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Well now that I'm close to being ready to starting up the new motor I found out the headers I have wont work so its either remove the crossmember or get a diff set of headers. Which ones will work the best, I've heard that your not suppose to use the round exhaust port headers with square exhaust port heads?
Sounds like your in a hurry to get your motor runnin, me too! I looked at some of your pictures and it looks like your using the stock front suspension. Steering box? Clearance is going to be your big concern. Are you going to cut out that crossmember? I had a problem with starter clearance with the 351C I had in my truck at one time and Hooker headers made for truck application, ended up making a plate to go in between the head and header so the header wouldn't lay on the starter, I also cut out the crossmember, as stated before if you decide to cut it out you will need to or should put something back. The amount of money and labor your willing to put into this will decide what your going to do.
I've been looking into the block hugger options myself. The left header is the one that is tricky with a stock steering gear. Norvillebob just stuffed a 351W into his '52 and he used the Summit headers. They seemed to fit extremely well. The collector tucked right between the motor mount and steering gear like it was made for the application. Speedway Motors sells the exact same header as their house brand. I've been looking at the Hedman's you mentioned also. Other than the tubes entering the collector in a different order, the right one is virtually identical to the Summit/Speedway design. The left one is similar also, but it appears that while it is at the same angle, the collector sits about an inch further to the rear. That might cause steering gear interference - especially with a shorter deck height 289. I don't know much about the others. Norvillebob has some excellent pics in his build thread here:
And as a last resort (before taking out crossmembers) you can always have some made. They are probably more expensive, but no sense in cutting up everything you've already done.
the cuz in pawnee is using the factory headers off the 91 tbird 5.0 he got from me . they clear it all , and dump at an angle that you can hook the pipes up fairly easily without a lot of bull .
Oh yea, I'm so ready to get her started up and hear her run...lol I can't wait its so close and now the wait is killing me...lol I called summit today to see if they would exchange the headers for me since I didn't have the original box they came in. While I was talking to the guy he said if my motor mounts are in the middle of the motor (which they are) that I would need the shorty headers because the block huggers would dump right into the motor mounts. Now I just need to box up the other headers and get them sent back so I can get the new ones.