Exhaust manifolds vs. headers

[LegalRevs]

Hello, I'm putting a 428 Cobra Jet in my 1970. Has anyone had good or bad experience with a particular brand of headers in case I go with headers?

[cstoyer]

LegalRevs

2WD or 4WD?
Manual or Automatic?

These two items will determine a lot when it comes to fitment. The next question is how much you are willing to do to install them? Some long tube headers will have you jacking the motor up to install them, on a 4x4. Another issue is that your starter may be trapped in the bell housing after they are installed, meaning you have to losing the header to get the starter out. Plus, you will run the chance of heat soaking with some long tube headers, so a mini starter or starter blanket will be needed. Oh, and sway bars on some 2WD are issues for long tubes. You have to check with each manufacturer as all of the long tube headers are different and they will tell you what fits and what dose not. The easiest to install are the Sanderson or JBA shorties. The hardest are long tubes, obviously but some say they have had great results with long tubes. Either way you will need to modify the rest of the exhaust to mate up with whatever style header you choose. Nobody, that I know of has had an issue with shorties.

cstoyer

[LegalRevs]

Thanks, I have a 2wd with c-6 automatic.

[DuckRyder]

Cobra Jet heads could be an issue with off the shelf headers... Need to research location of ports relative to D2 or C8AE-H heads and if the heads have all 8 vertical holes, in the correct location.

Hooker fit well, but don’t think they would with different port location heads.

FPA and Stans and Sanderson I believe will make to fit.

[cstoyer]

FPA and Stans and Sanderson I believe will make to fit.

I have a set of Stans Tri Y Headers on my FE and the flange has the Cobra Jet Pattern.

[Johnnewc]

I would go with the stock manifolds. I have had headers on my truck I use as a daily driver. My main issue I had was the truck always had a dead spot. Meaning at acceleration I would lose a small noticeable amount of power at about the 30 mph mark. It did this all the time no matter how hard I hit the gas pedal. It just became rather annoying as a daily driver. I tried different adjustments to the carburetor and points and nothing seemed to help. I switched back to stock manifolds and I didn't notice much difference in power and it still sounded great. Dad has been building choppers for years and has had this same issue with headers on motorcycle engines too. He warned me before I put them on that there would be a dead spot and guess what he was right. Just my personal experience.

[james d oberg]

i have a pair of super comp headers on a 66 and they have the right port location. o/w you have to slot the holes on the headers to move the header up or down to fit the exhaust port on your cj heads. only you can determine if it is worth the effort. maximum performance and starter difficulty may require you to buy a mini-starter. there is a guy in colorado that makes a mini-starter for an FE that will help. i can't remember his name now but the FE forum will provide the information. his starters are excellent and i have had good luck with the 1 I have.

jim

[DuckRyder]

RE: exhaust manifolds on FE.

Stock truck manifolds are horrible, I don’t think any of the decent manifolds will fit without substantial modifications, and even those aren’t really “decent”.

For performance on a FE truck - headers and exhaust is step 1...

RobbMc is the starter guy.

https://www.robbmcperformance.com/produ ... _home.html