I'm pretty new to older trucks, i would like to put on new headers, but I'm reading all the forums on headers and the trouble people are having with them. My question is on 76 ford F-250 highboy 390 4 speed how well do they go in, and is fender well exit better than the straight ones. thanks for your input. like i said I'm new only had the truck for 1 month, and I'm learning more every day.

 

Well I'am not quite familiar with the do and donts on the 4x4's as I have a 70 F250 CS and have run my hedman Hedders for over 35 years now without a problem...and they were only a $150 new and I dont think they have gone up much.. Some say you have to message them (ding) them a little sometimes for starters or linkage etc..Check the foot notes for any given header manufacturer..But Mine were just drop in and go with a 390/C6 Zero problems at all...and like I said they have lasted 35 years and counting so far... Good luck on your search... Oh and OBX makes a real nice header now for the FE's also for the FE's..I cant remember off hand what they get for them..But they seem to be a nice set!

 

Stepping into fenderwell (I'm guessing this is another term for framerail) exit headers (ones that outside of the frame) will most likely get considerably more expensive. I've never seen a set yet on a FE equipped Ford 4x4 but I have seen a set on a 79 F-250 with a 460 swap and L&L "fenderwell" exit headers and they were pretty nice. The headers had very thick flanges and were high quality looking pieces. I've only put headers on my 2x4 F-100 and have had two different sets/brands. The first were Heddman's which as far as where the collectors went.. they fit better in that area. They were pretty good quality overall I thought, the gaskets they supplied with them were cheap though. I like the graphite/steel or whatever they are from Napa. They are a victor reinz gasket though and I know Napa (at least up here) has went to Fel-Pro so when the Victor supplies run out, I dunno what Fel-Pro has. I put header wrap on those heddman's along with some of their paint for it (from DEI) and while it may have helped with heat and or looked neat, those headers were pretty well junk 5 months later... I wouldn't put header wrap on headers again. I took the wrap off and went to clean them up in a blasting cabinet and the bead blaster blew holes through the headers! If you wanna try to keep your starter from heat soaking, I'd maybe try a starter shield/wrap before I'd try the header wrap (if you have fenderwell/framerail headers, shouldn't need either).
I bouught a pair of Jet-Hot coated Dynomax headers after that and haven't really had a problem with them. They do look nice and seem to be pretty good quality. The collector is in a bit different location than the Heddman's which made me have to get my custom dual exhaust system modified. The Heddman's collector location on inside of my driver's side framerail was actually in a better spot than the dynomax's (which come close to my C6's linkage, but it's more the pipe after the collector so I blame the 2nd or 3rd exhaust guy for that too, not just Dynomax) the linkage actually rubs the pipe so unless I put a cable operated shifter in of some sort or some other option, it needs to go to an exhuast shop and get that annoyance tweaked. The passenger side Dynomax fit better than the Heddman in the sense that this set of headers didn't require the exhaust shop to modify a crossmember where the collector and pipe join (the Heddman's did). Now keep in mind, this is just my experience. I'm sure a lot of other guys have had better experiences with installation in their trucks (and some the same or similar mods were probably required) as individual pickups/trucks even in the same year/bodystyle etc. can have variances.