, by the time you pay the going rate for manifolds and head pipes you're getting close enough to the price of headers to make them a consideration...
 
For your stated usage; Just getting the exhaust out is probably more important than how long the tubes are or how many bends there are, etc. So I vote shorties.
Hey; it's a 383. It already has a strong bottom end, thanks in part to it's stroke and it sounds like you won't need a particularly strong midrange, and to be effective at the top, the long tubes are already loosing steam.
IIRC the 383's were down-RATED some 35 hp when they dropped them into the A's, with the factory C.I. logs; So you might wanna leave those for the rest-O guys. Surely the shorties can better that,especially for your intended usage.
 
383 B block, I'd go Schumachers "Tri-Y's" all day long............. -They fit well in the A bodies without ANY fuss...... And for what I know of them STAY.. I've had and heard others with issues of the rest coming loose and always needing a header gasket..... (I don't understand why if torqued right) but, those I know with Schumachers Tri-Y's have not had any trouble with 'em!

The thing with Schumachers Tri-Y's that I don't understand is why they're rated to 500 (550) HP....... Just not big enough or what?
 
67 Power Wagon said:
383 B block, I'd go Schumachers "Tri-Y's" all day long............. -They fit well in the A bodies without ANY fuss...... And for what I know of them STAY.. I've had and heard others with issues of the rest coming loose and always needing a header gasket..... (I don't understand why if torqued right) but, those I know with Schumachers Tri-Y's have not had any trouble with 'em!

The thing with Schumachers Tri-Y's that I don't understand is why they're rated to 500 (550) HP....... Just not big enough or what?
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I`d think you could buy headers for a 383 - 68 barracuda and they would fit perfect, or near so. w/ a 383 u could get by w/ 1 3/4" pri tubes for what you dscribed try calling jegs, a lot cheaper than tti , I`d think ?????????
 
One thing I have noticed about headers from a "been buying them for 35 years
perspective" is the skill of the workers putting them together has dropped considerably.
The older headers I bought made by hooker and hedman back in the late 70s or early 80s
have beautiful smooth bends where the pipe remains mostly round not flattened out or distorted. They also have no spliced together tubes. It is very apparent the welds we're done by profesionals and a working quality control program. Perhaps they used robots?
Can't say the same for the newer sets I have.
Comparing my old 99.00 Hedmans to the 1000.00 tti's and it is clear we are paying top dollar for a trainee level tube benders and welding skills these days.
My old hookers are a work of art excellent construction and the best welds but of course they are fenderwell application so they don't really fit into this discussion.
The new brands are expensive and they work but don't expect them to be like they used to be.
Just like everything else I suppose. Just an observation.
 
Well it's not like if you exceed the "power rating" of a header, that your engine will hit a wall!
Just like intakes; which can be tuned for an optimum operating rpm, but they still get air into the cylinders at idle, and continue to do so at well past their tuned range.
 
I like the Schumachers because:
- Clearance to body and other stuff
- Clearance to ground (supposedly better)
- The tri-Y design tends to put out better mid range torque and HP; how much that is true is pretty case dependent, however. For drag racing 4-1 would be better; for street, I'd prefer tri-y.

But they sure are pricey....not for the 'faint of budget' LOL

As for the HP difference....stock manifolds are going to cost you a very noticeable HP drop; been there, done that.
 
I would like to see headers built following the design of the max wedge manifolds. Tri-y design,reasonable lenghts-check. Spark plug access-check. Ground clearance-check. Ease of installation-check. Power steering even-check. Power brakes? No. Blower motor? No. Would people buy em?
 
Schumachers is my choice, Had them on my Scamp for 7 years. Have around 70 runs down the track, still running 11.50s. No issues with power. Sure I may be able to go fast with TTIs, but these fit great.
 
weren't the low hp numbers on the early style restrictive exhaust manifolds?
were the later ones better flowing...i'm not a fan of headers on a street car.
 
ir3333 said:
weren't the low hp numbers on the early style restrictive exhaust manifolds?
were the later ones better flowing...i'm not a fan of headers on a street car.
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The A-body manifolds had a restriction on the left side. They were ok. The manifolds that I run are the B-body HPs. They flow better and are less expensive than original A-body manifolds, but still not cheap.
 
67 Power Wagon said:
383 B block, I'd go Schumachers "Tri-Y's" all day long............. -They fit well in the A bodies without ANY fuss...... And for what I know of them STAY.. I've had and heard others with issues of the rest coming loose and always needing a header gasket..... (I don't understand why if torqued right) but, those I know with Schumachers Tri-Y's have not had any trouble with 'em!

The thing with Schumachers Tri-Y's that I don't understand is why they're rated to 500 (550) HP....... Just not big enough or what?
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I always use stage 8 header bolts. They cant' loosen.

And yes, just way too small. 500hp is even pushing it. They are better then manifolds but essentially sized for a small block. I noticed a big difference going to TTI's and I doubt I even make 500hp at the crank. In their own 1/4 mile testing they admit their headers are nearly a 1/2 second slower.
 
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