I was thinking about my 302 build in progress, and noticed that the support piece for the upper manifold that connects to the passenger side exhaust manifold would not fit directly on the flange of my aftermarket headers.

To clarify, the support in question connected to the outside of that massive stock exhaust, but there is only a flange to the new long tubes...no good mounting point.

Is the support bar even necessary? My only concern is that the unbalanced upper manifold could stress and crack or not seal properly causing un-metered air to get in.

Whatcha guys think?

 

just put hedman headers on my 90 f350 4x4 5.8l i noticed the same thing. i dont know if its completely necessary or not but i put a bolt with a stud on the end in that header bolt hole and put the brace back on. its buried so deep under the hood you cant see it anyway. i thought it better to play it safe. good luck on your project.

 

SS carriage bolt with the head chopped off & squared is what I support mine with.

 

I never reinstalled that support on either one of my F150s that I put headers on with both the 5.0 and 5.8 motors and never had a problem.

 

Well I'll add the stud idea to my to-do list, and wont lose and sleep over it until I get to it, just dying to get up and running at this point!

Great information thank you all!

-Glaser67

 

I'll add to what Paul said.
It's been 35,000 miles/5 years without my support bracket and I have had my plenum off 20+ times.

 

While I respect others experiences with running without the support & am quite sure they had no problems doing so, physics remain that the manifold is extremely heavy to one side, unbalanced & held with rather small bolts in aluminum. Ford had a reason for it & personally I'd hate to find out why at a truly inconvenient time.

But sometimes Murphy gets in my passenger seat regardless of what I do...

As always, "Your results may vary".

 

Does anyone here have Hedman Long tube headers? I just purchased them, I'd like to know more about how you finished your exhaust. Please email James.Walper@Libertarian.ca Thanks!

Youtube: Walperstyle

 

I've got Pacesetter longtubes for my 89' 302 4x4. I haven't got the full exhaust on yet, but I'll be having it done like Konanski, his pics are below. I did purchase the Y pipe fitting and magnaflow muffler. I'll be using the 2.5 inch reducers and keep it 2.5 the whole way back. Konanski mentioned he lost some bottom end with the 3 inch single, for my application I'd prefer to keep the what low end the motor will have.


I will be using a 2.5 inch high flow cat, not that I have to, but I think it may be too loud without it and hey, if its a high flow it shouldn't affect performance much and I don't see a good reason not to.