Slappy, I feel like a bonehead. You are totaly correct. The headers in my truck barely miss the motor mounts, I'm talkin a 1/16 th to an 1/8 th of an inch. Any variation at all to the mounts or towers and it would not fit. You want the information to get in touch with them to see if they have headers to fit a 4 wheel drive? Interestingly enough, a lot of headers say that they won't work with a sway bar (this is where camper specials get the short end of the stick) These flow techs are supposed to clear the sway bar. I don't know that to be a fact, but I plan to find out.

 

docholiday-yea I would like to get in touch with them to see if they make headers for the 4wd. Can't find anything on they're website. I have no sway bar and 9 in lift on my 79. I also have a/c. Will this create any clearance problems with fenderwell exit headers on a 460? It wasn't a problem with the 400 I had.

 

Slappy, I realy don't think a/c will make any difference, but I can write everything I know about a 4 wheel drive on a match book cover. For what it's worth to you, on my 2 wheel drive, I have a set of 74 model brackets with my 73 model accessories bolted to them. I have the big cracker box looking york compressor, and the big ford p/s pump with the little dip stick tube. My left header is a good ways below and behind the A/C compressor. That should be the only concern on the right side. On the left side, I don't have the big suit case looking A/C unit because I have a dealer installed unit. I can tell you that I know how the black box fits against the fire wall. You should have tons of clearance there. I can't logicaly see any where that A/C would cause a problem. What brackets and accesories do you have on your truck? Do you have an automatic or 4 speed? Last but not least here is the information for Flow tech headers. 2605 west 1st street, Tempe, Arizona 85281. Phone: 480-966-1511, Fax: 480-966-1197, E-mail: flowtec@dancris.com As far as fenderwell exit headers....I have no idea. I have never run anything but regular headers. I have seen how the fenderwell exits look installed on trucks in pictures and they look like a realy good idea. When I put my 460 and c6 in my truck, I pulled the whole front clip off of my truck. Then got the motor and tranny half way in. Then had to put the headers between the frame and the block and kind of wiggle everything in to place. It was an extremely tight fit. I don't think I could have gotten them in with the front clip on the truck with out taking several things loose. I wish I knew more about what your frame looked like, I could provide better insight. I'll try to look at a 4 wheel drive frame here in the next few days and see if I can come up with better information. If you do get in touch with Flow tech, please let me know what they said just for my own future reference. Mike

 

Thanks for the contact info. I'm trying to find a less expensive option to the 400.00 and up headers from l and l, hedman and hooker. Wife isn't to happy about that. My setup is 79 accessories and l and l brackets. The compressor isn't going back on, my clearance question was directed at the big old ugly suitcase looking thing hanging from the firewall. c6 trans. Thanks again for the info and I'll let you know what they say.

 

Slappy, the suit case won't be in the way at all. With that c6 you may have trouble with your tannsmission cooling lines. Like I told you earlier, there is very little room left over with the 460 and headers. What I did was go down to the local parts house and buy the metal fuel line, a tubing cutter, a flaring tool, and a bender. It's a very tedious and time consuming job, but I bent my self some new lines. On the right side, I went from the transmission straight accross to the frame rail. Then straight up the middle of the frame rail almost to the radiator. Then a left turn and a right turn to go in to the radiator. On the line that goes to the left side of the radiator, I went out from the tranny about 2 or 3 inches then down until I cleared the tranny. Then I went under it to the middle. I bent the line straight to the front of the truck and went directly under the oil pan for the tranny and engine and went straight up to the radiator. It's by no means a factory looking instalation, but it doesn't look bad and actualy works very well. What ever you decide to do with your lines, make sure you keep them as far away from the headers and exhaust pipes as possible. Heat is the leading killer of automatic transmisions. Would you be interested in you and I exchanging measurements to see if the headers I have will fit? Also for what it's worth I have read several places that unless you do several modifications to a 460, the headers don't even do that much good. If that is actualy the case, you could just go with manifolds and save all the trouble. Another option is some shorty headers. Just throwing out some ideas. I'm still curious to see how this goes, I'm kind of getting interested in getting me a 4 wheel drive. This will give me a heads up on what to do or what not to do. One last thing.....If you go to make your own tranny lines, take a piece of bailing wire or something similar under the truck and bend it as close as you can to what you need. Then get the lines up on your work bench where you can actualy pay close attention and control the bends better. It may save you an extra trip to the parts store like I made to get a new line.

 

What do you mean extra trip to the parts store? My wife thinks I live there. I can hook you up with measurements once I grt my motor in. Just finished building it last week. I use a separate tranny cooler rather than the radiator, its going to be plumbed with s/s lines. Stock manifolds are not really a viable option on this motor. Chris