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Ah yes, to pull headers off every so often to take'em to the local "memorial / headstone" place, they'd blast them. They'd look so good, then even better with fresh paint, but soon ..... we'd do it again.
If I wrapped them, they'd stay wrapped. We didn't know about wrap then, but there is a local has wrapped headers on a box Chevy, and he spray paints the wrap too. Looks OK.
I put Hedman Hedders on my '72, 79 and my 1976.
These pictures are my '76. If both factory exhaust manifolds were like the left one, bottom I doubt that I would have bought the hedders.
The hedders suck because it has to come off to get the starter off.
I don't paint mine and I would never waste my time wrapping them.
I have no doubt that at some point in time they'll rust out anyway.
I replaced the fenderwell hedders on my '79 I think only once in 200,000+ miles.
Had a local shop quote me $350 to ceramic coat long tube headers and they do them every weekend. Meaning I'm about $550 for ceramic coated headers which is cheaper then the hedman ceramic coated options.
Might just stick with some high temp paint and for what its worth I've got some sandblasting tools I could use in the next year or two if I care to go that route
That’s a pretty good price for ceramic coating, but what’s your time worth seeing as how you’re going to have to pull the things back off, possibly break bolts, and end up with a big hassle on your hands. Pay now or pay more later.
Not trying to second guess you. If you don’t mind the work then maybe saving the cash now is worth it. I’m just old and worn out so I tend to avoid re-dos if I can, even if I have to scrape and scrap to afford it.
I went with Hedman fenderwell exit headers after I discovered my stock manifolds were heavily pitted. Went the easy route and bolted on some glass pack resonators and stainless turn down tips. Exits about a foot in front of the rear cab corner
I went with Hedman fenderwell exit headers after I discovered my stock manifolds were heavily pitted. Went the easy route and bolted on some glass pack resonators and stainless turn down tips. Exits about a foot in front of the rear cab corner
Any chance youve got a photo of it under the truck and a video of how it sounds? This honestly seems like a super easy solution and not bad of an idea
I had Flowmaster Flow FX Turbo mufflers.
I replaced them about 3 months later with Magnaflow Super Turbo mufflers.
The Flow FX were just too loud and raspy for me.
1978 F150 4x4 with two tanks. This is my experience and advice when it comes to exhaust.
Before I repainted my truck in 2016, I rebuilt the top-end of my engine, and I installed a set of Hedman headers (inside the frame). I sandblasted them and used POR15 High Temp Exhaust paint on them before install. I was able to use a large powder-coating oven to bake them as required. After I had the truck running, I drove it, open headers, about five blocks to a muffler shop. Sounded like a NASCAR with that lopey cam at the time. I brought the tips and mufflers with me. They charged around $500 for the pipe and labor, tips out the back under rear bumper.
The headers hung lower than I like. Literally even with my radius arms with a 4" lift. And as you can see, the outlets were staggered. Drove me nuts.
Headers after six months.
Headers after less than three years. Living in CT winters wreak havoc on our trucks. They rusted so bad they were leaking at the collector, not the pipe connection.
The hangers for the tips would break off and I would have to reweld them up one too many times. Until I got sick of it and kept shortening my exhaust and patching the rust holes, I gave up on that exhaust eventually.
I happily went back to manifolds, bought a Walker Y-pipe from manifolds to back of cab. I bought a FlowMX muffler (one in, two out) and reused the old tips and made the rest of what I have now. I am pretty happy with it. No leaks, holding strong, and sounds good. And to agree with Rubi, they can get loud if the right foot gets heavy.
After going from manifolds, to headers, back to manifolds, I had not noticed ANY increase in horsepower or gas mileage. The only thing I did notice was the inside cab noise was quieter with manifolds and the headers radiated heat into the cab in the summer. In my opinion, headers aren't worth it in those trucks unless you are building a race truck. Stick with you manifolds and get a nice MagnaFlow mufflers or 24 inch glasspacks and run the pipes just behind the rear tires. If you do decide to get headers, I have read on numerous forums that the exhaust wrap will hold moisture from the rain, snow, and ever car wash and that causes pipe distortion and rapid rust.
you know I thought I had it all planned out but this seems simple. Might take it a bit further back to in front of the tires. Originally when I bought it the truck had one side exit behind the passenger rear tire and I didn’t mind it.
now I’ve really got some thinking
Only thing about side exhaust ahead of the rear tires is I think of my first PU, it had long had side exits in front of the rear tires, and the aluminum wheels in back were badly spotted, even pitted by corrosion. Some kind of cyclone wheels, and the fronts looked great. I attributed it to side exhaust, but maybe that wasn't the cause? I've considered doing them again but with quieter, real mufflers than those long straight "bullets" as we called them. Might have been Cherry Bombs, were straight glass packs .... I was a bit of a toad maybe .... but In time, I replaced the wheels and exhaust.
My '77 had side exhaust with bright red attention grabbing Cherry Bombs hanging in plain sight under the frame rails, they were near new, the wheels were fine. It was loud, only drive I did like that was from car lot to home and from home to muffler dude. I was considering a disguise.
Those are the headers I bought for mine but they're not installed yet. They do have thick flanges which will help keep them from leaking right away.
The coating they come with is only for rust prevention, it will cook off. I'm going to use high temp exhaust paint on mine.
You're going to get varied opinions on exhaust wrap. On my Harley I won't use the stuff due to the wrap holding moisture and can cause heavy rusting.
Once you wrap them, they are wrapped forever. If you ever try to remove the wrap the headers will look horrible.
On the plus side, the wrap will keep under hood temps down and if wrapped correctly it does look good.
If I were going to wrap headers, these cheap summit headers would be a good candidate for that. I would never wrap a more expensive set that's been ceramicoated.
Its been a week and I still cant make up my damn mind.
You say you have these summit racing headers sitting in your garage waiting to be installed... Any chance you could grab me some measurements so I could see how they will kinda fit in the truck?
The 2 id love starts from the rear top exhaust bolt. Id like to know how far they dip down and how far out they go. I worry about not having enough room with the transmission cross member.
Tyler, those look exactly like the headers I had. Look at post 23, second picture. They hang pretty low. I've seen exhaust pipe go over the crossmember (tightly) and under it. Hopefully your exhaust guy is better than mine was. Spend the extra money and get the stainless pipes, not the aluminized junk.
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but soon ..... we'd do it again. 
