I've noticed some stainless shorty headers for 302/351W's lately for less than $100 to the door. Thick flange, thick tubes, 1 5/8" diameter tubes. 3" outlet. Makes you wonder why they're so cheap...

 

I saw a set while looking for my 460 not long ago, but I want another style.


http://www.ebay.com/itm/Small-Block-Ford-289-302-351W-Tight-Fit-Stainless-Steel-Hugger-Headers-SBF-NEW-/380981028519?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item58b43d26a7&vxp=mtr
These are $169 delivered, with all the bolts and gaskets.

 

I've been looking at Those ebay headers for a long time.

It seems too good to be true.

Have any of you actually used them? I guess I'm afraid they won't fit right or they'll leak.

Do you think they are just as well made as the summit house brands?

I'd love to get stainless simply because they look awesome.

 

Hate to be the bearer of bad news but they are headers, headers are known to leak.


That is a big reason why any header I get I was going to chop off the flange and weld on one of flowmasters ball flange kits. The ball flange is just like what the factory use on exhaust now a days and they seal a hell of a lot better than a flat mating surface with a paper gasket between.


My problem though is finding headers that will work. I don't want full tube headers as they hang below the cross member but there is none listed for these trucks in midlength or shorty style. Now I can find quite a few mustang shorty headers that the photo appears more like a midlength than a shorty blockhugger style header. But now I cant justify spending $200 on a pair of these shorty headers then they don't fit the truck.

 

Stainless is nice, though it does discolor.
Shiney helps keep the heat inside. The same reason headers were first chromed.

Ceramic coatings are even better for heat, but an added cost.

Header paint is useless now.
Back in the '70's &'80's there was a product called KalGuard that stuck well and didn't burn off if you did the prep and baked it in the oven to cure it.

I would buy a set of the 460 headers but they would point right at my crossmember.
Don't know what the situation is with your F1

 

I was going to go the powder coat route. The ones I was looking at are painted black but the black is intended to burn off its just to keep them from rusting in storage. I planned on blasting that off welding two stainless steel bolts to the #1 primary tube for mounting a home fashioned hot air heat riser for the hot air hose to hook to. Then I was going to take and have it powder coated with one of eastwoods 1200* exhaust powder coat. They have a few different colors and I talked with them about doing it on the exhaust manifolds on my 292 to keep them looking like cast iron. They said the worse that would happen if the powdercoating was done right is that the color will discolor slightly with heat over time but it should not burn off or flake off.

 

All the powder coats I've seen are plastic based (in order to get the static charge working)
I've no experience with Eastwood.

Ceramics like Calico and JetHot are a whole different deal.

Without the coating on the INSIDE of the pipe its kinda useless as a heat barrier.

 

I have experience with Eastwood for their paints. Its expensive but the paint seems good though. When I had my front end apart for a month and a half on my '78 Mercury I stripped everything I could to bare metal prepped it primed it and sprayed it via rattlecans using Eastwood paints. That was back at the beginning of 2012. It still looks good but the black paint I put on my lower right control arm flaked off for some reason but the bare steel silver I painted it with first is still on so I think I might have got some oil on it from my hand that caused that. Everything else still looks like the day I painted it even shiny still.


That is why I am willing to give their high temp exhaust powdercoating a try. If it doesn't work out I can always unbolt the headers and have them done a different way. I just don't want paint as I painted the ones on my '63 with hitemp engine paint that was in the gold can rated to 1500 degrees and that white paint did stay on but it turned chalky and would leave a white chalk film on your hand. So I want to try something different for my truck if it works out great then I will use it on my '63s headers as that car is still apart.


For me its not so much as a heat barrier as I am wanting to keep it from rusting. Then again headers do get a lot hotter than exhaust manifolds so I might look into seeing if I can get someone to do one of those internal coatings to keep most of the heat inside the exhaust system then coat it on the outside.

 

I guess my question is: are the ebay stainless a better buy than the flow tech painted?

Are they any more apt to leak?

Price is similar.

 

Its hard to say, they might be better than flow tech headers as far as sealing or they could be worse. Its really gamble when coming to it, that's why I really planned on modifying mine to a ball flange cause those are superior for sealing. We use them all the time at work when we do long term custom builds. We dropped a LT1 out of a late '90s Impala into a '68 C10 Chevrolet stepside truck and the headers were built with the ball flange but if they don't have them we usually swap to them.


Only thing I can say is do you want to take a risk on it. They might be great I cant say.

 

Thanks for the responses. You are right. It's a risk either way. I don't have the coin to get the high dollar options.

I'll see if I can research it some more. I'm leaning to ebay right now. But the previous poster who had a good experience with flow tech's gives me pause

 

Well last time I looked Flow Tech was under the Holley brand. So they are a name brand.


I don't think I seen them listed for any of my applications. The ones I did how ever see Headman Headers for $190, but they are listed for 4.2 and 5.0L engines but I narrowed it down to '82 Mustang when I did my search. That's not a bad price for street headers they are shorty but not block huggers though. Problem is though I haven't found anyone using them on anything other than a Mustang. So I am reluctant to pull the trigger on purchasing them.


So far personally the only headers I have ever bought brand wise was blackjacks. They were NOS ones for my '63 that was new in the box but they were from the '70s. At the time I couldn't find any full tube headers so this was my only option but they never gave me a trouble.

 

As for the eBay headers. I researched it and most everyone who used them said they fit good and were good quality. But, that's just internet talk. So who really knows. The stainless sure is thick on those eBay headers. So I suspect they would be just fine. When my long tube hookers are junk that's what I'm going to.

 

As for painting headers I have had great luck using wood burning stove paint. Of course you have to make sure all other paint is removed and that headers are clean...absolutely no oils on headers. This includes touching them with your hands...must be oil free. I have had headers not rust for years this way....just a thought for those of you wanting to paint

 

iu have a set of flowtech shorty oem fit headers on my f150 they fit great an d sound amazing but i had i bit of an issue with alignment with the heads but thats a small detail summit racing sells em for a descent price but i would bye a roll of header wrap with em lol they come pretty close to plug wires and it doesn't take much to burn the paint off of them. and i didn't have to change anyother exhaust tubing but i eventually did go to true duel lol heres a link
http://www.summitracing.com/int/part...view/make/ford
or the part number is # 91628FLT
hope that helps