Does anyone have pics of what mods are required for fenderwell exit headers? I am trying to choose between fenderwell exit and chassis exit. I know fenderwell exit will clear up a lot of room in the engine comparement, but I don't want to have to hack anything up.

Thanks

 

I put a set of Hedeman fenderwell exits on my 79 F250 4x4 351M 4 spd. Only had to trim my inner metal fenderwells a bit, like 2 or 3 inches, on both fenderwells.

Was real easy to do the exhaust too, I ran into some problems with a 78 F150 4x4 351M auto with inside chassis headers. Was a nightmare getting exhaust to clear the trannie crossember. And the front drive shaft would hit the side of the headers,when truck was put in a rough angle.

I had to remove the brake line clamp plate below the master cly, from the drivers side, behind the shock tower. And had to disconnect my brake lines fron the master cyl to the proportional valve and weave thru the header tuber when all done, along with the dip stick tube.

Will continue to try and resize and attach my pic I have, to show you exactly. If not check out this thread, "Who is running fenderwell exit headers on 78-79 3/4 ton?" it will have the pic you are looking for.

I just used a sawzall, its a trail rig only...but it could be done and still look good.

 

Ok here you go, like I said its not pretty but it will give you an idea of how much you have to cut.

I photo shop the red line to give you a visual idea of how much I cut out, from top drawn V to top drawn V, hope this helps.

At first I just bent it up outa the way with some plier's, then sawzall'ed it later. I had the tire off to make it all easyier also.

Even with the truck in its still stock tire and lift state, no rubbing issues. After the 6" and 36's no problem's.

Will try and put on a driver's side pic, in a bit.

 

Thanks for the pics. They helped out a lot and I just won a set of headers off ebay.

 

73-79 Ford Truck Supply's

 

Here is a bit more of advice about changing to headers. The #1 thing in my book is to LUBE THE HELL outa those soon to be old exhaust bolts.

I would use PB blaster or Sea Foam Deep Creep. If the vehicle is not your daily driver, soak them as much a possible for like a week straight.

Use the red tube to get right in there, spray the top side of the bolt head and let it soak. This step is very important because you do not want to break off any of those bolts.

I have heard of heating up the bolts with a torch, good way to burn up your valve cover gaskets, and catch fire to your sprayed on lube, I always change them cold.

I even heard of starting the truck to heat up those bolts, great way to burn your hands and fingers. Remember LUBE LUBE LUBE, jack up truck to a comfortable working height, take off front tires. And do all the other safety stuff, block rear tires ect....

I start on the passenger side, its always easyer. Do not try to "snap" torque the bolts loose, use a slow draw break torque. And use a quality socket, as straight on as possible.

If you break one, don't panic, you do not have to remove the head to fix this problem, at least I didn't, and I broke 3 on pass side and 2 on dvs side, on 1 truck and 2 and 2 on another.

If you do continue removing the rest of the bolts, hopefully with better luck. And then ditch that ol heavy stock factory mainfold, do not throw them away those stock suckers are pricy espicialy the dvs side, why I do not know.

If you do break a bolt, use a GOOD QUALITY set of drill bits to drill it out. Use a center punch to make sure you start in the middle, VERY IMPORTANT. Start with a smaller bit and work your way up to a bigger one.

Match your brill bit to your tap size needed for the correct bolt size. 7/16 1/2 or 9/16 can't remember. I would then tap in new threads. I WOULD NOT USE A EASY OUT, been there done that, broke it off in the hole, another long story.

If you are having trouble tapping in new threads, might be able to use a "helicoil" thread insert, easy to use, buy it in a kit, just have to drill out a bigger hole to insert the thread coil. Debur or run a tap in to clean out the old holes best you can.

Get new hardware, gd 8 or better, do not use the hdwr provided (junk) not enough washer face to the header flange. I got mine with a premade large washer, and use the lock washers with the little face to face lock teeth.

Not sure that they are called, got them and my bolts from Fastenall, use some thick header gaskets from Jeff's Bronco Graveyard, pricy but awesome. Make sure you use anti sieze compound on the hardware.

DO NOT have any solivent on your hands when you install the gaskets, it will cause a hot spot on the gasket and burn it up. Passenger side will need a bit of trimming or bend outa the way for now, trim later.

