I have an 84 351w that i would like to get some shorty headers for. some makers say their headers are good for my year while some start a couple years later.
I was looking at some shorty summit truck headers, but they say it only works on 86 to 95 5.8L.
so are all windsor heads the same?
did you guys at least gain 1mpg from a header swap?

 

I have wondered the same thing. The heads are the same, but the difference is the later years are fuel injected. So you will have oxygen sensor holes to plug. And you will also probably need to get a later model y-pipe. Will all this fit the earlier set-up? I don't know. The trucks are all basically the same, but you never know about a little bracket or something being different and getting in the way. I put Flowtech full length headers on mine. They fit ok in the engine compartment, and I haven't had any leaking problems, even though they are the cheapies. The only problem I had was the drivers side collector rubbed the tranny oil pan, and the pasenger side collector outlet lined right up in the middle of the tranny crossmember. I bolted them to the engine, and then took a long steel bar, put it up in the collector, and bent the headers down a little to fit. It all works ok.

Oh, and I made a heat shroud out of aluminum flashing to wrap around one of the header pipes, and hook to the aircleaner snorkel hose, so it will run good in the winter.

 

i have an o2 sensor on the rear of pass manifold

 

well I wrote to summits tech support and got this:
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Response (Kip) - 10/06/2003 09:36 AM
Unfortunately, we do not have any shorty headers for that application. The Summit ones will not fit because of an exhaust design change from the earlier model trucks.

Thanks,
Kip

Auto-Response - 10/04/2003 10:38 AM
Technical Support


Customer (michael beca) - 10/04/2003 10:38 AM
I have an 1984 f-250 with a 351w/5.8L engine. I was looking at the summit truck header (SUM-G9036) when i saw that they only fit on 86 to 95 trucks. why cant they fit on an 84, i have an o2 sensor in the passenger manifold and a heat valve on the drivers manifold that i can take off if needed.
you have any other shorty headers that fit my 84?

anyone know of some shorties that will fit and be semi cheap?

 

well after more talk with the summit guy, the main reason it wont fit is based on how the stock exhaust is designed. longtubes fit my year because you have to make your own exhaust system behind them, the shorties wont bolt up to the stock system.

 

buy a stock y-pipe for say, an 88, and have the rest custom bent.

 

Just went through the same problem with my 86 f150 5.0 efi
Had trouble finding shorty headers that were specificaly designed for my application I wound up with the Bassani equal length headers for an 87 - 90 F150 My stock application also had the o2 sensor in the right exhaust manifold but a trip to napa and much searching we found a y pipe catalytic converter application that had the 02 sensor in the Y pipe itself but you had to purchace the cat also but it comes in two pieces so you can use the high flow type cat if you desire. So it can be done if you do the leg work.
By the way I just did a complete rebuild of my 302 EFI
.270 lift cam, KB pistons,Molly rings, Cloyes double roller timing set
Heads decked and ported and polished, block punched 0.040. Scat stroker crank all balanced.new Ford racing fuel injectors new manly stainless valves,springs rotators and keepers, Melling high volume oil pump, moroso pan ,stock lower and upper intake, jacobs power team ignition and new B&M trick shift C6 and a 3 inch cat back single to dual exhaust made by Gibson.... It was well worth the effort although it took over three months in the garage to finish....forgive my rambling that F 150 now is able to keep up with Mustangs in the same engine class