2 people makes this part a lot easyer, while you wrestle the header into position, from under the truck, your helper will aligh the gaskets and start the bolts, all hand tight at first.

If you are having trouble getting it in, try taking off the shock tower, 3 bolts? Might give you more wiggle room, did for me espicialy on the dvs side. Evenly tighten down bolts, all the while making sure the header doesn't catch on anything.

Ck the clearence on the cab mount frame bracket to the collector area, grind the bracket as needed. Use a quality audioable Tq wrench, start at minimum working your way to max. STOP THERE, DRINK ONE BEER, GET READY FOR OTHER SIDE.

Ok on dvs side, remove dip stipk and tube (plug pan to stop oil leak) and brake line coil from master cylinder to frame mounted proportional valve. Cap/plug all openings, brake fluid in the eye is a m...F....

Probably have to remove that brake line clamp plate from back side of shock tower, remember to take tower outa the way also. Bend/trim inner metal fenderwell and install in same order as passenger side.

Reinstall all the other stuff you took off, remember to re-bleed brakes. Make sure nothing is touching your headers, spark plug wires, fuel line ect...I would start the truck with open headers, so you can soak up the fruits of your hard labor.

Some smoke is normal from all the lube and the paint burning off YOUR new headers. Let truck idle, blip throttle to scare the neighbors, again make sure nothing is touching the headers.

Deside if you are man enough to drive it around the block, let idle till all the smoke quits. Shut off and do a torque ck on those bolts. CAREFULL THE HEADERS ARE HOT
The torgue will be different due to the bolts being hot now, do a minimum tq ck.

Deside what exhaust system you want to use, cherry bombs, flowmasters, I prefer straights to stacks. If you are not going to do it yourself, make appt with muffler shop, have fun driving there. Remember you can install a Y-style muffler bypass with cap.

After a few days of driving truck around, do another "Hot" torque ck and than "cold" one. If you used those cool lock washers should have no problems.

I know this is long but hope it helps, have fun let us know how it turns out, and throw in a pic.

 

Fenderwell exit headers are the way to go,but they are hard to come by.I have a set of doug thorley fenderwell exits and I got the last one forever.Fenderwells solve alot of problems,installation and running.No burnt up starters,you can run a pto,The only drawback is that some fenderwell exit headers require a body lift to work and you can't run super massive tires.

 

Forgot to thank Montana Highboy for that link, lots of great info.

 

I'm running a set of L&L's, definately recommmend them. Only problem I've found is with stock suspension in a tight turn the tires will rub.

 

Bummer. I guess I might have to get a little lift if it rubs. The front sits too low anyway. I've never thought of my truck being able to make a tight turn....

 

What kind of rims are you running, might help out to get some front ones with a different offset amount.

Sometimes a little cheaper than a whole lift, unless you just throw on a "addaleaf" for 2 to 2 1/2. Those are real cheap, JcWhitney, like for 80 bucks.

 

I have the fenderwell exit headers and a dismantled 460, but that's as far as I have gone with an engine swap. I haven't had the cash to do anything on this and probably won't for a while. There is a local guy selling new parts for a 400 pretty cheap though. I was really wanting to go EFI, but seem to be getting the bug to go with a 6bt cummins.

If I need some lift, that will probably come from a set of highboy or super duty front springs to get me up another two inches.

 

I wasn't very happy with my L&L's. The left side was ok but the right side was crappy. The welds sucked and it didn't point straight back, it was pointing down some. I would have sent it back if I wasn't in a such a hurry at the time. If your tires scrape them you can turn your steering stops out some. Mine are out all the way with an extension welded on to them so they don't hit and it still turns plenty sharp enough.

 

Adding my experience and a couple photos. 78, 400, SD leafs

I trimmed the passenger side inner fender, definitely makes getting the header into place a breeze.

driver side. turn wheel to the right, Removed the washer tank(just as a precaution). removed the shock tower, removed brake line mount and pushed the brake lines towards the firewall. I trimmed a pretty big chunk out of inner fender, not sure if any of it was necessary. Removed the dipstick(be ready to plug the hole) dropped it down through the installed header. hardest part was getting the dipstick threads started. Driver side is about in contact with body mount, will clearance that a touch.

 

Yes that body mount needs a bit of grinding on, I had to do that same. Thanks for the info and pics.